- Manipulation of the gold and silver markets by various international banking interests over the past several decades - The ‘City of London’ is no longer the capital of the world’s financial system - Shanghai is competing with London and New York - The massive “leveraged paper” SILVER positions are being obliterated - Some central banks (Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and India) began adding massive GOLD & SILVER purchases - Trump placed SILVER as a “critical mineral.” - JPM began dumping their short positions and, for the first time in its history, went fully long on SILVER - Big traders started demanding “physical delivery” on the COMEX, instead of cash. SILVER starts flowing from London to New York. - SILVER is now on a trajectory toward real “price discovery.” - “paper” Silver into real physical SILVER. Who knows where it will finally tops?

Right before the end of the year, something caught my attention in the commodity markets. Usually, I am not a big fan of commodities as I ​only invest when there's a commodity super cycle. However, silver has gone up 160% in the last 12 months ​ Why is that? Jan 1 2026 - China is implementing an export license (as a method to control) silver exports. This applies to silver and other precious metals that tech companies need. This would directly target data centers, chips, and electronics. ​Right now, we are seeing a mad rush to purchase silver right before the export control becomes effective on January 1 2026. ​However, as an investor, I don't think it is worth it to jump into silver right now because these policies can change on a whim. For example, China can come out tomorrow and say the export contorl is delayed or it is not as bad as we imagined. ​ But it is important to keep track of this export license control because it might impact the profitability of tech companies (which means the overall market might go down)​​ Cheers, Eric ---- Eric Seto Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) Founder of 5MinInvesting.com In January, my goal is to help 25 people without a financial background to master investing through Investing Accelerator. Investing Accelerator is designed for people without a financial background. The goal is to achieve 30% return per year. In the first phase, you will learn long term investing and targeting 30% for tax free compound growth. This will help accelerate your overall wealth. In the second phase, you will learn monthly passive income to provide a more predictable cash flow (target 30% per year) which can cover your expenses. This will help accelerate your retirement goals. Here's a step by step guide on how to join Investing Accelerator for free: https://www.skool.com/invest-retire-community-1699/how-to-join-investing-accelerator-for-free

Apple break down the trend created since the spring this year and I expect to retest the $250-$260, which coincide with the 100EMA and the previous high from end of 2024. I sold my entire position in Apple (I need to say that was not too big) and plan to start adding when is reaching the support area.

As we are approaching 2026, my student asks me - when should I invest in small caps given large caps are so high? What about international markets? Currently, the market is high Not just for US, but for Asia and Europe as well. Large caps are high mainly due to the AI bubble which makes you feel like you should pursue smaller "unnoticed companies." This is exactly the trap I fell into in the last market cycle. This causes me (and potentially you) to find "hidden gems" when the market is high and find small companies to invest in. The problem with small caps is that - it generally drops faster than large cap when we are in a bear market. Large caps can drop and they will recover most of the time The key difference between large-cap and small-cap is that small-caps can drop and never recover.​​​​​​​​ This is why during good times, you can invest in small caps for a short term momentum play but not to invest in small caps hoping they will survive the bear makret (becasue they usually don't). Instead, you should find small caps once you observe and see the bear market ending. ​​​ ​ Then and only then, should you find great small caps with good fundamentals and strong momentum to invest in.​ Large cap is my bread and butter because I know it will come back and recover given enough time while there is no such "promise" for small caps. ​ Cheers, Eric ---- Eric Seto Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) Founder of 5MinInvesting.com In January, my goal is to help 20 people without a financial background to master investing through Investing Accelerator. Investing Accelerator is designed for people without a financial background. The goal is to achieve 30% return per year. In the first phase, you will learn long term investing and targeting 30% for tax free compound growth. This will help accelerate your overall wealth. In the second phase, you will learn monthly passive income to provide a more predictable cash flow (target 30% per year) which can cover your expenses. This will help accelerate your retirement goals.

Most people are taught to be buy and hold investors as you cannot time market. Yes - this is true. In other words If you cannot time the market, just buy and hold. However It is possible to time the market and this is how you can achieve a higher than average return. The math is simple. Imagine S&P 500 makes 10% per year. You find a pattern (e.g. negative momentum, interest rate increase, bad earnings etc) Option 1: You hold cash and the market went down 5% in one week and you buy it back This means you are higher than the market by 5% = 15% per year. This also means that you just need to hold cash one week out of the year to achieve such a gain Option 2: You exit and you short the market when it went down 5% and buy it back after 1 week This means you are higher than the market by 10% (you made 5% on the way down and 5% on the way up) = 20% per year You just need to be right about one week out of the year going down to beat the market by 10% This is what I spend a lot of time studying - patterns that would forecast the near term to be bearish. This is why it is easy for a long / short strategy to perform better than buy and hold. Cheers, Eric Eric Seto Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) Founder of 5MinInvesting.com In December, my goal is to help 20 people without a financial background to master investing through Investing Accelerator. Investing Accelerator is designed for people without a financial background. The goal is to achieve 30% return per year. In the first phase, you will learn long term investing and targeting 30% for tax free compound growth. This will help accelerate your overall wealth. In the second phase, you will learn monthly passive income to provide a more predictable cash flow (target 30% per year) which can cover your expenses. This will help accelerate your retirement goals. Here's a step by step guide on how to join Investing Accelerator for free: https://www.skool.com/invest-retire-community-1699/how-to-join-investing-accelerator-for-free