Certificates: Silver pushes DAX out of focus

There has been a significant shift in focus in certificate trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange recently. Precious metals, especially silver, have come to the fore, while DAX products have lost market share and individual stocks have been in greater demand during the reporting season.

February 5, 2026. FRANKFURT (Deutsche Börse). Highly volatile precious metals are dominating certificate trading. “The question of current trends can be answered almost comprehensively with an old adage: All that glitters is not gold—it could also be silver,” explains Simon Görich of Baader Bank AG. Both underlying assets even surpassed the DAX as the most traded underlying.

Julius Weiss of HSBC confirms this. Silver was the top underlying asset in January, followed by the Nasdaq 100 and gold. “It is rare for precious metals to rank so high in terms of turnover,” says the certificate specialist. An open-end turbo call on silver with eight times leverage (<DE000HM11PR4>) is currently in high demand.

Short products sought after following sharp movements

Peter Bösenberg of Société Générale saw leveraged products on gold and silver account for more than 50 percent of turnover at times last week. Most investors are betting on rising prices. However, interest in short products increases when there are strong movements. Börsenberg reports high turnover in Best Unlimited Short Turbos on gold (<DE000FC5FV52>) and silver (DE000FD63GP1).

In ICF Bank's certificate trading, four silver products have made it into the top 20 in the past four weeks. In addition to a classic participation certificate (DE000DZ0B773) and an open-end turbo call (<DE000HM11PR4>), two discount calls (DE000DY3XP18; DE000PK0P6Y1) were also in high demand. These allow investors to generate positive returns even if the silver price moves sideways. Furthermore, there is no knock-out risk during the term.

DAX products are losing ground

Markus Königer, a trader at ICF Bank, explains that the rising market share of precious metals is primarily at the expense of DAX products. These normally account for around 30 percent of all orders, but in recent weeks the figure has been only around 18 percent. Another unusual and striking development is that only one DAX product has made it into the top 20 most traded products: an X-Open End Turbo Short on the DAX (DE000DY814S4), which benefits from falling prices on the German stock index.

Overall, more short than long products were traded on the DAX. According to Königer, one reason for this could be seasonality: “In January and February, the stock markets have tended to be somewhat weaker in recent years.” In his view, a degree of caution is currently warranted. “A correction would be healthy, but overall I remain positive.”

The growing fear that the AI story could “get out of hand” is also dampening enthusiasm at the moment. “Companies are investing a lot of money in this area, and more and more market participants are asking themselves if and when it will pay off.” That is why the trader currently sees a tendency to flee the tech sector in the form of profit-taking and increased investment in selected blue chips. As evidence of this, he cites the recent better performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Index compared to the Nasdaq 100.

Focus on individual stocks during reporting season

Certificates on individual stocks are also being traded more frequently during the current reporting season. “Some investors are trying to position themselves early,” explains Königer, reporting strong demand for a call on Taiwan Semiconductors (DE000HT75H60), a call on Alphabet C (DE000HT8E6D8) and a discount certificate on Infineon (DE000DU0M5E3). Bösenberg reports sales in products on SAP and cites a classic reverse convertible (DE000FD63768) as an example. Chip stocks such as Micron Technology, whose share price had recently risen significantly, remain in demand. Bösenberg mentions a well-traded Best Unlimited turbo warrant (DE000FD4QRV7) here.