Hollywood Hunter

The roller coaster-like index turbulence lasted for more than half a month. On September 23, when the S&P 500 index fell below 310 points, Noah Scott finally received Simon's order to close the position again. From September 23 to September 25, within three days, the 6000 short contracts held by Westeros were cleared at an average of 307 points, and Simon made another profit of US$76.26 million.

In addition, a month after "Lola Run" was released, due to the close cooperation between the two parties, Orion Pictures did not deliberately delay, and happily paid the US$32.51 million box office due to Westeros according to the contract. Divided.

Therefore, excluding the loan that is no longer ready to be used at all, before the final layout, all funds owned by Simon have reached 387.33 million US dollars.

When Noah Scott and others were still wondering about Simon’s conservative operation intentions in September, the liquidation ended. After a few days of silence, on September 30, Simon suddenly placed the Westeros company in the Lehman Brothers account. All funds are transferred out.

Noah Scott finally realized that no matter whether Simon discovered Lehman Brothers' intention to follow suit, the other party was wary of them.

Wall Street is not big after all. What's more, the stock index futures market is still using the on-site manual bidding trading mode at this time. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's trading market for stock index futures is actually very obvious. Therefore, after a little observation and inquiries, Noah Scott basically determined that Simon had dispersed the funds in the hands of several other brokers and started to build short positions again.

However, Simon's operation in September was called a "failure", but Lehman Brothers had doubts about whether to follow up. Moreover, another major client Quantum Fund of Lehman Brothers, almost at the same time as Simon, began to build a long contract completely opposite to Westeros in early October, which made Noah Scott and others hesitate.

Although it has not been as reputable as it was later, George Soros's Quantum Fund has been established for more than a decade, with an average annual return rate of more than 30%, which still makes him famous on Wall Street.

On one side are the big hedge funds with outstanding performance, and on the other side is the sudden rise of Hollywood geeks.

The operations of the two are completely opposite.

After several hesitations, James Robinson, who made the decision behind the scenes, was unable to make up his mind after all, and just told Noah Scott to watch from the sidelines.

US$500 million in cash cannot be underestimated by any company in this era. If the funds held by Noah Scott fall into a loss, the dark disk operations will be more easily exposed. At that time, James Robinson's position as the CEO of American Express will no longer be considered.

Lehman Brothers fell into the wait and see, but time never stopped.

With the last fight, Simon also completely let go of his hands and feet.

Since October 1, several futures brokers secretly re-identified by Simon have begun to build positions at a rate of 2,000 contracts per day. At the same time, the North American stock market began to accelerate downward after entering October, and the S&P 500 index fell to a low of close to 280 points again in just two weeks.

...

Here in Los Angeles.

While "Pulp Fiction" was finished, "When Harry Meets Sally" was officially launched in New York on September 14.

Simon completed the filming of "Pulp Fiction". He neither immediately invested in the later stages of the film nor rushed to New York, because the final cut of "Death is Coming" was also completed in late September, and the film was not on October 23rd. There is only one month left for the release schedule.

With the supervision of Amy Pascal, Simon is not worried that Fox will not do his best in the announcement of "Reaper Is Coming". However, in order to accumulate some experience in film distribution for Daenerys Pictures, Simon personally participated in this. At work.

Taking care of a lot of work, time inevitably flies quickly.

These days, Paramount Pictures, a drama thriller starring Michael Douglas, "Fatal Temptation", has unexpectedly hit the box office.

Although it was lost at the end of September, this is also a cemetery-level unpopular period, but in just four weeks, the box office of "Fatal Temptation" has been close to 50 million U.S. dollars. "Effect" and "Beverly Detective 2" is another North American film that is expected to exceed 100 million in box office.

The box office success of "Fatal Temptation" reminded Simon of Michael Douglas' other more famous film, "Instinct."

After several successful internal screenings of "Reaper Is Here", Fox began urging Simon to complete the last script of the original contract as soon as possible. Reminded by "Fatal Temptation", Simon has written the outline of the script for "Instinct" in recent days.

In a blink of an eye, it was Monday, October 19.

Inside Palisades mansion.

Just after four o'clock in the morning, Simon had already woke up, and he had no sleep at all.

After getting up, he went directly to the study room next to the master bedroom and leaned in a large leather chair. Simon did not rush to pick up the phone, but once again read the recent trading reports of several futures brokers and the stock market reports these days .

During the 12 trading days from October 1 to October 16, Westeros established a total of 26,700 short contracts between 300 points and 280 points in the S&P 500 index, and the open interest of each account was all Reach an astonishing 100%.

With all the funds of 387.33 million US dollars pressed, even with absolute certainty in his heart, Simon will inevitably be anxious when things come.

Fortunately.

Some things in memory still happened on time.

Just yesterday, US Treasury Secretary Baker stated on a TV program that if the Federal Republic of Germany does not lower interest rates, the United States will continue to consider devaluing the dollar. The obvious reason is that a certain kind of goods will definitely drop in price, and the holder will definitely choose to sell it. If the dollar continues to depreciate, it will naturally encourage the flight of capital.

The previous Friday, the North American stock market had already shown signs of collapse. On October 16th, the Dow Jones Index had fallen from its peak of 2,700 points in August to 2,200 points. The worsening trade deficit and financial deficit in the third quarter of the United States already made the North American stock market seem precarious.

Baker's speech in a TV show is completely out of date, like the last straw added to a camel.

Simon believes that many things will never happen for no reason. Therefore, Baker's speech on the TV show yesterday and the subsequent lavish exaggeration by the media naturally reminded him of the level of conspiracy theory.

Of course, these things have nothing to do with him.

Even if the US economy returns to the era of the Great Depression, he will not feel much.

