Melbourne.
These days, Anthony Johnston deliberately puts aside his work to assist Simon in handling the operations of the Japanese financial market.
In more than two weeks, the North American side successfully completed the cash-out of the technology stock market, and funds from Australia also gradually arrived, with the final scale of funds reaching US$1.57 billion. Among them, Simon's own capital amount is US$500 million, the Johnston family contributes US$100 million, and other Australian capital forces total US$970 million.
Speaking of which, many people in North America have recently wanted to invest, but Simon chose to refuse this time.
More than US$1.5 billion in funding is already a big goal, leading Australian capital to enter the market. Simon believes that the Johnston family will definitely be able to turn this favor into real connections and benefits.
In North America, although Simon has an American identity, he has little connection with the local forces, and it is impossible for both parties to establish a deep friendship just by bringing the other party to make a lot of money.
In fact, Simon had unknowingly come up with the idea of building the Australian gang as his backing. Of course, the Australian gang here is definitely not the Australian filmmakers in Hollywood, but the local capital forces in Australia.
The power structure of the American plutocrats has been established for many years. Simon, an upstart capital man, cannot compete with the established plutocrats after all, and he has no idea of being attached to any side.
Therefore, if he wants to ensure that the industry under his name can continue to expand, Simon must have more chips.
In the confrontation between capitals, the bargaining chip is still capital after all.
Australia's current economy is still small, but it is still a country.
Simon has brought together Australian capital forces through interest relationships, and the chaebol power formed is absolutely no less powerful than any established consortium in the United States. Moreover, as long as it is operated properly, Simon can even gain the dominant position of Australian capital forces.
Now that he wants to formalize his operations, Simon also officially registered a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands.
Compared with onshore funds that need to pay taxes on time every year, the biggest advantage of offshore hedge funds is that as long as the funds are not transferred back to the country, they do not need to pay high capital gains taxes. Fund holders can repeatedly use the funds that should be used as tax returns. Use the funds to carry out capital operations.
Although it is not intended to operate for a long time, the fund always needs a name.
Simon once again channeled "Game of Thrones" and named the hedge fund Cersei-Capital, codenamed "Bad Woman." Moreover, like Daenerys Entertainment and Melisandre Corporation, Cersei Capital also uses Westeros Corporation as its controlling parent company.
The entire US$1.57 billion cannot be concentrated under the name of one fund. Simon has established five sub-funds controlled by Cersei Capital. The capital size of each sub-fund is approximately US$300 million.
Affected by a series of other hot-button events such as the Wall Street Journal article at the beginning of the month and Simon's own statements, transactions in the Japanese financial market were very active in February. As a result, Simon quickly completed the preliminary layout after receiving the funds.
As of the last trading day of the week on February 17, five sub-funds controlled by Cersei Capital have established long Nikkei 225 Index futures contracts with a total value of approximately US$7 billion in two major exchanges in Singapore and Osaka.
Simon is very clear about his own advantages. What he can judge more accurately is only the macro trend of Japan's economy.
The average opening points of this batch of stock index futures contracts are approximately between 32,200 points and 32,700 points.
If Cersei Capital can maintain a long position of about US$7 billion in the next few months, when the Nikkei 225 index reaches the 37,000 point where Simon plans to leave the market, this investment alone can bring in profits of US$1 billion.
The long contracts with a total value of US$7 billion only used less than half of Cersei Capital's funds in terms of margin. The volume of Nikkei 225 Index futures is ultimately limited, although the two major exchanges in Singapore and Osaka still do not have strict requirements at this time. There is a position limit, but due to the lack of takers, Simon cannot increase his position without limit.
With the remaining funds, Simon began to let the trading teams of the five sub-funds operate freely. Japanese stocks, government bond futures, stock index options and even other major capital markets in Asia that are also booming are the hunting targets of Cersei Capital.
Just this past week, Cersei Capital’s trading team successfully completed a beautiful Japanese government bond futures operation.
As a series of news in early February stimulated the rapid rise of the Japanese stock market, people from all walks of life speculated that the Bank of Japan would have to introduce an interest rate hike policy as soon as possible to curb excessive speculation in the market.
