James Robinson heard Noah Scott's question, but he hesitated.

Simon Westeros's previous stock index futures operation, one success may not be nothing, two consecutive times can also be said to be luck, but three times in a row is enough to prove that the young man must have something to rely on.

In this case, if Lehman Brothers follows the trend, it will definitely be able to obtain unexpected gains. As the CEO of American Express, the parent company of Lehman Brothers, James Robinson is definitely not short of adventure to get to where he is now.

However, this kind of behavior is obviously the most standard insider trading.

American Express bought Lehman Brothers three years ago in order to get involved in the long-planned investment banking space.

Next, if the matter is really followed, once the matter is revealed, Lehman Brothers will definitely be investigated by the SEC (Federal Exchange Commission), and the company will lose a large number of customers.

Most importantly, other investment banks on Wall Street will not miss the opportunity to expel American Express, a potentially formidable rival, from investment banking.

But.

In just three and a half months, with a principal of $75 million and a net profit of more than $200 million, this kind of windfall profit is really hard to resist.

You know, as a global financial and travel services company, American Express, which has a market value of more than $13 billion and more than 50,000 employees, had a net profit of just over $180 million in the second quarter of 1987.

Obviously, a young man who is not yet 20 years old has been operating in the stock index futures market for more than three months, and the income has already exceeded the quarterly profit of such a giant as American Express in the same period.

After weighing it back and forth for a few minutes, James Robinson finally couldn't resist the temptation of huge profits, patted the transaction records of Westeros in his hand, and said to Scott and his son: "I will discuss it with Paul from the board of directors over the weekend, and try to mobilize a sum of money by next Monday." Neil, you are responsible for this matter, Noah is in charge, and you two will report directly to me personally. Remember, be cautious and cautious, and you should all know the consequences of this revelation. ”

......

Los Angeles.

Inside Palisad's mansion, Simon hung up Noah Scott's phone and leaned thoughtfully back in his leather chair.

Janet had just sat on the large desk in front of Simon very unfiguratively, holding a few papers from Noah Scott in her hands, and flipped through them with interest with her two naked feet.

Seeing Simon hang up the phone, Janet leaned over on her tiptoes and nodded on Simon's leg, and said, "Little bastard, I now believe that it won't take you many years to fulfill those three wishes." ”

Before his thoughts were interrupted, Simon just smiled and held the woman's small foot on his lap, scratched her foot a few times, and said, "Didn't you believe it before?"

Janet smiled and pulled her feet back, "Of course I do." It's just that I didn't expect you to make such a lump of money. Our family, starting with my great-grandfather, has accumulated a wealth of only $2 billion in more than 100 years. ”

Simon said: "But I certainly don't have the ability to push for federal estate tax abolition, so your family is more powerful." ”

When Simon and Janet's relationship was exposed in the first half of the year, there were reports in the newspapers that the Johnston family was pushing for the abolition of inheritance tax in Australia. Being able to influence a country's fundamental tax system truly shows the depth of a family's heritage.

Now, although he has a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars, once Simon's wealth is exposed, he may be more likely to be just a 'fat sheep' in the eyes of many people.

Simon is also very clear about this.

As a born-again, accumulating wealth is really not too difficult.

The easiest way to do it, Microsoft now has a market capitalization of only about $1 billion. Simon put up $200,000 to buy Microsoft stock and held it until 2000, selling it at the peak of Microsoft's $600 billion market capitalization, and he immediately became a billionaire.

$200,000, at the peak of the North American housing bubble, many middle-class families can probably raise it as long as they sell their properties. But they have absolutely no way of knowing that this money could make them billionaires more than a decade later.

But Simon knew.

However, if he simply grabs wealth, even if Simon earns $100 billion, if he lacks the social influence to match this wealth, he will only be a 'fat sheep' at the level of 100 billion dollars after all.

As a result, Simon is not too complacent about the huge amount of money he has made from the stock index futures market.

It's just that in order to get out of the 'fat sheep' state, he still has too long to go.

Seeing Simon silent, Janet waited patiently for a moment, and then scratched the man's leg with her foot: "What are you thinking?"

Simon said the truth: "Fat sheep. ”

"Huh," Janet laughed, "you feel it?"

Simon wondered, "What?"

"Noah," Janet blinked, "he's so attentive today, there's obviously something wrong with him." ”

Simon heard Janet's reminder, and then he once again captured some of the thoughts that arose in his mind after hanging up the phone, and immediately laughed, and said: "Three times in a row, $75 million has been turned to 278.56 million, if Lehman Brothers can endure and not follow up, Wall Street will not be Wall Street." ”

Janet asked, "So what are you going to do?"

"As long as Lehman Brothers' operations don't affect our interests, it's okay for them to make some money," Simon said, then shook his head again and said, "But it seems unlikely." ”

Lehman Brothers, which has the backing of American Express, would definitely exceed the less than $300 million in Westeros' account if it were to follow suit.

If it has been a long-term operation at the moment, it may be nothing, and it will be followed up. But the stock market crash at the end of October certainly made a different story.

In Simon's memory, the 1987 crash, the U.S. government's bailout measures were very timely and effective, and it took only a week for the North American stock market to stabilize. Moreover, the S&P 500's trough around 200 points lasted even more shortly.

The last short contract in Westeros' plan can only be closed at the trough of 200 points to get the maximum gain. However, the daily contract throughput of the stock index futures market is limited after all.

When the time comes, if Lehman Brothers also builds a large number of shorts, they will definitely be the first to arrange for their own contracts to be closed.

Janet watched Simon fall into thought again and didn't bother.

