Sell off, slides? I would say it is barely a tickle, nothing that would really concern serious investors. There is nothing to panic about, the safe haven is still that, safe. But why would there be so much conviction in how gold (and the other metals like silver, platinium etc) keeps forging forward and upward? I would chalk it down to the world's instability. If the leader of the free world was anyone less chaotic and more level-headed, I would have doubted if gold would indeed keep its momentum. As it is, Trunp is constantly picking fights, both verbally and actually taking action in cases like Venezuela, enough to spook the markets, and spur safe haven assets onwards. He threatens, both friends and foes alike, so there is no way to chalk it up to him being a hawkish figure who goes

Hold on, US approval was expected to be given, and that was not the biggest issue. What everyone wondered was whether China would allow the sales to happen without a hitch. There was already rumblings that China would not easily approve its use, even while Jensen was trying to get things rolling in the China market (borderline begging the us president to approve the H200 sales). There had been passive accusations from China that the chips are throttled to be subpar, or could be exploited, likely a ploy to pressure nvidia harder. Going by more recent news, Reuters has reported that the Chinese customs officers have been instructed that the H200 chips are not allowed into the country, after the "green light" was given by president trump. This should cause some wobble in nvidia share pri

Things are a little messy now. With the chaotic situations all over (Maduro, Iran, the old rusia invasion, etc.), safe haven assets become attractive investments. It started with the conventional Gold, which soared and carried along Silver (platinium etc too). This domino effect started causing industrial uses of silver to feel the pinch and having to seek alternatives in base metal, but experts doubt it could be viable. What industry you ask? The solar panel industry, which is our most significant step forward in energy sustainability... what a horrible mess.

Crypto is a highly volatile asset with no real logic. I recently read a report about how it is currently reacting differently, basically talking about what it used to react to and what it focuses on now (liquidity and all that). But it mostly seems like made up excuses to try and comfort themselves and others, that somehow there is method in the madness. It is obvious that no one really knows why it moves up or down and can only make guesses. Without proper regulations, it can easily be manipulated, and I believe that if someone can empathetically tell you how it is going to go in the short, medium or long term, they are giving you a load of the freshest BS. As always, do your due diligence, invest in it if you can afford to have it go sideways.

I will be taking the time to read the articles on reputable sites for a better insight of what this entails. However, my rough input would be: if this is a circular economy kind of situation where Eli Lilly signs a contract just to look like it had some AI related investment and hoping to hitch themselves to the Nvidia rocket, for investors to rush in and boost prices of both companies, then it will be a step in the wrong direction. If they buy the Rubin chips to increase computing power and to boost their research ability then this will indeed be groundbreaking, allowing the "AI" to be correctly applied (not producing university essays or gibberish news articles), then Nvidia will have truly found another way to diversify. Much like the announcement of having Nvidia chips for self driving

$Exxon Mobil(XOM)$  Trump decided to enter Venezuela for the oil, but Exxon's top dog made it sound like the situation would not as lucrative as what the us president paints it to be. With how old current infrastructure in Venezuela is, it would take significant capital to get things up to date and running, which would then take years to make a profit, considering the intention of the invasion was to keep oil prices low, and likely why Exxon does not seem quite eager.

Looking at silver $iShares Silver Trust(SLV)$  with gold hitting highs and predictions of sell offs coming in the days to come, silver should be interesting to keep an eye on

The important variable would have to be political sentiment. The huge rally that happened when trump was sworn in, happened because he projected the right signals. Although it is starting to look like a pump and dump where he infected hype to get attention and make a quick buck, then pulled the rug and proceeded off to his next  get-rich scheme. With the abandonment, some investors likely decided to give up, having entered because they thought there would be sustained efforts to hype crypto up from the white house. I think MSTR is overvalued

Saw a few sets where something like the Rising Three happens on the way up, 1 big increase with a few small decreases, then another big climb. The memory sector is intentionally messing with consumers in favour of the AI boom, I am wondering if it really is necessary.

