May 4, 1994, is the first Wednesday of May, on this day this month's options will be selected, although the market has been trading in the last two trading days, but the whole day of the decline is not large, the volume is relatively average, so the market is generally not optimistic about this day.

"Have you heard anything in London lately?" When it was time to open, Zhong Shi's call went to Andrew's side. The announcement of option exercise is an extremely important day for the London non-ferrous metals market, and its outcome will directly determine the strength of the long and short positions.

For example, if a short position is shorted and buys a long option, the number of lots is exactly equal to the number of short positions, and if he is pessimistic about copper futures for a period of time before this Wednesday, he can completely stop the loss at a fixed position by exercising the option.

For another example, if the bull buys a long option while going long, and the future trend of copper futures is the same as he expected, he can exercise the option to further increase the position and grab the maximum profit.

In short, several different strategies have been derived for different directions, including hedging, hedging, chasing after victory, and collecting when you see a good situation. Although the number of options transactions at this time is far less exaggerated than that of later generations, and it does not determine the number of positions in the options market, these options players are still an important group that cannot be ignored. Because the risk is much smaller than direct investment in non-ferrous metal futures, and the entry threshold is relatively low, there are a large number of customers in this market, even if the main funds are in the copper market. Some people also set aside some funds in the options market.

Once the future market is consistent with the options they made, as long as there is a slight profit to be obtained, they will not hesitate to choose to exercise.

And on the third Wednesday of each month, it is the most important day in the copper futures market, because on this day has announced that the customers who have exercised the options will enter the market in large numbers, if the number is too large, even the main forces of both sides sometimes have to retreat, temporarily avoiding the edge of these new entrants.

The reason why Zhong Shi asked this is to inquire about the wind direction in London recently, if there are more bullish options. Then he can consider pulling up the price of copper. At that time, there will be another new force, Liliang, as an ally. If there are more bearish options, then he can consider avoiding them first and then pulling them up when the time is right.

"Uh......" This kind of information can be regarded as a relatively high level of confidentiality for this option, and Andrew has no way to find out for the time being. However, after a long time of hesitation, he still said: "There is no reliable information on the specifics. Both days were high open. But it's all the bears who have the upper hand, I don't know if it's building momentum for future execution? ”

"Really?" As a result of flying from Chicago to New York in the past two days, I participated in a series of activities. After coming back, he had to study during the day, Zhong Shi really didn't have time to think about the problem of copper, after Andrew's reminder, he woke up, and quickly opened the trend of copper in the last two months, and focused on analyzing the market situation in the past two days, and said to Andrew thoughtfully: "Although the fundamentals are good during this period, the fluctuation of copper prices is not too large, and the trading volume is at the general level, it seems that the market is brewing something." ”

"What's brewing?" Andrew hurriedly asked. He was most convinced by Zhong Shi, so when Zhong Shi said what he thought, he hurriedly asked.

Zhong Shi scratched his head, and some couldn't answer. He just intuitively felt that the fluctuation of copper prices should not be so, although he did not get involved in the copper market in later generations, but he also knew about Yasuo Hamanaka, this "genius" trader used a large amount of money to make many predators, including the quantum fund, helpless against him, although the fundamentals are not conducive to copper, but "Mr. Hammer" is still tenacious to pull the price of the near-month contract to an unbelievable point, the two sides fought several times, if it were not for the final LME and Sumitomo Trading Company's interference, it is really hard to say who wins and who loses in the end.

"How much copper have you collected?" After thinking about it for a long time, Zhong Shi finally gave up and asked about the acquisition of copper instead.

Andrew sighed and said dejectedly on the phone: "It didn't go very well, except for those accumulated in the early stage, there were not many contracts willing to be delivered in April, maybe they also saw the fundamentals improve, so they finally withdrew the sell order." LME inventories have continued to increase in the past two days, and I don't know if it's due to this reason. ”

"Really?" Zhong Shi was keenly aware that there was a problem in this, and asked urgently, "What is the increase, and what is the latest month when the contract volume has increased rapidly?" ”

Andrew didn't react a little, and then there was a rustling sound on the phone, and Zhong Shi waited for five minutes before Andrew's voice came back over there: "LME inventories increased by 5,040 tons in April, and the data released before today decreased by 325 tons, which means that 15 contracts were delivered, which was the same amount last trading day, and it stopped three trading days ago." ”

On the one hand, he couldn't understand the disk, and on the other hand, the purchase of copper was blocked, and Zhong Shi was a little speechless. But he soon realized that he was too worried, and even if someone deliberately suppressed the price of copper, he would not lose anything. Compared with the current position of only a few hundred lots, even if it suddenly plummets, he can forcibly pull up the price of copper, after all, the LME system is not a daily settlement, as long as the price of copper is raised before delivery.

