On February 11, the gold market experienced a significant single-day pullback after recently testing the $5,600 per ounce level. GTC ZEHI Capital views this price volatility as essentially a "forceful reset" of the asset pricing mechanism, rather than signaling the end of gold's strategic importance. From a global research perspective, while this retracement has caused short-term market panic, it primarily reflects an extreme unwinding of trading positions and a periodic correction in volatility.

A deep analysis of market logic reveals that the sharp decline on January 30 closely resembles historical portfolio adjustments triggered by liquidity crises. Similar to the single-day plunge in April 2013 and the "cash is king" period in March 2020, gold often temporarily loses its safe-haven attributes during extreme sell-offs, instead serving as a source of liquidity for balance sheets. Regarding this, GTC ZEHI Capital indicates that this phenomenon highlights structural vulnerabilities in market microstructure—when trading becomes overly crowded and leverage excessively high, pressure that would typically take months to digest is concentrated into a very short timeframe.

From a data perspective, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) maintained assets under management exceeding $170 billion as of the end of January, demonstrating that physical gold holders' confidence in the underlying asset remains unshaken. Although some leveraged instruments exhibited higher volatility during the sharp downturn, over a longer timeline, gold prices have remained on a compound growth trajectory over the past three years and even longer cycles. GTC ZEHI Capital believes the adjustment in early 2026 is largely due to the market's rapid repricing of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy reaction function and the path of real interest rates. Rather than gold losing its appeal, the market is forcibly correcting previously excessive and overly optimistic premium expectations.

Looking ahead, investors should look beyond short-term volatility noise to assess gold's long-term return potential. As historical experience reveals, sharp declines in gold prices often act as a "cleansing ritual" for a new growth cycle. GTC ZEHI Capital maintains that against a backdrop of persistent macroeconomic anxiety and tested credibility of monetary policies, the rationale for gold as a core strategic asset in investment portfolios remains robust. Single-day fluctuations are merely episodes in the long-term bull market journey.