OCBC published a press release that Channel News Asia covered, celebrating a 2.5x growth in precious metals investors in 2025. Half of them are under 40. Gold and silver are “no longer boring safe havens.” Young people are finally investing. Isn’t this exciting? But buried in the press release is a stat worth pausing on: two in three first-time investors at OCBC chose precious metals over equities or unit trusts. Not as a diversifier. As their entry point into investing. If that doesn’t point to an issue, I can’t think of a clearer signal. Let me flag a few more things the headline glossed over. The Bank Is Also the Seller Let’s start with the obvious. OCBC issued this press release. OCBC also sells paper gold and silver. Their precious metals investor base grew 2.5 times. That’s great, for OCBC. To be fair, the article includes cautionary quotes. OCBC’s own head of wealth management noted that volatility can trigger sharp price swings,...