You said, “Let’s get real. The Chinese markets might crater, the world stock markets might crater, but that money has to go somewhere right?”
Nope. In the first place you are referring to market value, not money.
Second: The majority of that goes to ‘money heaven’ (this is just the commonly used phrase but is a misnomer) in a crash.
It’s not a zero sum game.
Not to be a knit picker, but that understanding is important.
This is why PM stocks can go down in the initial stages of a crash.
Cheers