After thinking about it for a while, Simon said: "Don't worry about this matter for now, let's talk about it when "Vulgar" is finished." ”

In the plan, "Vulgar" will be completed in mid-September, and Simon still has half a month to operate.

Moreover, the movie thing is the most important thing for Simon.

Accumulating a lot of wealth, Simon must have considerable power if he wants not to be regarded as a 'fat sheep'.

Hollywood happens to be the foundation of Simon's choice of power. If he can pocket this film industry base with world-class influence step by step, coupled with the huge wealth he has accumulated, Simon can truly get rid of the identity of 'fat sheep'.

When Janet heard Simon say this, she was a little puzzled: "We can completely withdraw all the money in the futures account, and when the time comes, Noah can find a corner to remove tears." ”

"No," Simon shook his head and said with a smile, "Doing this now is tantamount to telling them that we are going to change to a futures broker." Wall Street is actually that big, don't you think Lehman Brothers will find out where we have an account?"

Janet thought for a moment and said helplessly: "It seems, it's true." ”

......

Before you know it, another weekend is fast by.

It's September.

Over the weekend, under the personal arrangement of American Express CEO James Robinson, Lehman Brothers raised $500 million in a one-time fund, intending to secretly follow Westeros' operations.

However, to Noah Scott's surprise, compared to the previous three heavy operations, Simon only asked him to open 6,000 short contracts between 337 and 330 in the new week, and it was a short contract in December.

The bulls turned into shorts, which was indeed expected by Noah Scott.

However, the short position of 6,000 contracts only took up 30% of the funds in Westeros' account, which is far less than the 80% heavy position that has been maintained until now. Originally, a large amount of funds were mobilized, and several people in charge who wanted to follow Simon's operation and take risks once were completely confused for a while.

The 30% position ratio is completely a very conservative long-term holding strategy.

The whole of Wall Street now understands that after a five-year bull market, North American stocks will inevitably turn down. Therefore, Westeros' position at this time is very much like a finishing act of making as much soup as it can after eating and drinking.

Don't.

I'm just about to enter the arena and the feast is already over?

If it is unable to obtain huge profits in the short term, Yuntong will definitely not be able to keep the huge amount of 500 million US dollars in a futures account for a long time.

Even, Noah Scott once wondered if his dark disk operation was noticed by Simon, and the other party would do it. But that doesn't make sense. If the other party senses that Lehman Brothers intends to follow suit, they will definitely change brokers.

There's no reason to put aside the money you can make and not make it.

In the midst of this hesitation, the first week of September was not over when the North American stock market took a sharp turn, and the S&P 500 plunged from above 330 to around 310 in the following week.

It's still a 20-point drop.

With a contract multiplier of $500, the profit and loss figure for a single contract reaches $10,000.

As a result, in just one week, Westeros made a book profit of more than $60 million on 6,000 short contracts.

However, Lehman Brothers' account was even more profitable, and Noah Scott opened a position exactly twice the size of Westeros. After Simon stopped opening positions, he couldn't resist buying another 3,000 contracts, bringing the short position in Lehman Brothers' account to 15,000 contracts.

In just one week, Lehman Brothers' account surpassed $150 million in book profits.

However, this time, Simon did not place a sell order.

Compared with Simon's stability, the Scott father and son, who were personally in charge of this operation, could not calm down at all.

$150 million in profits, which is almost equivalent to the quarterly profit of the entire Amex company. And, most importantly, as direct project leaders and traders, such a profit also means that they will receive a huge year-end bonus.

Moreover, it would have been fine if the S&P 500 had been on the downside, but as the third Thursday of September, the final delivery day, approached, the S&P 500, which had plummeted, began to rally again.

Lehman Brothers' 15,000 contracts means that for every 1 point of the S&P 500's rise or fall, it represents a profit or loss of $7.5 million.

As a result, the S&P 500 index began to recover step by step from 310 points, watching a sum of '$7.5 million' disappear, and when the S&P 500 index rose back to a high of 320 points, Simon still did not have any trading orders, including James Robinson, CEO of Amex, all the executives of American Express who knew about this operation could no longer calm down, and Noah Scott finally began to sell.

But the S&P 500's rally has not stopped.

By the time Lehman Brothers hastily cleared 15,000 contracts, the S&P 500 had risen back to 326 points. Lehman Brothers made a profit of more than $150 million, but Lehman Brothers finally got back only $56 million.

$56 million, which is obviously a very substantial profit, but compared to the initial book profit of $150 million, it is still too much shrinkage.

Then, again, the development of things was beyond the expectations of everyone in the company.

On September 17, the third delivery day of 1987, the S&P 500 index soared to 328 points, and then instead of continuing to rise, it began to retreat again.

In just three days, the S&P 500 fell from a high of 328 points back to 313 points.

At this time, in the account of Westeros, there were still 6,000 contracts that were still unchanged, and the cumulative book profit was again close to $60 million.

Faced with this situation, Noah Scott, Nelson Scott, and even James Robinson, among others, have completely developed a feeling of being completely overwhelmed.

What's going on?

Did that kid do it on purpose?

What will he do next?

Now why not follow up?

Los Angeles.

Different from the rollercoaster mood of Noah Scott and others, Simon, who had already expected the sharp fluctuations in September, basically tried his best to devote himself to the final shooting of "Vulgar" during this time, except for looking at some index rise and fall reports sent back from Chicago every day.

Finally, Saturday, September 19.

With only a few shots left, the crew chose to work overtime on the weekend, and then, that afternoon, Simon's second film after returning to this era was officially completed.