[Editorial] It's not a "market cycle" anymore... but a huge "system transition period"

The stock market hits a record high, gold prices reach new highs, and silver prices surge. Meanwhile, the US dollar remains resilient.

According to common sense, when one side rises, the other tends to fall, but now that “textbook-style balance” has largely collapsed. Can this unfamiliar phenomenon of simultaneous rises be simply seen as a temporary overheating?

Let’s start with the conclusion: this is not a normal “market cycle” at the moment. We are at the center of a “system transition” involving a larger strategic shift. This wave is neither a “panic buying” nor a short-term liquidity feast. The structure is changing.

The core issue lies in the behavior of institutional investors. They are not avoiding risk assets but are hedging against the existing system itself. This means their primary concern is not “what will rise,” but “what might collapse.” The market is beginning to buy insurance for the system rather than the market itself.

Their targeted defenses are clear.

Namely: unsustainable national debt, the overwhelming fiscal dominance over central banks, damaged monetary policy credibility, and the accelerating fragmentation of geopolitics. If all four destabilize simultaneously, investors will no longer rely on simple formulas like “lower interest rates lead to rising stocks.” Because what is collapsing is not the formula itself but its underlying assumptions.

Therefore, gold is no longer just a “rate trade” adjunct. Even a strong dollar has failed to curb gold prices. Silver has transcended its role as an industrial metal and is once again fluctuating like a “currency.” People are not buying safe assets but are preparing “alternative stores of value” to cope with a credit collapse.

If we were to name this phenomenon, it could be called “structural reallocation.” More plainly, it is “system distrust.”

Capital has not left the market. It has merely sensed cracks in the existing financial system building and is transforming asset allocations into fortresses.

If the current events are simply interpreted as a “cycle,” then we have already entered the next phase. Investors should not avoid the significance of this transition. The current market is not just rising; the system itself is being put to the test.