"Stanley, it's time!" When Soros rushed out of the venue as soon as possible, he dialed the transoceanic satellite phone and said affirmatively to Druckenmiller, who was already waiting at the other end.

He finally waited for the information he wanted, and now he could confidently and boldly short the pound.

Druckenmiller on the other end of the microphone understood, silently put down the phone, and shouted to the traders who were already waiting outside: "Everything is OK!" ”

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, and then shouted frantically almost at the same time, with a frenzied expression on their faces. After a brief moment of excitement, each of them rushed to their jobs and began to implement the haode strategy that had already been formulated.

These strategies are to trade correlations in the stock market, foreign exchange market, bond market and other markets to maximize the benefits from the knock-on effect of the fall of the pound.

For a while, there was chaos in the trading room.

Like Soros, after stepping out of the venue, Zhong Shi gave relevant instructions to HSBC.

His funds have come to the UK market through HSBC's channels. The reason why he started to operate now is that he only knows that the pound will fall at some point in the future, and does not know what is the trigger.

Two billion dollars may seem like a lot, but in the foreign exchange market, it is basically not even a fraction of the daily settlement. At this level of trading, he can't afford not to be cautious.

After explaining a few words on the phone, Zhong Shi and Andrew found an exquisite and elegant restaurant, and the two of them had a good meal and discussed where to go next.

The reason why Zhong Shi has such a long time to spare is that he has already passed the SAT test in Hong Kong, and after preparing a lot of complicated application materials, he now only needs to wait quietly for news from the United States.

IF THE OFFER COMES DOWN, ACCORDING TO THE CURRENT TIME, HE CAN ONLY ENTER THE SPRING SEMESTER, THAT IS, UNTIL JANUARY OF '93, so he has a lot of time now.

In terms of schools, Zhong Shi applied to Princeton University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University, and did not choose Caltech, where he thought he had spent several years there, and there was no need to continue.

For example, Princeton and Berkeley are basically the strongest in the United States in mathematics, the economics of Chicago University and the Walter School of Business at Penn are all first, and Columbia University is located in New York State, very close to Wall Street.

……

Three days later, the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Schlesinger, in which the head of the Bundesbank described the current situation in European currencies as follows: "The problem of instability in the European monetary system can only be solved by the depreciation of some national currencies...... Germany will not cut interest rate ......"

Although the words are vague and do not make it clear who "certain countries" are, for financial speculators who have long been eyeing the lira and the pound, the object of the hint is simply imminent.

As early as August, there were unusual fluctuations in the value of the pound, and Chancellor of the Exchequer Lamont even gave the most harshly worded speech in front of the Treasury building at the end of August, which was widely regarded by the outside world as an ultimatum to financial speculators: "In order to clarify the position of the United Kingdom, I believe that the pound cannot be devalued, and the United Kingdom will not withdraw from the exchange rate mechanism, we have an absolute obligation to the exchange rate mechanism, and this is the core of our policy." ”

In addition to Lamont, Prime Minister John Major has repeatedly advocated similar views in public. In addition to these encouraging speeches, the UK has indeed taken corresponding measures in the market, such as buying 3 billion pounds to intervene in the market, and institutions such as Shijie Bank and the International Monetary Fund have borrowed huge sums of money to continue to intervene in the foreign exchange market.

These actions are in stark contrast to Schlesinger's view today. Now all those involved know that Germany will not save Britain.

Now only the Bank of England itself remains.

No, or the Bank of England and the Central Bank of Italy, which is also under the firepower of international financial speculators, remain.

In fact, on September 8, the day of Schlesinger's press conference, Finland's Mark announced that it would break away from the Deutsche Mark and allow it to float freely, which was a profound wake-up call to countries like Britain, France, and Italy. Although Finland is not a country of the European Community, it is small and has all kinds of organs, and such a country is basically powerless in the frenzy of the Finnish mark being sold, which makes the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and several other countries feel very cold.

The pound is okay, and the lira's decline is urgent!

As early as September 7, the Italian government announced an increase in the discount rate of banks, but the market reaction was not satisfactory, and a day later, on the 9th, Italy was forced to announce another increase in the discount rate of banks, from 12% to 15%. At the same time, buying the lira and selling currencies such as the franc and the mark on the foreign exchange market can effectively keep the lira in the European exchange rate system.