The opening time of the New York Stock Exchange is 9:30 Eastern, and the opening time of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is 8:30 Central Time, which is actually synchronized with the New York Stock Exchange.

As for Los Angeles, Simon only needs to wait until 6:30.

However, just after 6 o'clock, the three telephones Simon had specially installed in the study these days rang.

Although the stipulated trading time is half an hour, in fact, floor trading on the New York and Chicago trading floors often begins before the market opens.

Before raising the funds from Lehman Brothers, Simon had secretly opened stock index futures accounts with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and First Boston investment banks with futures brokerage business.

In fact, Simon is still ignorant of Lehman Brothers' previous secret follow-up, but he also believes that the other party must have noticed his actions during this time. However, Simon couldn't care too much when things got to the present point.

If Lehman Brothers follows suit, it will at most add some resistance to Westeros' liquidation in the next few days. However, Simon did not believe that Lehman Brothers would easily expose Westeros' previous transaction records to other investment banks, prompting several companies such as Goldman Sachs to follow their own positions.

The competition on Wall Street is very fierce. Once Lehman Brothers does this, competitors like Goldman Sachs will never mind dragging the angler into the water while taking Lehman Brothers and throwing the "bait".

Traders from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and First Boston successively informed Simon on the phone that more than 20 minutes before the opening, there have been a large number of long contract selling orders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the lowest price has even reached 253. Compared with the 281 points at the close of trading last Friday, it plummeted 28 points, a drop of nearly 10%.

Simon's initial transaction waited a full month and a half before the S&P 500 index rose from 270 to 290.

Now, just after a weekend, and just before the opening, the S&P 500 index has fallen 28 points. Even though he was thousands of miles away, Simon could imagine what kind of dark clouds would be in the lobby of the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at this time.

Janet didn't know when she walked in, still wearing pajamas and bare feet. However, this time, the woman was not like the lazy kitten that she used to be. She had bright eyes and no longer leaned into Simon's arms. She quietly pulled a chair and sat across from the desk, listening to Simon's constant conversation with Chicago. While calling.

Although the quotation has fallen by 28 points, more than any previous round of operations, Simon still very decisively rejected the trader's proposal to close the position.

After receiving three calls in a row, Simon put down the receiver, and Janet flashed her eyes, and asked with a certain uncertainty in her expression: "How many are you?"

"It has fallen to 253 points."

Simon said, picked up the remote control and turned on the same TV that had just been installed in the study in the last few days. On the screen, the chaos of the New York Stock Exchange was boiling, and the host was almost trembling. Commentary.

Through the host's words, starting at 9 o'clock in the morning Eastern time, the New York Stock Exchange has also accumulated a lot of stock selling in just ten minutes.

After listening to the report on the TV screen quietly for a while, Janet turned her head to look at Simon, with a little excitement in her expression that was obviously for fear that the world would not be chaotic. How many?"

Simon looked at Janet and wanted to pinch a woman’s nose, but he just shook his head and said, "It's so messy, how could I know."

Janet's eyes flickered a few times, and she curled her lips, but she stopped asking questions.

Although I understand that Janet must be faintly aware of something, in any case, Simon is absolutely impossible to admit directly. This is not to say that he doesn't trust Janet enough, but his own experience is so incredible that Simon can't handle the consequences of certain things being exposed.

On the TV screen, in the chaotic picture of continuous switching between major exchanges, the last ten minutes passed quickly.

At 6:30 in Los Angeles time, the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange opened at the same time.

In New York, the Dow Jones index dropped 67 points as soon as the market opened, and then began to take a turn for the worse.

The situation in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is even more shocking.

The S&P 500 index gapped directly after the opening and opened lower, plummeting from 281 points at the close of the market last week to 198 points, a terrifying 29% drop.

The average number of short contracts held by Westeros is around 290 points.

According to the lowest value of 198 points in the S&P 500 index, each short contract held by Simon has generated a book income of $45,000, which is a profit margin of more than 300% relative to an average margin of $14,500.

Of course, Simon does not expect to be able to close the position at the lowest value of 198 points.

Since the stock index futures market at this time does not adopt a daily debt-free settlement system, as long as sufficient margin can be added before tomorrow's transaction, most of the wrong long contracts will not be forcibly liquidated. Therefore, only those who are completely out of pre-bargaining chips will choose to cut their meat and leave the market. Today's short contract liquidation volume is definitely far lower than usual.

Therefore, Simon just locked the liquidation interval between 200 points and 210 points.

Even if it is calculated at 210 points, the short contract held by Westeros can still achieve a single profit of $40,000, which is enough.

Moreover, while closing the short position, Simon did not hesitate to backhand to establish a long contract again at the same 200 to 210 points.

October 19, 1987, was undoubtedly a long day for many people.

Simon was constantly on the phone, but felt that the day was over quickly.

When the Chicago Mercantile Exchange officially closed, it was just after noon in Los Angeles.

According to statistics, of the 26,700 short contracts in the Westeros company’s account, only 8,300 were closed in one trading day, and 18,500 contracts remained in the account waiting to be processed. In addition, Westeros The number of long contracts that the company reopened between 200 and 210 points also reached 3,500.

In the final telephone conversation, Morgan Stanley's trader's tone was obviously regrettable, and the words did not imply that Simon was too greedy. If Simon can set the upper limit of liquidation higher, Westeros may liquidate more than half of its positions today.

Now, once the federal government intervenes to rescue the market, perhaps only tomorrow, the S&P 500 index may rebound sharply, and Simon will completely miss such an opportunity to gain more profit.

However, Simon is not too concerned about the trader's regret.

As long as things don't change much, he has at least two days left.