As the world markets continue into a new cycle that sees them plunging into much trouble and uncertainty, the year 2026 beckons to be one that is ridden with high uncertainty and volatility in terms of geopolitical and macroeconomic trends. Although the year may pose various threats to traders, it also comes along with unparalleled opportunities that may be leveraged to achieve trading success through various trading assets set to display notable volatility trends in the year 2026.

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From long-term fundamentals to trading dynamics, these five key assets on JustMarkets are set to continue to be at the forefront in trading in 2026.

1. Gold (XAU/USD): The Ultimate Macro-Driven Asset

The gold price in 2025 reached $4,500 per troy ounce, and it continues to be one of the most traded assets world-wide. Gold is extremely sensitive to changes in the levels of inflation, interest rate forecasts, geopolitical events, and currency exchange rate movements. The recent years have shown the ability of the gold market to provide an extremely strong bullish momentum, as well as intraday momentum.

The relevance of the market of gold in the year 2026 specifically stems from the fact that the environment surrounding the economy of the world is facing challenges associated with growth, debt, and the policies of monetary easing. Despite the falling inflation rate in the economy, the real interest rates are also expected to be pressured downward, which has traditionally translated to favorable market conditions for the price of gold. The factor of geopolitics uncertainty and tensions between specific countries also adds to the significance of the market of gold.

For traders, the market offers favorable conditions because of its high volatility regime with adequate liquidity.

2. Silver (XAG/USD): Volatility with a Dual Personality

Silver often overshadows gold, but its performance in 2025 significantly outperformed its main competitor. The precious metal briefly reached $85, making it one of the best-performing assets in 2025. While silver, like gold, is sensitive to monetary policy and market sentiment, it also enjoys strong industrial demand related to energy transition technologies, electronics, and manufacturing.

This dual nature makes silver one of the most volatile and fastest-growing precious metals and trading instruments overall. In 2026, as global growth expectations fluctuate and industrial cycles remain uneven, silver will experience sharp directional movements and prolonged periods of volatility, but will fundamentally maintain a growth trend similar to gold.

For traders seeking high volatility, silver offers even greater percentage swings than gold, making it a powerful tool for well-managed strategies, both scalping and holding positions for multiple days.

3. Oil (WTI & Brent): Trading Supply, Politics, and Policy

Oil is still among the market-sensitive commodities. The change in OPEC+ production levels, global events affecting major oil-producing nations, as well as changes in global demand can cause prices to surge within a matter of hours.

Turning the focus on the outlook for the year 2026, it seems likely that the oil market will face well-supplied conditions. However, this will not mean extremely small degrees of volatility. Events surrounding Venezuela represent yet another key source of uncertainty. Changes within US policies regarding Venezuela, the export of oil, and the political leadership of the country could represent important influences on the levels of supply, especially when the focus shifts towards the heavier grades. Yet, the possibility of a substantial recovery looks very unlikely.

Even in highly saturated markets, surprise disruptions, production policy changes, or geopolitical tensions, particularly in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, can cause sharp price moves. Conversely, macroeconomic growth slowdowns or money market cycles may exert pressures on demands, thereby leading to highly two-sided markets.

4. US Stock Indices (Dow 30, S&P 500, Nasdaq): Liquidity and Trend Potential

US indices continue to be key trading assets in global trading activity. The Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq reflect US economic performance, as well as global risk appetite, capital flows, and technological leadership, primarily driven by the AI boom.

In 2026, stock markets are likely to face divergent forces. On the one hand, monetary easing is supporting valuations, while slowing economic growth, declining interest in AI, and political uncertainty are increasing volatility and the risk of a deeper sell-off. This combination often leads to strong moves, deep corrections, and renewed all-time highs.

Indices offer unrivaled liquidity, clear technical behavior, and the ability to express macroeconomic views without the risk associated with individual stocks, making them important tools for both short-term and position traders.

