# Gold Price Plummets Over 10%, Posting Largest Single-Week Drop in 43 Years! Some Who Rushed to "Buy the Dip" Left Stunned

Source: Xiamen Daily

Gold’s rebound was short-lived, with an intraday V-shaped decline, falling over 5% from the daily high and breaking below the important support level of $4,500. This week, it plummeted more than 10%, hitting a seven-week low and marking the largest weekly decline since March 1983. Market checks show that jewelry prices for Chow Sang Sang, Chow Tai Fook, Luk Fook Jewelry, and Lao Miao Gold have fallen below 1,400 yuan per gram.

As of Friday (March 20) after the New York close, spot gold dropped 3.42% to $4,491.67 per ounce, down over 10% this week; COMEX gold futures fell 2.47% to $4,492 per ounce, with a weekly decline of over 11%.

Spot silver fell 6.8% to $67.897 per ounce, down more than 15% this week; COMEX silver futures declined 4.78% to $67.810 per ounce, with a weekly drop of over 16%.

As a safe-haven asset, gold has shown “unusually” weak performance since the recent Middle East geopolitical conflicts, leaving investors puzzled: they can’t understand it.

Hangzhou man keeps “buying the dip”

After purchasing 160 grams of gold, he was stunned: already lost over 10,000 yuan

“When I didn’t buy, everyone around said I’d make money buying gold. Why did the price drop as soon as I got in? Did I really crash the market myself?” On the evening of March 18, Mr. Zheng, a post-90s investor from Hangzhou, was browsing Middle East news and watching gold prices, unable to stop asking questions in an investment group chat.

“Every time I buy, it drops, and the gold price keeps falling. If this continues, when will I break even?” Mr. Zheng started doubting the concept of gold as the “king of safe havens.”

According to Chao News, at the end of February, after Israel and the U.S. launched military strikes on Iran, Mr. Zheng was tempted to buy gold. “They say gold is a safe haven, and with such tense tensions, it should go up at least a bit,” he said. He works at a tech company in Binjiang, Hangzhou. Although he had never bought gold before, he had always wanted to find an opportunity.

Photo provided by interviewee

On March 2, he bought 100 grams of gold bars from a jewelry company owned by a friend, at a price of 1,188 yuan per gram. “I thought that number was quite lucky and figured I’d make a profit,” Mr. Zheng said with a bitter smile.

After buying, gold prices did rise temporarily, even breaking through 1,200 yuan per gram the next day. But the good times didn’t last. Starting March 4, gold prices turned downward, entering a weak consolidation phase, and never returned to his purchase level.

On March 18, when gold prices again fell below $5,000 per ounce, Mr. Zheng couldn’t resist buying the dip. He purchased three small 20-gram gold bars at 1,120 yuan per gram, bringing his total gold holdings to 160 grams.

However, he was helpless as gold prices fell again after his purchase. Starting around 8 p.m. on the 18th, London spot gold prices plunged sharply. “I didn’t sleep well all night. When I checked the price in the morning, it was roughly 1,080 yuan per gram. Roughly calculating, the 160 grams of gold I bought already had a paper loss of over 13,000 yuan,” Mr. Zheng sighed. “I can only hold on now.”

Someone is “snatching the bottom to make a fortune”

Is now a good time to buy in?

“I just bought 100 grams of investment gold bars at 1,045 yuan per gram, but I haven’t paid yet.” On the morning of March 20, the investment gold bar counter at Beijing Caibai’s main store was crowded with investors eager to buy gold. An elderly man with white hair had been staring at the spot gold price “K-line chart” on his phone for half an hour. According to Caibai’s policy, after issuing a receipt, investors must pay within an hour.

His hesitation was mainly because the daily K-line of spot gold showed only a single “bottoming tail,” and “it might still fall further,” which was why he hesitated to pay. But with only about 10 minutes left before the receipt expired, he finally completed the transaction. Subsequently, spot gold rose to 1,052 yuan per gram. However, by the evening of March 20, the spot gold price had fallen to 1,033.96 yuan per gram.

Is it still a good time to buy in now? Market analysis suggests that in the short term, geopolitical conflicts and the resulting energy price shocks are the main drivers of global “safe-haven trading.” As a result, gold has experienced repeated fluctuations. Interestingly, gold’s recent performance contradicts previous common perceptions because the market’s trading logic has fundamentally shifted—from “safe-haven trading” to “inflation-tightening trading.” However, some institutions believe that, from a long-term perspective, gold still has structural value.

Source: Comprehensive reports from Cailian Press, Chao News, and The Beijing News