Gold and Silver Both Lost — One Asset Won the Week

It was a bruising week for precious metals investors in Turkey. Both gold and silver posted losses against the Turkish lira, disappointing those who had piled in expecting the usual safe-haven rally. The selloff came as the dollar softened globally and domestic demand for hard assets temporarily cooled — a reminder that no investment runs hot forever.

What made this week unusual was the identity of the top performer. While gold bugs licked their wounds, a single asset class quietly delivered the week's best return. The divergence wasn't a blip — it reflected shifting risk appetite, changing currency dynamics, and the ongoing search by Turkish savers for somewhere, anywhere, to park their money safely.

For ordinary investors in Turkey, weeks like this carry a real lesson. Chasing last month's winner almost always ends in disappointment. The asset that outperformed this week did so precisely because most people weren't watching it. Understanding why it moved — and whether that move has legs — matters far more than the headline return figure. This week's winner may be next week's laggard, or it may be signaling something deeper about where smart money is quietly repositioning.

Levent KAYIRA Commentary: Ekonomik Gündem Analysis: Gold has been the default refuge for Turkish savers for decades — and for good reason. But when TL-denominated gold prices slip in a single week, panic tends to spread faster than the facts warrant. Context matters: gold in lira terms is still up sharply over any 12-month window, so one bad week doesn't erase the thesis.

The real story here is portfolio rotation. When gold and silver both underperform simultaneously, capital doesn't disappear — it moves. In the Turkish market, that typically means flows shifting toward eurobonds, dollar deposits, or occasionally equities when BIST valuations look attractive relative to FX-adjusted returns.

From my banking years, I watched this pattern repeat every few months. Retail investors would crowd into whatever won last quarter, then get burned when the tide turned. The fund managers who consistently outperformed were the ones who looked at real yields, not recent price charts.

The week's top performer — whatever it proved to be — is less important than the discipline of holding a diversified position. In an environment where TCMB policy, global dollar moves, and geopolitical noise all hit Turkish assets simultaneously, no single instrument deserves more than 30-35% of a retail portfolio.

Kaynak: Google News Ekonomi