When the pawnshops on the street corner start refusing to accept old gold, or when they are crazily promoting inventory for cash, that could be the peak of gold. Recently, gold, silver, and other precious metals have repeatedly hit new highs, but from the perspective of market structure, another insight has been proposed, which is the destruction of demand in economics and the reversal of physical liquidity in gold trading. Core logic: When prices are too high, investors feel that gold is too expensive and stop buying, leading to poor business for pawnshops, a lack of cash flow, and in order to pay for rent and personnel costs, they must sell off inventory, which includes old gold acquired or melting illustrated gold jewelry into gold bars to return to upstream refineries. Retail investors feel that gold prices are high and want to exchange old gold for cash (cash for gold), at this time, the volume of old gold received by pawnshops is still high, which indicates a recycling boom. However, to verify the peak of gold, one cannot only look at the XAU/USD futures price; two points should be considered: 1. Real gold-consuming countries (China, India), if the international gold price keeps rising, but the prices in China show a discount, being cheaper than the international gold price, that may indicate a lack of sales. 2. A surge in the volume of old gold recycling; the World Gold Council publishes data every quarter on the supply of recycled gold, and a sudden large increase in the recycling volume usually indicates that what supports the gold price is not buying but unsold inventory. Historical similar cases: 2011-2012 Events that occurred when gold peaked, retail investors sold off, recycling boom.