Chapter 26: The Most Peaceful Year (Please click to recommend)

  "I recently played around and earned some." Ham said simply, but with a pleased expression.

  Even for Americans, oil futures are a relatively new game, having only appeared in the last few years. 1986 was a wild year for oil futures, with prices doubling and halving in rapid succession, making some people rich or wiping them out, by 1987 participation in oil futures had increased dramatically.

  At its core were oil companies and refineries hedging against price fluctuations, followed by swarms of speculators and workers in industries related to oil.

  Although trading volume increased, the oil market in 1987 was indeed stable, and there were not many people who made money that year. Ham did have a satisfactory capital gain.

  Su Cheng hesitated for a moment before asking: "Can I participate in oil futures?"

  Ham smiled and asked: "Do you have money?"

  Su Cheng turned to George and said, "If you can be my financial leverage, I guarantee that you won't lose. I'll use my salary for the next 10 days, which is $1,000, as a bet, but please use $10,000 to help me buy oil futures. If I float and lose more than 10%, you automatically close the position, sell the futures, and compensate me for the loss with my money. If we make money, I'll give you a 50% commission."

  "Are you willing to part with $1,000?" George, who was more familiar with China, advised, "The futures market changes every minute, and a 10% fluctuation is quite common."

  "I'm very clear about it. It's just that China currently doesn't allow individuals to directly invest in foreign futures, so I asked for your help." Su Cheng thought for a moment and said: "In the past year, the GDP growth of major industrial countries has been slow, and OPEC has controlled production to stabilize it. This should be the year when the market price of oil is closest to the official price. In such an environment, it's not easy for the oil price to drop by 10% in a short period."

  He sounded so professional that George was slightly surprised.

  In his eyes, China is still that ancient China, being able to speak English and understanding OPEC are two completely different concepts.

  George and Ham, Henry exchanged a glance, nodded slightly: "I can let you try it out, but if things don't go well, I'll sell out at any time."

  Ham added: "The minimum unit is 1,000 barrels, at this price, that's $18,000. If the fluctuation exceeds 5%, you'll lose 1,000 yuan."

  "So, if there's a 5% chance, you can close your position." Su Cheng was also burning his boats.

  If he misses this opportunity, he doesn't know when he can get his first pot of gold again. Being in a state-owned enterprise allows him to come into contact with the oil he likes, but being in a state-owned enterprise also has many places where he is not free.

  Su Cheng naturally doesn't remember the specific fluctuations in oil prices in 1987. However, this was indeed a very special year, and the stability of oil prices is something that cannot be repeated in later generations. In the years before and after, oil prices fluctuated between $10 and $40. Only in 1987 did oil prices consistently hover around $18, and in fact, for most of the time, they were below $17.8.

  This is also the reason why Su Cheng didn't deliberately ask about the market situation of the period and knew this information.

  Although there won't be those big ups and downs in the market to make money, apart from holding PDA crossing, Su Cheng can use the stable price of 1987.

  "Let's get started, how do you usually view the futures market?"

  "There's a hotline in the conference hall." Ham was the first to jump up, he had a heavy gambling streak, no matter how much the stakes were, his excitement level was always the same.

  A group of people moved to the conference hall and used the slow dedicated network there to check the quotes of the futures market, and made buy and sell operations by phone.

  Fortunately, today's price is trending upwards.

  Su Cheng pointed at the standard crude oil chart and said, "Trouble is selling short at 18 yuan."

  George then made a call, buying 1,000 barrels of NYMEX contracts with his own money and instructing the other party to close out if they lost 5%.

  The transaction was just completed and the market began to fall.

  This proves that Su Cheng's gamble was correct. Hamu hastily asked: "Take a look at the news, is there any bad news today?"

  He turned his head and asked Su Cheng: "Did you see any bearish news?"

  Su shook his head. He only knew that selling short at a price of 18 yuan, no matter what, would not lose 5%, because that meant the oil price had to rise to 18.9 yuan. Throughout 1987, such a situation rarely occurred, as there were too many orders on the exchange, and the oil futures market with over 24 million contracts was like a full lake, which wouldn't overflow unless it rained continuously.

  It wasn't until next year that Saudi Arabia and other countries violated OPEC's production quota, exporting large amounts of crude oil, that prices fluctuated violently.

  Despite this, prices fluctuate rapidly in a day of futures trading, much like tidal phenomena.

  On the flickering computer screen, New York crude oil prices quickly fell back to $17.60.

  Su Cheng decided to clear the disk, earning 40 cents per barrel of crude oil, totaling $400.

