State Street is one of the most important streets in Brighton's financial district, not only the famous Old State Council and the Federal Reserve Bank of Brighton are here, but also some of Brighton's most important financial institutions and investment companies, and in addition to some famous financial buildings, there is also a well-known Barton Tavern.

Barton's Tavern is located on State Street near the exit from the subway station, and its décor is very gilded in the style of the Gilded Age, while the setting inside is more like a café than a pub.

At nine o'clock in the morning, a black Buick sedan stopped at the door of Barton's Tavern, and a middle-aged man with gray sideburns and two Chinese stepped out of the car, they were Zhou Ming, Zhang Lin and Brooke.

Now that the direction has been negotiated, it is naturally the time to put it into action, so Zhou Ming and Brooke came out together.

Walking to the door of the tavern, Zhou Ming looked up and asked Brooke, "This is what you call the CDS market?"

For Zhou Ming, Brooke instinctively disgusted, but he also understood that he was now relying on Zhou Ming to take revenge on the Addams family who abandoned him, so he could only let go of those unnecessary obsessions and nodded yes, and took Zhou Ming into the tavern, at this time there were already some people sitting in the tavern, and finally they chose a window position.

After sitting down, Brooke roughly introduced this Barton Tavern to Zhou Ming, Brooke said that he was brought up by the CDS market, because a few years ago, Barton Tavern was just a very ordinary tavern on State Street, because the address was chosen near the subway entrance, people often came to his house to drink every day, the number of people was not large, but it was enough for the daily expenses of the tavern.

As the saying goes, if you don't make a profit in business, you lose money, and the owner of Barton's Tavern thinks the same thing, but then an incident happens that completely changes his mind.

One day, the owner of Barton's Tavern was having a drink with an investment broker and learned that the CDS market was on the rise, and the investment broker predicted that it would be the mainstream of the future.

The tavern owner has been in business on the financial street for several years, and of course he knows a lot of investment brokers, so he knows what the CDS market is. However, he did not want to enter the CDS market to make money, because he did not have that capital, and later, the boss found out that these investment brokers were working for a place where there was no fixed trading location, and every client had to be interviewed by phone, which was a bad thing, because it meant that only cheeky people would be more likely to succeed.

Everyone wants to be fair, and investment brokers are no exception, so more and more investment brokers want to have a fixed trading location and information channels.

However, the difficulty is that the CDS market is an emerging investment market, and the most important thing is that it is completely independent of the traditional securities finance, and it is not regulated by any stock exchange, but the two parties to the transaction are directly traded through investment brokers. It is for this reason that it is obviously difficult to regulate a market without any institutional supervision, and the tavern owner sees this business opportunity.

So, by virtue of his personal friendship with the various investment brokers, the tavern owner invited them to his tavern for their dealings, and he would serve the best drinks.

Perhaps in the first few transactions, those investment brokers were hindered by the face and favor of the boss, but with the operation of the tavern owner and the continuous development and growth of the CDS market, Barton Tavern was gradually accepted by more investment brokers and gradually became a fixed trading place. The tavern owner has long been not limited to providing a venue, he can also do some things to exchange information by virtue of his friendship with the brokers of many investment companies.

After listening to the history of Barton's Tavern, Zhou Ming could only sigh that business opportunities are really everywhere, as long as he can be good at discovering them.

"Trading here usually starts at 10 a.m., because in the past, brokers used to trade near noon or after work in the afternoon when they came here with their clients to chat, and this habit has continued. Now due to the popularity of the CDS market, we have to come early, otherwise we will be late and worry that there will be no place. Brooke told Zhou Ming.

Zhou Ming nodded to show understanding, but he was still curious and asked, "So what are the rules of trading here now?"

"It's a broker model. "Everyone involved in trading has to find a qualified broker to register, and then these brokers come together and distribute trades based on each person's quote, and take a commission from each trading contract, which is now 5/1000 of the value of each lot, which is $5 for every $1,000 CDS contract traded." ”

Zhou Ming laughed as he listened to Brooke's introduction: "Does that mean that Barton Tavern has turned itself into an exchange?"

Brooke nodded very seriously: "So to speak, but compared to the complete third party of the exchange, Patton Tavern still has too many problems, he will not review the identity and qualifications of both parties to the transaction, as long as there are investors who are brokers, he will admit it, and as long as investors can afford to pay, he will also open the back door for investors to give inside information and so on." ”

Zhou Ming said that he could understand this very well, after all, businessmen are mercenary in this way, and since you give a lot of money, why don't I give you the most preferential treatment? As for the problem of messing up the market and one's own reputation, how can there be any money in hand, and maintaining the virtuous circle of the market is the work of big entrepreneurs who are determined to monopolize, but the problem is that not every businessman who discovers the market has the strategic vision of big entrepreneurs.

To put it simply, not everyone who does a C2C e-commerce platform can make a certain cloud and a certain treasure, and it is normal to be eager for quick success and then play bad for their own market and reputation.

But this has nothing to do with Zhou Ming, he cares about how he can participate in the transaction.