Typically, when interest rates rise, government bond prices fall, and hedge funds can reap huge returns if they take advantage of short selling opportunities.
Simon remembered, however, that the Bank of Japan belatedly announced its first interest rate hike in several years until May. At that time, Japan's stock and property markets had already missed the best opportunity to prevent market collapse through tightening policies.
Even if history has changed, Simon doesn't think the Japanese government will announce a rate hike three months in advance.
The news of mere speculation caused market shocks. All sectors of Japan, which have been immersed in the phantom of Japan's economic prosperity, do not want to break this situation as a last resort.
Based on this judgment, Cersei Capital's trading team began to establish Japanese government bond futures positions with a total value of US$6 billion last week, half of which were long and half short.
The margin ratio for government bonds only requires 3%, which is about 33 times leverage.
As news spread that the Bank of Japan was about to raise interest rates, Japanese government bond futures fell at the beginning of the week, and trading teams promptly closed short positions before Wednesday.
Then, on Thursday morning, a spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Finance publicly clarified that the Bank of Japan has no intention to introduce an interest rate increase plan in the near future.
Japanese government bond futures rose in response.
Simon was not greedy for long and asked the trading teams of each sub-fund to close all long positions before Friday.
The volatility of government bond futures is usually very small, which is why investment leverage can exceed 30 times. However, this week, Cersei Capital still successfully earned US$36 million.
Speaking of which, this operation actually used some inside information, otherwise Cersei Capital would not have been able to accurately close the short position before Thursday.
Japan's rapid economic rise in recent years, especially the development of its real estate industry, has led to a substantial increase in its demand for various mining resources. Australia happens to be a country rich in mining resources.
Therefore, the economies of Japan and Australia have been very closely linked over the years, as have the political and business circles. The Johnston family has a large subsidiary in Japan, which is managed by Janet's second brother Norman Johnston.
The Ministry of Finance of Japan will issue clarification on Thursday, which was reported by Norman Johnston who was on a business trip in Tokyo recently.
Simon felt no guilt about this, nor was he worried about being discovered.
Many well-known hedge funds in my memory have invited a large number of politicians to join the company's board of directors. For example, the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who is still in office, joined the famous Tiger Fund in the 1990s.
Probably no one is naive enough to think that these hedge funds invite politicians to join them for investment advice.
On the other hand, affected by rumors of interest rate hikes, the Japanese stock market also fell into turmoil this week, falling 236 points on Monday's opening day.
As of the close on February 17, the Nikkei 225 Index only rose slightly by 76 points to 38,897 points compared with the 38,821 points at the close last Friday. Compared with the huge gains through the operation of Japanese government bond futures, the long stock index futures held by Cersei Capital only made a book profit of US$13.71 million this week.
Saturday, February 18th.
Because most of the stories of "Batman" take place at night, yesterday was still a night shoot.
This situation will probably last until mid-March, and the last few weeks will be studio shooting, so Simon will no longer need to juggle day and night.
Melbourne does not have a professional studio like the major studios in Los Angeles. During this period, the production and props team has been using a large factory building in an abandoned factory in the western suburbs of Melbourne to build the "Batcave" and other film-related sets.
Although it was the weekend, during this period, an extra three hours of work were added to the workload every day to take care of Cersei Capital, but the habit had been formed, and Simon still only slept for five hours before waking up on time.
Breakfast was with Anthony Johnston.
Out of caution, the meal took place not at the Kendall Hotel restaurant, but at a nearby cafe that served breakfast.
Simon does not expect the operations of Cersei Capital to be kept absolutely confidential. He only hopes that the news can be controlled within a certain range as much as possible. However, because Simon's record in 1987 was so brilliant, the people staring at him this time are also all-pervasive.
The most important job of Anthony Johnston, who temporarily put aside other things to cooperate with Simon in running Cersei Capital, is to help improve confidentiality measures. For this purpose, the team also hired a retired official from the Australian National Security Department as a consultant.
