Due to the injection of a large amount of funds and Eric's 'willful' requirements, the trading team began to increase the purchase of crude oil futures in the following days, expanding the original daily investment of more than $30 million.

By mid-July, Eric had invested a huge $250 million in the futures market, and Chris was even more worried because the price of crude oil had been fluctuating up and down for the past two weeks, and the money had not increased.

Early in the morning of July 16, a news item published in the New York Times quickly spread around the world.

In the early morning of July 16, local time, in the early morning of July 16, the Iraqi Republican National Guard, an elite armored tank division with full Soviet-made equipment suddenly assembled on the Iraq-Kuwait border, and at the same time, Iraq's bilateral negotiations also came out again with shocking news, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein put forward new conditions, not only asking Kuwait to forgive the previous $14 billion loan, but also asking Kuwait to compensate $2.4 billion for 'stealing Iraqi oil'.

Western countries, which have been paying attention to the situation in the Middle East, have not yet made any reaction, and the financial markets, which are the most sensitive to the market, have begun to show sharp fluctuations.

On July 16, it happened to be a new week, after the opening of several major futures exchanges in the world, the price of crude oil, which had been hovering between $18 and $20 per barrel, quickly broke through the $20 mark, and in less than two hours, it had rushed to $21, and then @ for the whole day, the price of crude oil did not fall again, and the day closed at a high of $21.4, an increase of 7%.

That night, Jeffrey and his son did not return to Chris's apartment. Instead, they gathered in Eric's hotel suite. Chris didn't let crude oil prices skyrocket today. Eric's account was happy to have a surplus of $175 million in just one day, but he was even more worried.

The fax machine in the suite buzzed non-stop, and documents kept popping up.

Geoffrey, Chris, and Eric all silently read the text from the fax machine, except for Drew, who was still unhearted on the couch watching TV.

"That's all I can get in touch with, Eric," Kris said, circulating all the texts aside, "As you can see, almost all military experts think it's Iraq bluffing." The possibility of war breaking out is very small, this armored division equipped with Soviet-made T72 tanks is enough to bulldoze Kuwait, and if Iraq wants to invade Kuwait, there is no need to send an ace army like the Republican National Guard, and an infantry division with ordinary equipment can take Kuwait City. In doing so, Saddam Hussein just wanted to extort more benefits. ”

"I'm sticking to my initial guess. ”

"Eric, these news will be reported tomorrow, and the corresponding crude oil prices will fall again, in order not to throw away the money I made today, I will start selling it early tomorrow morning. So maybe we'll be able to keep a profit of about $100 million. ”

"No, keep buying. Chris, I feel like the time is getting closer. ”

Chris glanced at Jeffrey, who didn't understand much about the conversation between the two people, before saying, "Then, there will definitely be more violent fluctuations in crude oil prices in the future, and I need to have enough spare margin in my account." ”

Eric knows that what Chris said is true, compared to the first two weeks of July, when the price change is not too big, with the participation of the Middle East and Western countries, the price of crude oil will be more volatile in the second half of the month: "No problem, you can do this according to the situation." ”

Seeing that Eric didn't stand up for himself this time, Chris breathed a sigh of relief.

On 17 July, the analytical articles that Eric and others had seen the night before appeared one after another on the pages of major newspapers around the world, and even a senior official of the US Department of Defense openly agreed with Iraq's argument that Iraq would never use force against Kuwait in an interview on a television program. Because of this view, the price of crude oil futures fell back to $20.7 on the day, down 3%.

But the following week, crude oil prices began to rise slowly, because Iraq deployed an elite armored division on the Iraq-Kuwait border, but instead of stopping, it continued to increase its troops, and in less than a week, Iraqi troops had gathered on the Iraq-Kuwait border.

Kuwait's head of state, the Amir, finally could not sit down, and began to ask the heads of state of the same fraternal Arab countries to mediate between them.

On July 22, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited Baghdad to say on behalf of the Emir of Kuwait, but he did not get any promise from Saddam Hussein, and soon left in disgrace.

Although most Western countries have insisted that Saddam Hussein will not use force against Kuwait, in the face of Iraq's aggressiveness, the US aircraft carrier fleet in the Persian Gulf and the United Arab Emirates jointly held a joint military exercise on July 24.

At this time, the international crude oil price has risen to 23 US dollars, compared with a week ago, an increase of up to 15%, Eric's principal into the futures market has also reached 400 million US dollars, a weekly surplus of up to 500 million US dollars, such a terrifying profit can be called crazy, but Chris has persuaded Eric more than once to stop, because as long as there is a big turning point in the Middle East, this money may be lost again at any time.

The next day, Saddam Hussein urgently summoned the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glass, and Saddam Hussein solemnly promised the Arab ambassador that Iraq would never use force against Kuwait.

In the following days, crude oil prices began to fall slowly, and most investment institutions began to be bearish on crude oil prices.

In the last week of July, Eric spent all of his $700 million in principal, because the price of crude oil fell in the last week, and the original surplus of $500 million was left.

Because of Eric's strong insistence on buying the last crude oil futures contract of up to $20 million, Chris almost collapsed on the seat, a big bet of $700 million, 10 times leverage, and almost no spare margin, as long as the price of crude oil falls by $2, $700 million will instantly come to naught, and if the price of crude oil falls by more than $2, Erik account will be blown up, not only will $700 million be swallowed up by the capital market, but Eric will also owe a lot of money to the futures company.

At this point, many things must not be hidden from Jeffrey, and the old man was frightened by the figure of 700 million US dollars for a while, but only a sigh remained.

Los Angeles, many people in Hollywood are paying attention to Eric's every move, so the news that the box office of "Ghost Love" broke 100 million in three weeks is not so important, and after the release of a strongly controversial movie like "Instinct", there are not too many media who have taken the opportunity to attack Eric because of his identity as a screenwriter.

Everyone seems to be waiting, waiting for some moment of final judgment.

Finally, the indifferent of time twisted her waist and stepped into the lattice of August 1990. (To be continued......)