"So Councilor Brooke, you can get involved is the biggest help, I believe that with the strength of your investment company, it's okay to hang a VIP qualification in this Barton Tavern, right?" Zhou Ming asked.

To this question, Bruker replied proudly: "Of course, my investment company is the biggest customer here!"

It's just that Brooke's pride is only two seconds, and he sighs and says: "But that's all in the past, now my company is about to go bankrupt, and with the intensification of the subprime mortgage crisis, I'm afraid the situation here has also changed, you know, this kind of convention is the most unreliable." ”

Zhou Ming smiled, and then sat down in the chair relaxed and said to Brooke, "Then wait first." ”

In this way, Zhou Ming and Brooke waited in their seats for an hour, and as the time gradually came to noon, the number of people in the Barton Tavern gradually increased, compared to when they came, there were only about a dozen people, and now there were at least a hundred people in the tavern.

But even with so many people gathered in the tavern, there are still empty tables, which is not to say how big the tavern is, but that these seats are reserved for those powerful bigwigs.

The people who can be called big names here are naturally the CEOs or chairmen of investment companies, because whether it is the CEO of Brighton Bank or the members of several major families of the consortium, they are all out of his reach. In the past, if Brooke wanted to come, then this place must be reserved for the best position, but now he can only come early with Zhou Ming.

"Damn, I'm going to introduce a bill in parliament to ban such illegal gathering places!" Brooke said with shame.

Zhou Ming didn't pay attention to Brooke's annoyance, but his words made Zhou Ming very interested, because even if Brooke's investment company experienced a bankruptcy turmoil, at least now his position as a senior senator is still there, and the skinny camel is bigger than a horse, no matter how much Brooke is still very status, no matter how snobbish the owner of Patton's Tavern is, he has to pay back such a person when he comes out to do business, how can he not even keep a position?

Then there is only one reason for this, and the people who are going to come are more important than Brooke!

With this in mind, Zhou Ming's eyes swept back and forth, and saw that there were at least ten empty tables inside, which meant that there were really a lot of 'big people' who were coming.

Stopping Brooke, who was scolding and slandering the tavern owner, Zhou Ming asked, "Usually, you chairman and general manager don't come to the tavern to trade by yourself, right?"

Brooke replied with a hellish expression: "Of course not, how can we come to such a place? Even if all the employees of my company are fired by me, I can still find my customers by phone!"

Brooke's answer is also the answer that Zhou Ming thinks in his heart, generally speaking, 'big people' like them have their own methods, and they will not personally go down to the market to trade with ordinary brokers, but now there are so many empty tables here, which means that those 'big people' have been forced by the subprime mortgage crisis to have nothing to do, so they can only come here to try their luck. After all, they have more power to decide than ordinary brokers.

Nearly an hour passed, and people kept coming into the tavern, which was so densely populated that it had become a veritable 'market', and many people had nowhere to sit, they were just moving back and forth with a glass of wine, and everyone was talking almost face to face. They constantly gesticulating or yelling loudly so that the other person can hear clearly.

Zhou Ming was still sitting there, in this environment, as if there were eight hundred ducks croaking in his ears, which was extremely annoying.

Brooke on the other side was already very impatient, he took out a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose, and covered his ear with one hand, as if he would kill him immediately if he took one more breath of the air here and listened to the noise of this place more.

Zhou Ming didn't like the turbid air here, but the wait here still had an effect, because in the past nearly an hour, Zhou Ming saw that the empty seats in the tavern had been filled, and those people were just as disgusted as Brooke with handkerchiefs covering their mouths and noses.

Of course, Brooke understood Zhou Ming's thoughts, so he came to Zhou Ming's side and introduced him: "Those who come over there are all decision-makers from well-known investment companies on Zhou Street. Look at the guy in the red gown, he's Jamal Gil, the chairman of the Caribbean Investment Corporation, and the table next to him is talking to Madison, the CEO of Louis Investments. ”

Brooke then pointed to the other side and said, "The two investment companies over there are also noteworthy, one is Martin, the chairman of Saint-Martin's Investment Company, and the table behind them is Leo, the chairman of New Dawn Investment, and the other ...... over there."

Zhou Ming listened to Brooke's introduction silently, and when he finished his introduction, Zhou Ming immediately asked him: "These are all the largest investment companies in Brighton, right?"

"It's just the biggest investment firm on State Street and nearby, but it's Brighton's financial hub, and that's pretty much it. Brooke replied.

Zhou Ming then asked: "Which of these companies are more closely related to the Addams family, that is, the ones like Councilor Brooke who have received a lot of support from the family and almost belong to the Addams family industry." ”

Brooke was stunned for a moment, and he asked in a daze, "Chinese, do you really plan to do this?"

"Do you think I'm joking with you?" Zhou Ming asked rhetorically.

Brooke took a deep breath: "I see, then I can tell you that these companies are basically deeply related to the Addams family, because the CDS market is driven by the Addams family behind it." ”

"I see, let's get started. Zhou Ming said with a smile.

And with Zhou Ming's words, Brooke snapped his fingers and called the waiter of the tavern.