I was on the stair machine to burn some calories before Saturday’s beer with chips, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning – not that I wanted beer but what the purpose was of the big gold coup on January 29.
As everyone is now writing about economy/finance, I have started following it like I did in 2008, and since I still have very little to do at work, it amounts to quite a few hours of scrolling.
You recognize it as posts about the Ukraine war, but I also have time for a lot of other things – now even sitting and watching finance/economy.
From memory, what did I see in the week starting January 25, 2026 –
-The price of gold soared on January 26-28, and #fintwitter screamed hoarse about “gamma 6” events and the highest daily gains ever.
-On Monday, I read about the Chinese New Year on February 17 and that citizens usually sell everything they have in the two weeks before – I thought that those who wanted to make money in gold had this week before it started to decline.
-Trump had been saying for weeks if not months that interest rates would go down “we need a stock market rally.”
-Then on the 27th, the dollar plummeted like a stone after FED chief Powell’s statement, which many interpreted as a disaster.
What did we know beforehand –
Gold and silver had a long uptrend behind them, and many fund managers had positioned themselves for higher rates and a falling dollar for gains in gold and silver.
Someone like me, who doesn’t know much, thought that gold and silver should go up now when the stock markets were about to go down, they usually act as a contraindicator.
Then mining companies surged, and everyone talked about a “mining cycle.”
The USA had also invested heavily in MENA and was about to confront Iran – uncertainty and gold and silver as a safe haven.
And not least “Sell America” where, for example, institutional investors in Europe had started selling US government debt.
Friday the 30th is month-end, and probably many will sell then?
Thursday morning, January 29, the abyss opened, and gold fell by 10% and silver by 25-30% during the day.
As I scrolled, “dumping in Bitcoin” came up, and then when I was on DI, the stock markets also fell – all asset classes fell.
Before the big drop, Trump had said that he would nominate his choice for FED chairman next week, sometime between February 2-6.
The decline continued on Friday, and Trump called for an unprecedented press conference where he nominated Kevin Warsh as FED chairman, and he is not at all for low rates but has a reputation for defending the dollar instead – something as unusual as an outspoken critic so everyone knew exactly where he stood on the important issues.
Friday closed down in silver and gold, so there was no rebound.
This coordinated downturn in all asset classes meant that large money managers were involved in different asset classes – you need to have large holdings that you can dump.
Trump’s complete turnaround reinforced the downturn where otherwise there could have been a rebound.
Apparently, many fund managers had positioned themselves for lower rates and a weaker dollar, and now it changed completely over 24 hours.
Earlier, Japan had entered some kind of crisis in its bond market, and all sorts of ideas were flying around, including that China was behind it trying to go after the USA. I was in a phase where I believed the USA had burned all other safe havens for the dollar pre-major crisis.
This was what I saw and knew otherwise – maybe some small error somewhere (besides my guess about Japan, which was wrong), but in broad terms, it looked like this pre-TheBigGoldCoup.
The first casualty I saw was a Chinese fund that was $20 billion in the red.
Those who remember 2008 surely remember all the bank runs, like Cyprus closing its banks, for example?
Who will have orderly bank withdrawals from February 2-17 as planned?
China.
Who has a reputation for being a bit of a high-risk player?
Chinese, perhaps?
Everything we have seen in recent weeks if not months was by design, and the surge on January 26, 2026, was an attempt to squeeze the last drops out of Chinese fund managers before the withdrawals began.
How do you do it best in just one week?
Well, with leverage instruments that everyone thought to sell off on Friday.
The circle of the sworn had to not be too large but had to have enough means – probably they didn’t trust anything European, so we were collateral.
Banks and financial institutions usually try to hide losses and then manipulate their way back to green if they can, but that takes time.
Who doesn’t have time to hide anything and work their way back to green?
Nothing Chinese has time to hide because on Monday morning at 9, the withdrawals for the Chinese New Year begin.
But it doesn’t end there – we are heading towards a major stock market correction, and when a country’s financial institutions and banks start to become insolvent, a country can only hold out for so long.
When the country can no longer support the currency or prop up the banks, the situation becomes uncontrolled and collapses. We saw it in 2008 with PIIGS, for example, where the IMF had to come in and support them.
All underlying problems that have been successfully hidden will also surface, and with a collective “hell of a mess,” it becomes an uncontrolled crash.
What the USA has done is deliver a damaging blow to China by design before the larger correction comes.
It will probably be quite lively over there in the next two weeks when people realize that their fund managers put the entire fund with X15 leverage on gold on January 25, and lost everything.
The allure of leverage is that it starts the day at 0, and then every percent increase is multiplied by the leverage’s increase that you multiply by the amount you paid for it, and a 10% drop was not factored in – very many have lost a lot of money.
