Chapter 339: Chapter 328 Shorting Greenbacks/Japanese Yen Chapter 339: Chapter 328 Shorting Greenbacks/Japanese Yen Lu Jiaxin opened foreign exchange accounts with HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Worldwide Precious Metals at three banks, originally wanting to disperse risks, but later figured that with her modest capital, it was entirely unnecessary.
After selling off her stocks, Lu Jiaxin converted all her money into greenbacks, a total of thirty million. She had the best impression of the manager at HSBC, so she deposited all her money into this account.
After transferring the bulk of her funds into her HSBC foreign exchange account, only one point six million Hong Kong Dollars remained in Jiaxin’s commonly used account. However, her largest monthly expense was rent, which had already been paid for a year, and the rest was living expenses and the bodyguards’ salaries, which could last her for most of a year.
Wu Ziyue was astounded when he heard her request, “Leveraging thirty times to short the greenbacks/Japanese Yen, Miss Lu, if you short thirty times, just a 3% rise in the exchange rate will blow up your position, and you will lose everything.”
Over the past half a year, Lu Jiaxin also had him help with foreign exchange speculation, but there were only six hundred thousand greenbacks in the account. There were losses and gains, but it roughly broke even over six months. Suddenly speculating with such a large sum and with such high leverage, he genuinely felt overwhelmed.
Lu Jiaxin said, “Speculating in foreign exchange is basically gambling, so I might as well gamble big. Manager Wu, if you can’t do this deal, then I’ll go to another bank.”
Wu Ziyue still tried to dissuade her earnestly, saying that even if she wanted to speculate on greenbacks/Japanese Yen, she couldn’t use such high leverage; ten times was already very high. But no matter what, Lu Jiaxin would not be swayed.
Lu Jiaxin knew he meant well, and after thinking it over, she said, “Manager Wu, I know you’re doing this for my benefit. However, if I dare to buy , I have my reasons. Please place the order for me!”
She actually wanted to leverage fifty times, but she knew that the bank would not approve such high leverage. She had to settle for the next best thing, leveraging thirty times.
Wu Ziyue looked at her questioningly, “Miss Lu, could it be that you’ve received some news, predicting that the greenbacks/Japanese Yen will fall?”
Lu Jiaxin smiled and then said, “Manager Wu, I remember you have a confidentiality agreement, and I need to sign one. This matter cannot be known by a third party, apart from you and me.”
Wu Ziyue confirmed that there indeed was a confidentiality agreement, “Miss Lu, whether you profit or lose from this deal, with such high leverage, I need to apply to the chief. But rest assured, HSBC has never leaked a customer’s information in all these years.”
“Then go and ask your general manager!”
More than ten minutes later, Wu Ziyue came back, indicating that the chief had agreed to the loan. However, when Lu Jiaxin was about to sign, Wu Ziyue stopped her again, “Miss Lu, you have to think this through. Thirty million greenbacks, if your position is blown, you won’t have a cent left.”
Lu Jiaxin said with a smile, “I studied finance, I know the consequences of what I’m doing.”
Having said that, she signed the contract without any hesitation. After racking her brains, she finally remembered a friend mentioning the Plaza Accord, jokingly saying that it was signed on a Sunday and wondered if they got paid overtime for that.
Lu Jiaxin checked and found that the Plaza Accord was signed on the 22nd, and the market was closed on weekends. After some thought, she picked the following day, the 23rd, to start. From that day the greenbacks/Japanese Yen started to fall, plummeting nearly threefold by the mid-nineties. America achieved its aim to change the trade deficit; the Island Country, however, due to a massive influx of external funds, had created an economic bubble, and when the bubble burst, the economy was mired in long-term stagnation, even recession.
Having signed the contract, Lu Jiaxin left the bank with a smile on her face.
Wu Ziyue, seeing her relaxed demeanor, became even more certain that she had received insider information. After much deliberation, he still reported the matter to the HSBC Chief, but the HSBC Chief thought Lu Jiaxin was foolish to risk her entire fortune on unverified information.
The weather turned cooler, and Lu Jiaxin needed to buy new clothes and socks. Unexpectedly, while shopping, she encountered He Mingzhu, who hadn’t changed much from before.
Lu Jiaxin took the initiative to greet, “Sister Mingzhu.”
Before, when He Mingzhu had taken away the video recording and written documents, Jiaxin thought there would be some action, but it remained quiet. She wasn’t sure if it was a lack of courage to resist or that the time hadn’t come yet.
He Mingzhu noticed that Lu Jiaxin had become more beautiful after not seeing her for a while, wondering if it was because of the nourishment of love, “Why are you shopping alone, isn’t Young Master Nie accompanying you?”
Jiaxin smiled and said, “He’s busy with work, he can’t always be with me, and I also need my own personal time.”
She had already rented a house near the school and had hired three professional teachers to give her lessons. She was keeping up with the school curriculum, so she wanted to accelerate her progress and aimed to finish next semester’s courses early. It was not easy to get accepted into the school, and while she did not aim to be on the honor roll, at the very least she couldn’t fail.
He Mingzhu felt she was very clear-headed, lamenting that they hadn’t had many encounters before to discover this, “How has Fourth Great Aunt been recently, is her health alright?”
Lu Jiaxin politely indicated she was quite healthy, “It’s just that she suddenly said she wanted to go back to the Magic Capital and no amount of persuasion could change her mind. I had no choice but to agree.”
In this matter, Jiaxin felt it would end up leading nowhere in the end.
He Mingzhu expressed her concern, “There have been a lot of things happening at home lately, and I can’t get away. Going to the Mainland, can her body handle it?”
Jiaxin scoffed at this excuse internally. It wasn’t as if they were separated by thousands of miles; being in Hong Kong, it took less than an hour to drive, so no matter how busy one was, they couldn’t lack this little time. It was clear that she didn’t take Aunt Grandma seriously or truly care about her. Aunt Grandma’s praise was just like choosing the tallest among the short.
Internally she might disdain it, but her face didn’t show it.
Jiaxin feigned helplessness and said, “Naturally, the doctor advises against going to the Magic Capital, but she’s been throwing a fuss. Sigh, old children are like actual children when they get old.”
He Mingzhu said, “I’ll go visit Fourth Great Aunt later.”
Jiaxin shopped until twelve o’clock, and then she went to the restaurant where she had a reservation, only to find that Wang Yadan was the one who had come. Seeing her, Jiaxin knew this date was ruined again.
Wang Yadan had come specifically to find her, “Miss Lu, the Old Residence called the boss ten minutes ago to say that the Chairman had fallen. The boss rushed over because he was worried.”
Old Master Nie was now over seventy years old. People of Hong Kong who were wealthy generally lived long lives, many being fit and healthy at this age, so it was unclear why his health was so poor.
After nodding, Jiaxin asked, “Sister Dan, haven’t had lunch yet? Sit down and let’s eat together. If you’re free in the afternoon, we can go shopping together after we eat.”
“Okay,” Wang Yadan agreed readily.
While waiting for the dishes, Wang Yadan said with a smile, “After the boss came back from vacation, many people asked me if he was dating someone. They even inquired about the identity of the lady, but that’s something I couldn’t tell them. The boss even bought the photos snapped by the paparazzi just so they wouldn’t affect you.”
Jiaxin had already guessed that Nie Zhan had suppressed the news. Otherwise, when Nie Zhan came to pick her up at school and got caught by the gossip magazines, it would’ve been a bigger story. Now, as the two of them dated and met more frequently, it was impossible for the paparazzi not to catch any activity. But since Nie Zhan didn’t mention it, she pretended not to know as well.