5. EUR/USD: The World’s Most Traded Currency Pair

EUR/USD remains the benchmark for forex trading. Its deep liquidity, tight spreads, and technical clarity make it a favorite among professional traders. More importantly, the euro reflects the balance between the world’s two most influential central banks: the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

As interest rate differentials narrow and fiscal dynamics shift on both sides of the Atlantic, there’s every reason to believe EUR/USD will experience prolonged and powerful trending phases, punctuated by strong reactions to economic data and central bank signals.

In 2026, shifts in growth expectations, inflation trajectories, and political developments in both regions will keep this pair highly active, making EUR/USD a preferred option for traders who value stability, transparency, and adaptability across all trading styles.

Perfect Assets to Trade in 2026

These five markets unite their relevance on a global stage, and the responsiveness of these markets to macroeconomic and geopolitical events. Markets traded in gold, silver, oil, US indices, and the currency pair EUR/USD include the combination of markets most traders seek: deep liquidity, clear structure, and meaningful volatility.

On the JustMarkets trading platform, these instruments excel because of the optimal trading conditions offered, ensuring effective active trading. Tight spreads, fast execution of orders, as well as high leverage of up to 3000, enable traders to react swiftly to key market drivers, such as central bank statements or inflation figures, as well as geopolitical events.

Kaspersky has detected a scam tactic leveraging the OpenAI platform. Attackers are abusing OpenAI’s organisation creation and team invitation features to send spam emails from legitimate OpenAI addresses, potentially tricking users into clicking scam links or calling fraudulent phone numbers.

The spam campaign begins with attackers registering an account on the OpenAI platform. During registration, users are prompted to enter an organisation name, which can consist of any combination of symbols. Scammers exploit this by embedding deceptive text and fraudulent links or phone numbers directly into the field for organisation name itself.

Once the “organisation” is created, OpenAI provides an option to “invite your team,” allowing the input of target email addresses of victims. When invitations are sent, they originate from OpenAI’s address, making them appear fully legitimate from a technical standpoint.

Kaspersky detected several types of messages containing email threats sent in such a way. These are scam emails that promote fraudulent offers, such as adult services. Another attack angle is vishing – false notifications claiming a subscription has been renewed for a large sum: attackers instruct recipients to call a provided phone number to “cancel” the charge or take other actions that lead to further compromise. There may also be other email threats spreading via OpenAI platform.

The text that the attackers want the victims to read (highlighted in bold in the email template) is structurally inconsistent with the rest of the email template – which was originally designed to invite project collaborators. But the attackers bet on the fact that the victims would not pay attention.

“This case highlights a vulnerability in how platform features can be weaponised for social engineering email attacks. By embedding deceptive elements in seemingly innocuous fields like organisation names, scammers attempt to bypass traditional email filters and exploit user trust in reputable services.

“We urge all users to verify invitations carefully and avoid clicking embedded links without scrutiny. We also recommend brands to consider whether their online services or platforms could be abused by attackers,” comments Anna Lazaricheva, senior spam analyst at Kaspersky.

In 2025, the retail and e-commerce sector continued to face intense pressure from cybercriminals. According to Kaspersky data, 14,41%* of users in the global retail sector encountered web-based threats, while 22,20% were affected by on-device attacks.

Ransomware remains a serious concern for the industry. Last year, 8,25% of retail and e-commerce companies experienced ransomware incidents, and the number of unique B2B users in the sector affected by ransomware detections rose by 152% compared to 2023, signalling a sharp escalation in targeted attacks.

Phishing also continues to be a major threat vector. Kaspersky identified 6.7 million phishing attacks targeting users of online stores, delivery services, and payment systems in 2025. More than half of these attacks (50,58%) were aimed specifically at online stores, underscoring cybercriminals’ focus on e-commerce platforms as high-value targets for fraud and data theft.