  "Good, good, a 40% harvest is quite considerable."

  Henry also turned his wine glass, staring intently at the screen.

  Su Cheng smiled but did not speak, and when the price fell below $17.5, he turned over to go long, that is, bet on a rise.

  This time we waited a bit longer, about half an hour, to reach 17.7. Su Cheng didn't get greedy and directly closed the deal, earning $200.

  In just thirty or forty minutes, he earned a profit of 60%, which is not bad. Especially for a Chinese person, this is equivalent to several years' salary.

  In fact, in 1987 that whole year, the price fluctuations were so flat that most futures traders made a living by doing just that.

  But from another perspective, if it weren't for the countless price-sensitive futures traders making a living off this, oil prices would be fluctuating wildly.

  "Want to continue?" George was very curious about Su's technique, and then said: "Based on your $1,600 foundation, I can lend you $30,000 this time."

  "Alright, so let's short sell at 17.8 yuan then. This time it's estimated that we'll have to wait a bit longer."

  "No big deal, let's play poker!" The three foreigners were in high spirits and all sat down at the conference table.

  That night, all four of them stayed awake, watching Su Cheng manipulate the futures market back and forth.

  They have figured out the trading pattern of Su City, which is based on 17.8 yuan as the benchmark line, buying more when it's below 17.6 yuan and selling short when it's above 17.8 yuan.

  Only those who have been reborn would dare to operate in such a way, unless they are aware of their return.

  There are too many factors that can cause price fluctuations. For example, a successful or unsuccessful OPEC ministerial meeting, a successful or unsuccessful US presidential speech, a survey report from a third-party organization, an oil company's blowout, interbank share transactions, war, debt default, etc. may all cause prices to fluctuate violently at any time.

  If it's operated in Suzhou style, then it would be a complete loss.

  However, 1987 was too special. In that year, traditional troublemakers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela did nothing, OPEC kept production changes under a surprising 1%, oil companies didn't carry out any mergers and acquisitions, industrialized countries developed steadily like mechanical movements, world peace...

  In fact, apart from this year, there has never been a year in which the market price of oil has followed OPEC's guidelines so obediently.

  Su Cheng repeatedly operated 7 times in Suzhou and Xi'an, earning a total of $3,500. Not a lot, but enough to make people envious.

  George handed $1,750 over to Sioux City at a 50 percent split, saying with a mixture of anger and joy: "I'm running out of cash."

  "Can you help me open a bank account? That way, I won't need your cash." Su Cheng continued. In foreign countries, there are all sorts of bank accounts that only require passwords, and non-natural person accounts operated by trustees are also common, which is a good thing that doesn't exist in modern China.

  George nodded and said, "Of course, if you authorize it."

  He immediately took action on the phone. George is a mid-to-high-level person in the United Chemical Group, with his own accountants and lawyers, through whom what was originally going to take a day's work was quickly done.

  George then handed the phone to Su, saying: "The account has been set up, now use the phone to set a password, remember your account number, from now on this is your private property."

  Willing to help Su City's busy, in addition to earning half a month's salary, is also George looking at his future.

  As far as he knows, Su City is betting with his entire family's property, and just this courage is astonishing.

  He had no idea that Su City was relatively safe for business operations and had nothing to do with courage or boldness.

  The next day, the three of them hastily visited several equipment factories and returned to the conference hall before the US futures market opened.

  George and Ham, who were eager to get rich, put up more than half of their assets, totaling $100,000, which they handed over to Sue City. The profits would still be split 50% with Sue City, but she would bear all the risks.

  The difference is that Su Cheng's commission will be directly calculated and deposited into his own bank account each time.

  Using the same technique, by morning, Su's income had increased to $4,000. George and the others were completely at ease now. Now, Su was capable of withstanding and compensating for any risks that might arise in the futures market. The three of them were essentially Su's bank, with rich profits and extremely low risk.

  Bang Bang

  The waiter gently knocked on the door to wake him up.

  Su Cheng crawled out of the hotel, got into the sedan and started snoring loudly. George and others had taken turns sleeping, at this time they could still hold on, their happy noses were all red.

  That night, they also made over a thousand dollars on average. Most importantly, it could continue at night.

  Choi Hong-gul, who had just gained some fame, looked embarrassed and said in English, "Sorry, Su-cheng might be too tired."

  "Yes, it's very tiring." George carefully took off his upper suit and covered Su Cheng's body with it, doing so with a gentle and reverent manner as if making an offering to the God of Wealth.

  ……