ok so the S&P did the same thing for everyone (stonks only go up), but if you're keeping score in yen it's a completely different chart, and the split starts in early 2022. everything before that is filler arc. two lines walking side by side like episode 1 childhood friends. peak slice of life. nothing happens. it's beautiful. then inflation hit the US and the Fed went full super saiyan. eleven hikes, four of them back-to-back 75bp kamehamehas. no talk, just hands. every other central bank formed a nakama and tightened together. the BOJ said nah g-san we good, we work alone, kept rates below zero, and unsealed the forbidden technique: UNLIMITED BOND WORKS. built a wall around the 10-year yield and defended it like it was Wall Maria. nani the fuck boj. so yeah. yen-chan had been simping for dollar-senpai for years, and now dollar-senpai suddenly pays five percent. it's over. yen-chan got isekai'd from 111 to 164 screaming yamete kudasai, and truck-kun was the carry trade. S&P in yen looks sugoi as hell, but a fat chunk of that is just yen-chan dying, not stonks going up. and here's the darkest lore: it wasn't an accident. the BOJ went full griffith. when the eclipse came they chose the bond market and put yen-chan on the altar. sacrificed. branded. so now yen-chan fights on like guts, dragging a sword too big to be called a sword, and the demons never stop coming because the brand never comes off. the BOJ's been hiking since 2024, all i-it's not like we're normalizing or anything b-baka, and it still hasn't bounced. notice me senpai. senpai will not notice. there is nothing kawaii about negative real rates. if the Fed hikes again? get back in the carry, shinji. yen takes out 164 like this isn't even my final form, and MOF materializes at 3am buying yen going "daijoubu, this is not intervention uwu." your S&P-in-yen line moons even if stocks do nothing. fake gains. no-face gold. looks incredible right up until you try to spend it. if the Fed cuts hard though, something actually broke, and every carry trader hears it at the same time: お前はもう死んでいる. everyone exits through the same door, no plot armor. august '24 was just the OVA. this time the unwind shows up like saitama. one punch. arc over. yen rips your face off, stocks dump, the yen line gets hit from both ends at once. that's the one nobody's pricing. not advice. me and this chart are just in an enemies to lovers arc. we're on episode 47.