Gold and silver prices surged unexpectedly, with Bitcoin expected to surpass gold.

Over the past few years, whether or not you're interested in other investment sectors, I believe many readers have, consciously or unconsciously, seen extensive coverage of gold and silver in various media outlets.

Gold has been on a tear in recent years, repeatedly hitting new highs. Silver has also surged this year, breaking through a 40-plus-year high.

Seeing these impressive performances has reminded me of my past interest in precious metals.

I began my interest in precious metals over a decade ago.

My interest in precious metals was driven partly by curiosity—I wanted to try my hand at other sectors besides the stock market. Also, the then-major state-owned bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, happened to offer four precious metal investment options: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Since I already had an account with ICBC, I took the opportunity to explore this area. For many years, I primarily relied on kitco.com for information and trends on these four precious metals. During this learning process, I discovered: - There were so many factors interfering with their short-term trends that judging them was completely beyond my ability. - Once a bull or bear market established in these metals, the moves were generally long-lasting and large. During this period, if I tried to trade short-term, I was prone to selling too quickly or getting stuck. If I sold too quickly, I would have to watch helplessly as the price continued to soar for years, hesitant to jump in. And if I got stuck, I would have to stand by helplessly for years, reluctant to sell. It was a truly terrible feeling. At the same time, if you zoom out, you can still see a clear pattern: - In the long run, as long as you buy in a bear market, gold and silver will inevitably break through their previous highs. - After 2013, platinum's price began to decline due to its substitution for palladium in the automotive industry, making it increasingly undervalued relative to gold. But I had a feeling that this precious metal, far rarer than gold, would shine in the future, and its price wouldn't remain depressed forever. Although I didn't know what would trigger it or when, the feeling was strong. So, I changed my approach and went all-in on the long term. At the end of 2014, I made my final purchase of gold, silver, and platinum from my ICBC account and left it alone. (A note: ICBC later stopped buying platinum, only offering sell-to-close operations.) After that, I realized I wasn't very good at studying precious metals, so I stopped following them daily, only occasionally checking out relevant news and information. Fast forward to the beginning of this year. Back then, gold was already a hot commodity, and I'd frequently see videos pushed to me on my WeChat account, introducing the gold market in Shuibei, Shenzhen. Curious, I decided to visit the market. It was a few days before the Lunar New Year, and the market was packed. Every shop was thronged with people buying gold beans, gold bars, and gold jewelry. But one shop stood out: it specialized in platinum. I went in to take a look, and the waiter quickly pulled me aside to explain the prices of various platinum jewelry. I was shocked to hear that platinum was cheaper than when I last bought it in 2014. I then looked online and found that a supply-demand gap had begun to form for platinum, with supply beginning to fall short of demand. At the time, while gold was trading at over $2,000 per ounce, platinum was only a little over $900. Without hesitation, I bought platinum again after 11 years. Since then, we've seen a surge in gold, silver, and platinum. It's unimaginable for gold to reach over $4,000 at this point. It's even more unimaginable for silver to break through $50. On the other hand, platinum's current price of $1,600 seems perfectly normal to me. Will these precious metals continue to rise at their current levels? I suspect they will. As I've experienced in the past, once precious metals start a trend, they tend not to reverse quickly. However, I can't predict how much they'll adjust, how much they'll ultimately rise, or how long they'll continue to rise. Therefore, I can't offer any investment advice to our readers. At their current prices, I definitely wouldn't buy any of these three metals.

Looking back on these past decade or so, I'm even more convinced of one thing:

This long-term approach also applies to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Their short-term trends are harder to grasp, but in my opinion, their long-term trajectory is clearer and more obvious than that of gold and silver. For assets like these, it's best to invest long-term if possible and ignore short-term fluctuations.

Furthermore, I'm very happy to see gold's current surge, because I believe Bitcoin's market capitalization will surpass gold's in our lifetimes. The higher gold's market capitalization, the more astonishing Bitcoin's future market capitalization will be.

Seizing this great opportunity of the future requires no intelligence, no education, no background, only patience and confidence.