Darn, what a setup this was.
China has already shown willingness to attack the USA through Japan, so a highly legitimate target.
They have also supported Russia, so as far as Europe is concerned, they are absolutely a legitimate target, and they have held back rare earth metals for our production.
Not to mention Northvolt – China ruined it even if there was more behind it.
This will probably spill over to European banks, but China took the biggest hit, and it will be an exciting two weeks before the New Year calm settles there.
If my little theory is correct, there will be some kind of bank run in China in the coming week.
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As always, you have a point, but…
If the Chinese economy crashes, a safe haven is needed. Have the Americans managed to (re)create it in just one week? Where will all the remaining Chinese money go? I still believe that precious metals are the safest haven at the moment. I agree that they have surged in price “too quickly,” a correction of maybe $1000 per ounce is appropriate, but then we are just back a few weeks. Once again, a very short window to successfully lose money.
However, if the major banks bet on leveraged gold at the end of the month, things could escalate quickly. I like the quote: Leveraging is like cutting butter with a knife in the right direction, but with a lightsaber in the wrong one. Try, for example, to input the product into an Excel sheet and manipulate the underlying product. Going in the wrong direction hits hard.
Exciting times, the norm is for the majority to lose in the market, so we small players are probably losers. If we lose $1000 per ounce, I will try to catch the falling knife.
Not the major banks, but the “shadow economy” or whatever it’s called is enormous in China.
Yes indeed, precious metals are what everyone runs to in times of unrest
The gold has really taken off towards the end, not surprising if it was time for an adjustment, probably many who thought it was time to take some profits when it surged extra at the end.
If I had gold and could sell quickly, I would have taken the opportunity anyway.
It wouldn’t be surprising if it doesn’t sink a little more to come down to the “normal” growth level.
Not surprising if it actually extends a bit beyond that. The price is insanely high.
Even though gold is a “safe haven,” there is a limit when investors start to consider if it hasn’t reached its peak. It has risen over 150% in three years.
This is how it has looked in the last three months (I have drawn in the red line).
So far, nothing particularly alarming. But it will probably become clear this week if the crash continues.
It could certainly have been manipulated, and some may have made a substantial profit.
The question is whether I should post a separate post about Ukraine when Johan’s post is about something completely different?
What do you think?
The risk is that we miss it. I have gotten used to one post a day, usually the comments tend to revert back to Ukraine quite quickly anyway. So, my vote is for one post per day.
Good point!
However, it might be reasonable to have a separate post if there is already a thread about Ukraine from before and a new one is created on the same day about something completely different.
👍
“❗️During the night, 🇺🇦Ukrainian military shot down 76 out of 90 🇷🇺Russian UAVs”
https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3mdrsoafp622k
OT:
“Epstein files claims its first politician Slovak National Security Advisor Miroslav Lajčák resigned after Epstein files revealed a Russian government connection and requests for girls.”
https://bsky.app/profile/malcontentnews.bsky.social/post/3mdrgd4cz6c2i
https://malcontentnews.substack.com/p/epstein-files-claims-its-first-politican
Some prominent figures from each country have been to Epstein – it’s an absolutely enormous organization he has had and he is sitting there emailing with, for example, the guy above who wanted to become the next president.
😮
Record total (?). At least record-breaking. The localized Russian attacks also a record and spread across several front sections focusing on Pokrovsk and Huliaipole, where the latter was probably a record. For every three localized Russian attacks, one unlocalized possibly Ukrainian.
N Slobozhansky 1 S Slobozhansky 25💥💥 Kupyansk 12💥↗️ Lyman 24💥💥↗️ Slovyansk 15💥↗️ Kramatorsk 5↗️ Kostjantynivka 39💥💥↗️ Pokrovsk 80💥💥💥💥↗️ Oleksandrivskij 11💥 Huliaipole 45💥💥💥↗️↗️ Orikhivsk 4 Prydniprovskij/Dnipro 0
Sum sectors 261↗️↗️ Unlocalized 77↗️ Total 338↗️↗️
👍
Exciting. I was looking forward to this morning’s post since your announcement yesterday, and it exceeded expectations.
Exciting things happening with the gold price. The financial market is unusually volatile right now, and the chattering man in the White House is definitely part of this. Then a lot of what is happening is probably reactions and attempts to dampen or strengthen positions.
“Ukraine’s air defenses shot down or suppressed 76 Russian drones overnight after Russia launched 90 attack UAVs, officials said. Impacts were recorded at nine locations, with debris falling at two sites.”