Discounting is when an individual, enterprise or institution needs short-term liquidity, mortgages valuable things such as securities, real estate, and capital to the bank, and then borrows money from the bank at a certain interest rate, which is equivalent to a short-term loan.

International financial speculators want to attack the lira, and they cannot hold the lira in their hands, because in their opinion, it is a currency that is about to depreciate, and it is not worth holding. Therefore, they pledged the dollar and mark assets in their hands to Italian banks, exchanged them for the corresponding amount of lira at the discount rate in the short term, and then sold them in the foreign exchange market, and when the lira depreciated to a certain stage, they bought them back in the market and returned them to the Italian banks.

For example, if someone has $10,000 in assets and can exchange it for six million lira, then when the lira depreciates, the six million lira may only cost nine thousand dollars, and that person makes a thousand dollars in the process of the lira depreciating.

What the Central Bank of Italy can do, first, it cannot let the lira depreciate so sharply, which requires buying the lira in the foreign exchange market and maintaining a specific position; The second is to raise the cost of speculators, making it difficult for them to borrow large amounts of lira, which is done by increasing the discount rate.

This raises two questions, the first is whether the central bank has sufficient foreign exchange reserves to stabilize the value of the currency, and the second is that the discount rate cannot rise indefinitely.

If the value of the currency can be stabilized and the discount rate can be raised, then the costs of international speculators will outweigh the benefits, and they will collapse without a fight, but if they cannot maintain the value of the currency, the benefits outweigh the costs, then they will chase after each side until one side is completely defeated.

Now it seems that this side is most likely the Central Bank of Italy.

On September 12, when Schlesinger's words appeared in the newspapers, the lira took a sharp turn for the worse, and there was a large number of sell-offs in the foreign exchange market, with prices getting lower and lower. In this case, the Bank of Italy urgently mobilized funds to buy lira in the market, but it was still unable to withstand the menacing selling, and by the end of the day, it was already approaching the lower limit set by the European monetary system.

It should be noted that the foreign exchange market is an all-weather market that fluctuates 24 hours a day. Relative to other currencies, the Italian lira's largest market is itself, and the largest buyer can only be the Central Bank of Italy.

After urgent consultations between Rome and the Central Bank of Italy, and with the consent of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the other countries of the European Community, on the thirteenth, the Italian government announced the depreciation of the lira.

The devaluation was announced by lowering the value of the lira by 3.5 per cent and appreciating several other currencies in the European monetary system by 3.5 per cent, so that the lira barely remained in the European monetary system, and the goal of international speculators was initially achieved.

This is the first adjustment in the European monetary system since 1987. For the first time, this seemingly behemothic thing showed its vulnerable side in front of international speculators.

The Italian lira temporarily escaped through automatic devaluation.

Soon, speculators moved to the pound market with a lot of profits, and a new round of attacks began.

Zhong Shi's money in Italy appreciated by more than 5% in one day, which means that in this day, he did not have to do anything, and he had five more points of wealth out of thin air, which of course had to be calculated in lira.

Since some people have more wealth, there must be people who have less wealth, and the loss of wealth is naturally borne by the Italians, who use the lira as the main trading currency. Like the yacht companies and car companies that do business with Bell Stone, these companies are the victims of the depreciation of the lira.

Of course, depreciation is not a bad thing, at least the price of domestic goods has fallen, which is more conducive to exports.

At this time, the ratio of the pound to the mark is 2.7964, which is less than a percentage point away from the lower limit of 2.7780 stipulated in the European exchange rate system, and it seems that this is also a precarious situation, which is basically one step away from the lower limit of the regulation.

The exchange rate has slowly approached the lower limit in August, when the Bank of England used more than three billion pounds of foreign exchange reserves to maintain the price after a gradual crackdown by international speculators.

In just one day, after Schlesinger's public statement, the lira was attacked to the point of almost leaving the European monetary system, which made finance ministers and central bankers feel the gravity of the crisis. Although Italy is not a traditional industrial power, it is also one of the developed countries, and it is so vulnerable to international funds, which makes them feel a bad feeling.

They again urgently convened telephone consultations to urge the Bundesbank to cut interest rates. (Thank you for your recommendation votes these days, the author is very satisfied with this, I hope to add more oil, and vote for a few more Sanjiang tickets, xiexie~)