"Keep watching, I'll rest first!" Zhong Shi irresponsibly dropped such a sentence, and rested first, the non-stop running around in the past two days had made him very tired, so he didn't have the heart to think about what was going on in the copper futures market anymore.

Andrew listened to the beep on the phone, and he couldn't cry or laugh for a while. He originally wanted to explain to Zhong Shi the trading of the previous two days, although it was a slight loss, but the process was tortuous and bizarre, but before he could say anything, the main owner fell asleep irresponsibly. After hanging up the phone, Andrew immediately changed his expression and shouted energetically to the traders who were already eager to try: "Boys." Ready to enter! ”

……

Not far from Andrew, at the base camp of Sumitomo Trading, Yasuo Hamanaka was gathering all the traders together, and said with an extremely grim face: "Gentlemen, there is a very good period of raising the price of copper, and we must not only raise the price of copper to a new height in the short term, but also maintain this price. Now our position is very low, and at the moment our main direction is bullish, and the copper price in the market is very low, which is obviously very unreasonable. The important thing is that the fundamentals are also good for longs. The most important thing now is to launch everything liliang. Go to your broker and ask for information about options, be sure to find out, understand? ”

"Yes!" Dozens of traders in the audience bowed their heads in unison, and left the venue quickly and orderly after Yasuo Hamanaka finished speaking.

Although their broker is Copper Futures. But that doesn't prevent them from looking for information on copper options. After all, Sumitomo Trading is a super client for many brokerage firms. And there are some personal relationships between brokers, although this behavior is a little unauthentic, but in this market how can there be room for authentic people to survive.

Soon. The news that these traders heard was summarized on Yasuo Hamanaka's desk. After reading the thick stack of papers, Yasuo Hamanaka lit a cigar and didn't smoke it, letting the green smoke linger in the office.

"Oshima-san, do you see the problem?" Yasuo Hamanaka nodded to the table and motioned to the person on the other side to take a look at the incomplete stack of information. The reason why it is incomplete is that even for options brokers, it is difficult to know the selection of the option buyer, only the exchange knows best. But these brokers are still able to catch a little bit of relevance through the information between the lines.

The man called "Oshima-san" by Yasuo Hamanaka is named Kenjiro Oshima, an energetic young man with a keen sense of smell, who dares to fight hard, often placing heavy bets, sometimes even reaching ninety percent of positions, which is a number that many futures traders are jaw-dropping.

In addition to the heavy position, this Kenjiro Oshima is also particularly good at the market, he has avoided the past several times when the market is reversed, and in the subsequent rebound, he can also catch the fluctuations in time, making Hamanaka Yasuo look at him very differently, often cultivating him intentionally or unintentionally.

Kenjiro Oshima took the report, and although he had read it before, he still pretended to look at it for a quarter of an hour with interest, and then raised his head with a puzzled expression on his face: "There is nothing special, I can't see who executed it and who didn't choose to execute it." ”

"You're wrong!" Yasuo Hamanaka had a mysterious smile on his face, and shook his head slightly, obviously disapproving from Kenjiro Oshima's analysis: "This report really doesn't tell us anything, but it must be combined with the recent market trend to see the mystery!" ”

"Oh?" Kenjiro Oshima's face changed, tilted his head and thought about the market in the last few trading days, and found that there was nothing special, it was basically a very flat situation, and the trading volume was also very average, and there was no obvious sign of support for the rise in various jishu data, but combined with this report...... He was confused!

"One of the possibilities is that the bears are continuing to suppress copper prices, so as to form the fact that copper prices are sluggish in a short period of time, and then continue to put pressure on the bulls through the positions of high bears, and finally maximize profits under the double pressure. It's just a possibility, but I personally think it's the biggest possibility! ”

"What?" Kenjiro Oshima's face turned blue, he is also a battle-hardened trader, so he naturally knows that there is this kind of trick, that is, while shorting the copper price, he buys a large number of short orders at a high level, and when the futures price is maintained at a relatively low position, he earns the corresponding spread by exercising the option.

For example, a copper contract of $5,000 is traded at a market price of $1,970, and the strike price of options is generally higher than this price because of the premium, if it is $1,990, then he chooses to execute, and on the third Wednesday, he immediately has a short order at the market price of $1,990, and then closes it at the market price of $1,970, so he makes $500 out of thin air.

And how many options may accumulate in the options market for the short positions that can keep the copper futures price suppressed at a very low volatility and low price throughout April? At the thought of this, Kenjiro Oshima shuddered a little! (To be continued......)

PS: I was going to save more manuscripts, but I didn't rush out much before the holiday, and it's not easy to code words for the Spring Festival, I hope you will support it more, xiexie~