A look at 2025 cybersecurity for retail & e-commerce: Trends and what happened

A stealer with a taste for pizza delivery. Shopping and food ordering via mobile apps are routine user behaviours. However, 2025 demonstrated that even downloading a seemingly legitimate app from an official app store does not guarantee safety, nor does it ensure that user data and financial credentials will not be compromised.

Ransomware detections in the B2B sector increased due to a single dominant actor. The number of unique users in the Retail & E-commerce sector who encountered ransomware detections increased by 152% in 2025 compared to 2023 (Nov 2024 – Oct 2025 vs. Nov 2022 – Oct 2023).

The most significant growth occurred during the 2024-2025 period and is largely attributable to the rapid spread of the Trojan-Ransom.Win32. Dcryptor family, which became highly prevalent across the retail and e-commerce sector in some of the analysed markets. This malware is a trojanised ransomware variant that leverages the legitimate DiskCryptor utility to encrypt disk partitions on victim systems.

Phishing activity in the online retail segment stood out. Despite being a long-established attack technique, phishing remains highly prevalent in the context of online purchasing.

From November 2024 through to October 2025, Kaspersky products blocked 6,651,955 attempts to access phishing links targeting users of online stores, payment systems, and delivery services. Of these attempts, 50.58% targeted online shoppers, 27.3% impersonated payment systems, and 22.12% targeted users of delivery companies.

Sales seasons continue to do the work for attackers. Seasonal peaks in online shopping consistently provide attackers with predictable opportunities to scale user-focused attacks.

Periods of heightened promotional activity lower user vigilance and allow familiar phishing and spam scenarios to blend into legitimate marketing traffic, increasing their overall effectiveness.

Predictions: What retail & e-commerce cybersecurity might face in 2026

Chatbots are likely to become a common product discovery tool across online marketplaces. Unlike traditional search, conversational interfaces encourage users to share more detailed, natural-language requests, revealing preferences, constraints, and contextual information.

This shift expands the privacy attack surface, as platforms accumulate richer user profiles through chat interactions. As a result, chatbot logs may become as sensitive as transactional data, increasing the risks of over-collection, misuse, or exposure of personal information.

“Search itself is changing, including how people look for products online. In 2025, there was a gradual shift from simple keyword queries to more conversational and visual ways of finding what to buy. As these models rely on broader user input, careful handling of the data involved will remain an important consideration for maintaining user trust,” comments Anna Larkina, Web data and privacy analysis expert at Kaspersky.

Changes in taxes and trade rules might be exploited in online fraud. Modifications in taxes, import duties, and cross-border trade rules are likely to be used as lures in phishing campaigns and fraudulent online stores, promoting unrealistically cheap offers or claims of avoided fees.

As pricing and fee rules continue to evolve across markets, it may lower vigilance, increasing the effectiveness of such schemes, particularly against small and mid-sized retailers.

AI-powered shopping assistants are expected to increasingly operate outside retail platforms, embedding themselves into browsers, mobile apps, and third-party services. While designed to simplify navigation and price discovery, these tools shift data collection beyond the retailer’s perimeter, creating new and less visible privacy risks.

To function effectively, external AI shopping agents require continuous access to user behaviour, including browsing activity, search intent, location context and product interactions across multiple sites.

This enables the aggregation of detailed behavioural profiles outside the direct control of both users and retail platforms, increasing the risks of over-collection, opaque data usage, and unintended exposure.

Image-based product search might become a new challenge in privacy risks. Previously, the main privacy concern around user images in e-commerce was limited to photos voluntarily shared in product reviews.

However, image-based product search is expected to make photo uploads a routine part of the shopping experience across major retail platforms. While this feature improves product discovery, it also increases the risk of unintended exposure of personal data.

User-submitted images may contain faces, home environments, or sensitive details, such as names, phone numbers, or addresses visible on shipping labels or packaging, making secure processing, data minimisation, and limited retention critical requirements for retailers.