The phones in the Simon Hotel suite have now been converted into encrypted lines, and the daily meetings to discuss investment strategies with various sub-fund managers and analyst teams are not in the hotel, but in the tightly secured headquarters building of Johnston Holdings Group in downtown Melbourne.
Even, in order to avoid leaking Cersei Capital’s various investment holdings, the five sub-fund teams do not know who each other is.
Anthony also told Simon privately that he privately arranged for people to monitor each team, and would eliminate them as soon as any insiders were discovered.
Involving the operation of a fund of more than one billion US dollars and a considerable amount of expected returns, this kind of strict caution is not excessive. Simon is very satisfied with Anthony's arrangement. At least, regular anti-eavesdropping tests can allow him to Don't worry about bugs appearing in your room again.
Simon's scalp tingled every time he thought about the incident at the Manhattan Plaza Hotel.
There were not many people in the cafe on weekend mornings. Simon and Anthony sat in the corner by the window, and two bodyguards sat nearby to block outsiders from approaching.
After a few casual chats, Anthony mentioned Cersei Capital's 'meager' gains in the stock index futures market last week. He felt that Simon was a little too conservative.
Simon took a sip of juice, put down the cup and explained: "Tony, you must have seen my operation on the S&P 500 index futures. Just like last time, I was betting on a macro trend. As long as the Japanese stock market continues to rise, If this continues, our position in the Nikkei 225 Index futures will be able to obtain very stable and generous returns. As for government bond futures and other aspects, there are too many variables. We made a profit last week, but we may lose it all next week. In It seems to me that many of the best hedge funds are driven by this impulse to get more and have actually reduced their profitability."
Anthony Johnston had learned from Simon about his goal.
Compared with the one in 1987, Simon's goal for this operation can be said to be very low. He only hopes that Cersei Capital's funds can be doubled before the Japanese market turns. He will never ask for more. After chasing the rise, Simon was satisfied with making some profits during the sell-off process to pay taxes and commissions for the trading team.
If the Japanese stock market can maintain the same trend as in the original time and space, and Simon completes the operation here, he can just turn his attention to the crude oil futures market.
Of course, Simon also knows that because of the influence of his big butterfly, it is unrealistic to have such expectations now. However, he still firmly locked the peak of the Japanese market at around 38,000 points, and planned to exit from 37,000 points.
Maybe it will collapse early this time, or it may unexpectedly break through 40,000 points.
but.
In any case, Simon will suppress his fear of premature collapse and his greed for a higher market, and insist on locking in his goals.
Similarly, because he understands his true strength, Simon will not adopt too risky investment strategies. He has already planned to invest as much excess funds as possible in the Japanese stock market.
Compared with the ever-changing financial derivatives market, the risk of directly speculating on stocks is very low. There is still at least half a year of bull market cycle, which is enough to ensure that Cersei Capital will receive very generous returns.
Anthony Johnston had actually been warned by his father not to interfere with Simon's decision in a smart way. He only needed to ensure that Simon could complete this operation without distraction.
After listening to Simon's explanation, Anthony stopped at the right time, smiled and said: "Okay, Simon. Your birthday is coming soon, and you have to celebrate it. Do you plan to make the arrangements yourself, or should I do it? Oh, Jenny, these two days Probably coming over soon."
Simon was not polite and said: "Tony, I'm sorry to bother you. I will give the crew a day off next Wednesday, and you will decide the guest list."
Anthony nodded and said, "In that case, let's just stay at the mansion in the suburbs. I'll start preparing for the party tomorrow."
The two chatted like this, and after breakfast, Simon returned to the hotel.
As usual, Jennifer prepared a stack of documents that Simon needed to review.
Leaning back on the leather chair, Simon was really surprised to see Nancy Brill's plan for Blockbuster's data analysis team and movie data database. He didn't expect that this woman had already proposed the concept of 'big data' so presciently before the Internet era.
The movie information database, if you add the Internet, is obviously IMDB (Internet-Movie-Database). Amazon acquired IMDB for online sales of DVDs and videotapes, and Netflix used the concept of big data to establish its dominant position in streaming media.
Now, some little woman brought out both concepts at once.