Gold fell by more than 12% in the last trading session of the week, breaking below $5,000 an ounce, while silver dropped 36%, crashing below $85.
This was the precious metal’s most significant decline since the 1980s and silver’s biggest drop.
The two top precious metals sellers are fully selling off their inventories. Copper also decreased by 3.4% after reaching its peak on Thursday.
Silver also saw its biggest intraday decline on record on Friday as a selloff swept through the broader metals market.
A “gamma squeeze” also caused the price of gold to drop.
Nigeria’s market women: Gold’s winning strategy
Nigeria’s market women are frequently referred to as the “informal backbone” of Africa’s most populous economy.
Their “bullion strategy” is a sophisticated, tried-and-true financial system that incorporates emergency liquidity, social capital, and wealth preservation.
Many of these women have traditionally accumulated gold through regular purchases over time, usually through jewelry schemes, family customs, or systematic buying, rather than making large one-time investments.
This is, of course, comparable to dollar-cost averaging (DCA), also called cost averaging: investing fixed amounts on a regular basis regardless of price, which progressively lowers the average cost per unit by buying more when prices are low and less when they are high.
Research indicates that older women prioritize patience, discipline, and diversification, which usually produce positive outcomes when they invest consistently.
Nigeria’s richest market women view gold as a secondary currency in an economy where the naira may fluctuate significantly. It goes beyond simply purchasing jewelry.
The “Daughter’s Safety Net”: Mothers give their daughters gold, frequently as a wedding present or dowry.
This guarantees that a woman has “mobile wealth” that is difficult for her husband or the government to take away, even if she doesn’t have formal education or land rights.
Observing their mothers, young Nigerian girls learn to value assets over consumables by purchasing gold as their first investment lesson.
Wearing gold is also seen as a strategic signaling tool, even though it may appear to be “luxury.”
This makes the traditional gold strategy of many market women effectively “immune” or even advantageous in the current environment.
Physical gold in Nigeria’s richest cities serves as a reliable store of value, unlike meme coins, Ponzi schemes (such as recent CBEX platform crashes wiping out savings), stocks, or naira cash devalued by inflation.
Traditional Nigerian women often buy jewelry (commonly 18k–24k for investment purposes), wear it, and sell it quickly in local markets for liquidity when needed.
Stories highlight generational shifts: older women wore gold to preserve wealth; newer ones (including diaspora Nigerians) accumulate bars and coins for volume and efficiency.
Nigeria’s market women traditionally invest savings in physical gold jewelry or items as a hedge against economic instability, naira depreciation, and inflation.
This approach has deep roots: gold tends to hold or appreciate over time, is highly liquid (easy to sell for cash locally), and functions both as an investment and a status symbol.
Why the metal market is a bloodbath
Trump’s choice for next Fed Chair, likely Warsh, has been positive for the US dollar and negative for gold and other precious metals,” states Aakash Doshi, Global Head of Gold and Metals Strategy for State Street Investment Management.
“End-of-month rebalancing is more than likely contributing to this, as short dollar and long gold have been the consensus macro trade for the past two to three weeks.”
Traders’ risk models and balance sheets had been primed for huge moves as precious metals’ volatility and prices swelled.
Increasingly, cheap and out-of-the-money call options had also been escalating in volume and contributing “mechanically to upward price momentum,” said Goldman Sachs.
In a note, the bank said sellers of the options had to hedge their exposure to rising prices by buying more.
Metal dealers who are short options must purchase more futures or shares to maintain the balance of their portfolios, in the case of gold exchange-traded funds, as prices rise, and sell when they fall.
The selloff was mainly triggered by the dollar’s rebound after reports indicated that the Trump administration was preparing to nominate Kevin Warsh for Fed chair, which was later confirmed.
The American dollar rally also dampened market confidence, as investors had been buying metals after the U.S. president signaled he would be comfortable with a weaker dollar.