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3mdrxrhxlxs23
“Satellitbilder publicerade av Yle visar att Ryssland återuppbygger en sovjetisk garrison i Petrozavodsk nära den finska gränsen. Platsen rensas och förbereds för nya kaserner, troligtvis kopplade till Rysslands nya 44:e armékår. Större delen av enheten kämpar fortfarande i Ukraina.”
“❗️🇺🇦Ukrainian soldiers from the SIGNUM battalion attack 🇷🇺Russian infantry in the forest in the direction of Lymansk”
https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3mdrtybymvs2k
The dollar is rising again 🤩🤩
I have written a lot about Russia’s infiltration in the West and usually get a “that can’t be true” response, so it’s good that the Epstein documents now confirm that it is indeed true.
That probably also explains why Europe has managed to do nothing in the Ukraine war for four years.
I don’t know if you are following the discussion, but it’s more about who hasn’t been there yet than who has been there.
And everyone who has been there is potentially vulnerable to blackmail.
Everyone has been there except Trump! 😂
Is it a Sunday joke?
Trump, Obama, half of Trump’s administration, Clinton, Bush junior, Bush senior, heavy private leaders, financial institutions, advisors – everyone has been there.
Europe’s royal houses, European promising politicians, and private business leaders have also been there.
Russians not so much but they had constant contact with Epstein.
China not but they do the same in China.
MENA not either but they have their setups with influencers who are flown to Dubai 😀
The problem may not be that the world is full of pedophiles but that everything is on film.
It repeats itself – the Geijer affair and then why Reinfeldt divorced in modern times…
Russia, Epstein, Israel or however it looks obviously choose minors because then it’s illegal and not just old-fashioned.
The only one who didn’t get caught was Berlusconi because he had his own parties in Italy that he thought were better.
—
Then we are probably all old enough to remember the scandal in the UK with the orange in the mouth and the woman who filmed everyone?
—
So the question is, who has integrity?
And if a large group of people in your country can be controlled – how can you get to a position to do differently if not Russia wants.
“And if a large group of people in your country can be controlled – how are you going to be able to get to a position to do differently if not Russia wants”
So the question is not who Russia wants to decide, but who Russia does NOT want to decide. In this way, Russia can undermine the leadership by focusing on the individuals who are feared to make a difference.
It’s a shame that Expressen has stopped with Gala-Petter and Acquaintances’ Acquaintances. Kid Severin and Gösta Ollén managed this column with great skill and quite a bit of humor for about 60 years. These two could, discreetly, have been on Epstein’s island and made interesting reports and observations. “Among others in the crowd were seen….”
Furthermore, Russia can invent scandals and, as a last resort, murder the person in question
The Harvard affair? Wasn’t it Guillou who was behind it?
“❗️💥 The russians used armored vehicles in an offensive for the first time since the beginning of 2026. Two armored fighting vehicles carrying 14 troops attempted to use the fog to launch an attack. The infantry of the 225th OSHP engaged the enemy with support from FPV drones.”
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3mdsbxedo6c2z
“The AFU advanced in Lukyanivskyi, Zaporizhia direction”
Twitter: https://x.com/FreudGreyskull/status/2017902028178292808?s=20
👍
What do you think will come of this?
Do you remember the Panama Papers and how they were going to smoke out the tax evaders?
The only thing that happened was that the Maltese journalist who leaked the information was murdered.
Regarding Epstein, I believe this will go many rounds over many years, unless Trump’s gang destroys all documents before justice catches up with them. If a somewhat normal president is elected after Trump, prisons will probably be filled with former high-ranking leaders.
Regarding gold, silver, bitcoin exchanges, etc., I am a bit uninformed, so if it is as you write that it is an attack on China, I believe it is set up for economic war, and the USA must prepare for China to start getting rid of US treasury bills, the dollar crashes, and then it’s chaos.
The Prime Minister of Iceland had to resign. Otherwise, most of it ended up in the Panama Canal.
“Something is burning in the center of Belgorod after the report of a missile/rocket threat and the work of Russian air defense.”
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3mdsj2h4tms23
Only falling parts, there is nothing to see here.
😂
“❗️In January, the enemy occupied 245 sq km of Ukrainian territory – this is almost half as much as in December or November last year, – DeepState 🔄 The percentage drop in the activity of assault operations – only 4% less than in December, military say that January is still less intense.”
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3mdsyioeuz22f
“Shadow tanker PEACE lacks safety management, insurance. She is flying a false flag of Timor-Leste where Timor-Leste demands of other states to stop her. She is lawless. Sanctioned by EU and UK. She is on her fifth delivery of Russian crude to India last 12m. She is leaving Baltic Sea laden now.”
https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3mdso6lqggk2g