Is it really a rebound when the slight dip was signalled to be a profit taking exercise? Gold's rise was forecasted, although I would be the first to advise against believing every prediction you see out there, to go up to 5000 (from 4000) in a year. While that was slightly ludicrous to read, it made sense considering the world's instability never truly went away. Beginning from COVID, russia invasion, Israel Hamas war, Thai Cambodia border conflict, things just kept churning, helping to prop up gold as a safe investment.  When gold, silver and other precious metals spiked and news of record highs came out, it likely fueled latecomers to rush in when the profit taking exercise happened and prices dipped. However, not all precious metal have the same attributes, some have more exposure

While the number of units sold looks strong, Tesla can no longer compete while having higher retail prices, not in the China market where competitors constantly try to bring great bang for buck, all while selling a ridiculously cheap car, almost in a race to the bottom. So the numbers have improved and growth is always heartening for a brand, but the long term outlook is whether Tesla still has room to conpete in the EV field based on price (not just in China, but the world too), because they cannot only focus on 1 market (look how China is trying to infiltrate the India EV market). Tesla has obviously pivoted hard to their other newer lines, like FSD/robotaxi, although whether that has any true success because Musk insists on using pure camera vision, is another mess in its

Oil will likely have a sustained slide, what with US tightening their grip on Venezuela. Interesting to note that Trump did not try to install the opposition that likely won the elections, had Maduro not rigged the results. Maduro's vice president, Rodriguez's tone does not seem to be friendly to Trump though and it is unlikely that the US president will take it quietly. She (or the powers that be) might have made a deal for the US to control the oil to allow her to stay in power as interim president for now.

B Always nice to learn

$Tiger Brokers(TIGR)$ bought into gold ETF and before the year ended, it was already making huge gains together with other precious metals. It may be a safe haven investment, but with the volatility all over the world, it actually pays off handsomely. I am happy to have followed my instinct and buy in before it took off. It is never too late to invest and we can never truly buy into the lowest point but as long as we are paying attention, we can get a price that would still pay off nicely.

I am a little lost about the hype of the robotaxi, feels like it is artificially stirred up to keep the stock value going and to avoid casual meme investors from turning away. To begin, Waymo already has a product running around in San Francisco. While it is not perfect, like the recent news of people being paid to help close car doors that were not shut properly, there already is a steady track record. Meanwhile Tesla is entering a market where they not only have to compete with other Western brands, but also fight off the Chinese competitors who are likely to bring better value and are more agile. I am sure Cathie Wood making the call to continually dump, knows that the road ahead is rocky. Tesla as a brand is highly reliant on their caricature of a CEO to bend the rules with his we

Honestly, it was a good time to cash in on the profit. Even as a fairly lazy investor who looks at long term gains, hindsight (and some time to look at the numbers) tells me that I would have sold off my holdings, then buy back in when it dropped lower. The numbers within these couple of months have been great for precious metals. It started off with the hype in gold, which shone a light on silver, then palladium and platinium caught fire (figuratively). Precious metal as a safe haven calms the investors' nerves and everyone keeps flocking back when things get rough. I'll look to pick up more if the slide continues a little more.

As always, having a diverse portfolio is important, but I am certain that precious metals overall trend will be upwards. Gold has not had a significant drop such that investors have to panic about its value. As long as you are rational and not selling when small slides happen, precious metal is a safe haven to park some money. Take for example when gold went up and people felt priced out, they flooded into silver and triggered an insane spike. This wave flooded into Platinium and Palladium too, so all the metals are shining very bright.

Expecting AI to boost US economy is borderline delusional, if they believe that the current iteration of LLM by the various companies is going to make a huge difference. Firstly, the AI that is pushed on to the general populace is not fool proof, that in itself makes it unreliable to use full time especially in the corporate context, no matter how much CEOs want it to be the case. Secondly, it consumes too much energy, further causing environmental problems. Couple that with the tech waste that it generates, with the constant updating of chips etc. AI in its current form is terrible, especially considering how some people use it like a search engine or their emotional support buddy, further contributing to the energy consumption and polluting problem. Finally, the true purpose of AI where

I missed the China tech stocks repricing. I was optimistic about them but did not have enough faith in their government to not be unnecessarily disruptive and affecting prices through random interventions.

Reading the news, it seemed like the Chinese government was trying to prevent h200 chip sales from properly happening, in part to avoid reliance on nvidia (and western companies as a whole) and in part to encourage their local manufacturers to produce something competitive enough. Unsurprising considering China has seen how volatile the US president is and they themselves like to string their trade partners up high and dry to get their way. It is absolutely terrible that countries do not play nice and hse trade between one another as a cudgel to whack one another to get whatever they want. This only serves to cut efficiency of using resources and serves to fragment the world. I am curious if nvda has had any expression of interest by China companies, or are they simply believing in th