It was an ordinary Christmas. The streets were filled with a cheerful Christmas atmosphere, brightly lit and bustling,
but due to the cultural boycott policies of recent years, people's enthusiasm for Christmas had actually waned.
In fact, people's love for Christmas was not so much about the holiday itself, but rather a fondness for all festive occasions, and Christmas, being such a romantic holiday, was naturally beloved by many couples.
"Come on, everyone gets an apple!" At the Huaxia Metropolis Currency Exchange, the general manager, along with a few staff members, wheeled in a cart, "One apple per person, today is Christmas, the foreigners are off work, our workload today should be relatively light, let's aim to get off work by four o'clock!"
All the staff immediately showed excited expressions.
Although it was a state-managed organization, working in high finance was not that easy, as they needed to maintain trading volumes and keep the currency market in balance.
The importance of the currency market to a nation was beyond question, for it determined the exchange rate between a nation's currency and international currencies in circulation. If there were significant fluctuations, it could have a substantial impact on a country.
For example, if the Huaxia currency's exchange rate dropped over a period, the direct result would be the devaluation of the Huaxia currency, raising the cost of imports and leading to an overall increase in prices, thereby directly reducing international purchasing power.
Next would come severe inflation, and as for the consequences of hyperinflation, anyone with a bit of knowledge in economics would understand.
But if the currency exchange rate rose, it would lead to increased costs for many foreign investors, resulting in a mass withdrawal of foreign capital from Huaxia. For Huaxia, whose infrastructure was still not quite perfect, this was not a good thing.
Therefore, in the currency exchange market, maintaining exchange rates within a stable range was crucial. If significant fluctuations occurred, the nation would inevitably need to invest substantial funds to stabilize market volatility.
Zhang Menglong's ancestors were once the instigators of financial crises by attacking other countries' currency markets.
The most iconic examples of this were in Germany in 1923 and Venezuela in 2018.
At the beginning of 2018, one US Dollar could be exchanged for 10.3 Venezuelan Bolívars, but 11 months later, one US Dollar could exchange for 248,520 Venezuelan Bolívars.
In less than a year, the currency had devalued by tens of thousands of times!
Those who understood this period of history knew that the United States was the perpetrator behind this financial disaster.
Most of Venezuela's foreign exchange reserves were in US Dollars, and their economy was based on oil, which was priced in US Dollars worldwide.
Having offended America due to certain reasons, they faced direct economic sanctions. Unlike Huaxia, which could find roundabout ways to save itself even under sanctions, Venezuela, being a small country with limited foreign exchange reserves, had no choice but to spend its US Dollars!
Consequently, Venezuela's supply of US Dollars soon ran dry. The nation's agriculture and industry couldn't meet the people's needs, and there were no foreign reserves to cover imports.
Afterward, to meet people's needs, Venezuela could only resort to massive printing of money, which temporarily solved the problem, but given the enormous quantity being printed, they even had to ask other European countries and some underground printing facilities for assistance.
However, it must be recognized that the market has its self-regulating abilities. Printing money can save a country in the short term, but once market adjustments catch up, hyperinflation inevitably sets in, with prices soaring by tens of thousands of times. All the money in the world is useless in such a situation!
Eventually, they couldn't even afford the transport fees to bring their money home, their currency's international credibility was lost, it became worthless, and the entire domestic market and national economy were completely dominated by foreign currencies like the US Dollar and Euro.
At that time, all sorts of gold, jewels, antiques, art pieces, and even houses became worthless, with stacks of money lying on the ground uncollected.
At this point, the only valuable thing left was food, because, for Christ's sake, with currency being trash, people couldn't even afford to eat.
With these lessons from history, various countries began to establish specialized organizations to cope with such situations, and nations also provided considerable foreign exchange support to avoid similar circumstances and maintain stability in the currency market.
In the bustling currency exchange market of the Metropolis, hundreds of traders were concentrated; their job was to monitor the currency market every day and respond to any emergent situations.
Until now, even when faced with the biggest financial bombs, these teams have been able to keep fluctuations in exchange rates within a very reasonable range. The most significant impact they have experienced over the years was a single-day fluctuation that did not exceed 1,000 points, or 10%, and in the subsequent period of operation, they immediately reversed this fluctuation to the greatest extent.
The stability of the nation's competitive spirit is inseparable from these elites. Of course, their income is very high. Even some of the junior traders have annual salaries ranging from 500,000 to 800,000. Correspondingly, the industry's threshold is also very high.
"Alright, everyone, perk up. We can't afford to take it easy just because today is a special day. Last Christmas, those international speculators attacked us without any ethics, wiping out 500 points of our exchange rate right from the start. If we hadn't reacted promptly, we might have really been caught off guard!"
"Hahaha, Boss, maybe if you played Honor of Kings a little less, you wouldn't be using such terms."
"Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on it while we eat. There won't be any problems!"
"Yes, the last time that happened was eight or nine years ago. Now that our economic strength is so formidable and our foreign exchange reserves exceed 3.2 trillion US Dollars, which international speculators would dare play with us?"
"Unless their funds are more than double ours, it's impossible for them to shake us."
"Hahaha, exactly! As long as they dare to come, we'll shear a hefty amount of wool off them!"
"Just a reminder for you all, don't capsized in the gutter!"
The traders ate their breakfast while opening up their trading systems. It would be the start of the market in five more minutes.
With the loud sound of the alarm, the traders all switched into work mode, a complete turnaround from their casual and lazy demeanor moments before.
At the other side of the ocean, another group was also in a state of high alert.
This time, they had gathered resources from almost all the financial traders in Europe and America, and a powerful team of thousands was now connected through a special IP address network.
"Has everyone's funds arrived?"
"Relax, they were ready days ago! We've prepared thousands of bank accounts, fully loaded with ammunition!"
"Excellent! We've made ample preparations this time and can play with them slowly. Let's start by sending a greeting, give them some time to react. Even if we lose, we'll make sure they lose convincingly!"
"Though Huaxia's foreign exchange reserves are at 3.2 trillion, this time we've prepared more than ten times their funds. We don't even need to use leverage; we can cripple them just by throwing money!"
"Hahaha, then let our European division take the lead!"
"No matter who it is, according to our agreement, all profits will be distributed based on contribution after the operation."
The head of the European division started to prepare for the attack!
"Let's start with a few large short-sell orders to smash their exchange rate down!!"