历史性崩盘！刚刚，交易所紧急出手！大幅上调！

Core Viewpoint - The article discusses the emergency measures taken by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in response to historic price drops in gold and silver, highlighting the increase in margin requirements for precious metal futures contracts to mitigate risks associated with market volatility [1][2][3]. Group 1: Margin Requirement Adjustments - CME has raised the margin requirements for COMEX gold and silver futures contracts, with non-high-risk accounts seeing an increase from 6% to 8% for gold and from 11% to 15% for silver [3][4]. - High-risk accounts will see their margin requirements rise from 6.6% to 8.8% for gold and from 12.1% to 16.5% for silver [3]. - This adjustment means that investors will need to provide more cash or equivalent assets to maintain the same position size in precious metal futures [5]. Group 2: Market Volatility and Price Movements - Recent market conditions have led to unprecedented volatility, with spot gold experiencing a 9.25% drop, reaching a low of $4,682 per ounce, and spot silver dropping as much as 35.89% [6]. - The COMEX silver futures fell by 25.5%, closing at $85.25, despite a cumulative increase of 20.10% in January [6]. - Industrial metals also faced declines, with LME copper dropping nearly 5.7% and LME tin falling by about 5.7% [8]. Group 3: Causes of the Price Collapse - The nomination of Kevin Walsh as the next Federal Reserve Chairman is identified as a trigger for the price collapse, as his "hawkish" stance is expected to strengthen the U.S. dollar, negatively impacting gold and silver prices [11][12]. - The market was already crowded with long positions in gold, leading to a significant price premium that had not been seen since 1980, contributing to the sharp decline [14]. - Analysts suggest that forced selling due to margin calls and profit-taking from speculative positions in silver exacerbated the market's downturn [14].