Chapter 622: The Tide Has Turned!

New York Gold Futures Market!

As the largest gold trading market in the United States, the trading volume here is staggering.

At peak times, this single futures market alone sees 70 tons of gold traded daily.

Of course, this figure refers only to the volume of gold futures contracts traded; it does not mean that this much physical gold is actually being shuffled back and forth here every day.

With business elites and speculators from all over the world participating in gold trading, coupled with the Reagan administration’s 1974 repeal of the ban on private gold ownership and trading, the New York gold market has developed rapidly in recent years and grown in scale.

And this is precisely why Li Yi chose to come to New York rather than Chicago or London!

As it turned out, Li Yi’s choice was the right one.

Spurred by his successive price cuts, a massive volume of gold futures contracts was quickly traded!

At 2:30 p.m., with only half an hour left before the market closed, the good news arrived: all 166,900 gold futures contracts in Li Yi’s portfolio had been sold, bringing in a total of $9.952 billion.

Based on the funds recovered, the average selling price was approximately $596.

Meanwhile, today’s New York gold market set a new all-time trading volume record—$12.2 billion.

Due to the massive influx of gold futures contracts into the market, gold prices in the New York market were significantly impacted, dropping from $599 at the opening to $593 per ounce.

Excluding the price increase resulting from the buyback, if Li Yi were to repurchase the contracts for delivery now, he would make a profit of $3 per ounce of gold; 169,000 contracts would yield a profit of nearly $50 million.

However, this does not account for standard expenses, such as transaction fees.

Although the commission for a single contract of U.S. gold futures is only a little over $100, 169,000 contracts amount to nearly $17 million.

So, when all is said and done, Li Yi’s investment in this venture yields a paper profit of $34 million.

Even so, none of the team members—including Billy and George—were particularly optimistic about Li Yi.

After all, this involved nearly $10 billion in futures contracts—a staggering sum even by the standards of the New York gold market.

Under normal circumstances, pouring that many futures contracts into the market would drive the price down by at least $10.

But now it has only dropped by $6, which indicates that the gold market remains resilient.

As soon as the market reacts tomorrow and absorbs these 169,000 futures contracts, the price is bound to rebound.

By then, these meager, paper profits won’t stand a chance against the market’s momentum.

As long as the international gold price reaches $596 per ounce, Li Yi and his team will incur a small loss. After all, in addition to the actual gold price, they must pay transaction fees and other taxes to the exchange, plus capital usage fees and so on—so even if they break even, it’s still a small loss.

If the price breaks through $596 per ounce, every $1 increase would cost Li Yi and his team $17 million.

They have set aside $2 billion in margin for this trade. Without additional capital injections, Li Yi would face a margin call the moment the gold price hits $720.

So, whether this investment will turn a profit or a loss is still hard to say at this point!

However, unlike Billy and the others, Li Yi remained calm.

After the trade closed, he didn’t rush back but instead asked Billy, George, and the others to accompany him on a tour of the largest gold trading market in the United States.

The full name of the New York Gold Futures Market is the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), so the commodities traded here include not only gold but also corn, soybeans, and other commodities.

The main reason people often refer to this market as the “gold futures market” is that gold futures trading here is the most famous and frequent.

With the market about to close, investors were particularly active at this hour.

Upon entering the trading floor, buyers and sellers could be seen calling out prices everywhere.

The New York Mercantile Exchange itself does not participate in futures trading; it merely provides a venue and facilities, and establishes regulations to ensure that transactions between buyers and sellers are conducted under the principles of openness and fairness.

Therefore, all gold traded in New York must be settled here through open outcry, giving every buyer and seller the opportunity to execute trades at the best possible price.

Li Yi found this primitive method of open outcry trading quite astonishing; he stood there watching for a good half hour, only stopping when the close of trading was announced.

By the time they left the trading floor, it was nearly 4:00 p.m.

Although Li Yi really wanted to take a stroll through downtown New York, he abandoned the idea to prevent his team members from coming into contact with unnecessary people.

He then led the entire team straight to the Green brothers’ estate.

By the time they returned to the Green Brothers’ estate, it was nearly 5:30 p.m.

Due to jet lag, Li Yi was extremely sleepy, but instead of rushing to rest, he had Li Yunbao immediately contact Li Futiao to inform him that it was time to move.

……….

Hong Kong Island. Li Family Estate!

Before six in the morning, Li Futiao was already up.

When the butler, Uncle Fu, saw this, he was startled, thinking something must have happened, and immediately came over to ask what was going on.

You have to understand that my husband usually follows a very regular routine; he typically gets up at 7:30 in the morning and doesn’t head to the office until 9:00.

Getting up this early has hardly ever happened in all these years!

The reason Li Futiao got up so early was that he was waiting for news from New York.

He knew that the New York gold market closed at 3:00 p.m., which meant that by 3:00 p.m., they would know whether Li Yi’s plan had gone smoothly.

If things went smoothly over there, they could proceed with their plan to dump shares here.

Therefore, he had agreed with Li Yi to receive a definitive update after 5:00 p.m., regardless of the situation in New York.

Just as Li Futiao was deep in thought, his secretary rushed in, holding a telegram in his hand.

“Sir, an urgent telegram from the young master!”

Li Futiao immediately stood up from the sofa, took the telegram from his secretary, and began reading it intently.

After just a few glances, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing, exclaiming happily, “Brother Li Yi truly lives up to his reputation as an investment genius. Impressive—truly impressive!”

After finishing the telegram, he immediately turned to his secretary and said, “Call Editor-in-Chief Liu at the Nanhua Evening News right away and tell him we’re ready to move forward!”

“Yes, sir!”

“The Hong Kong Island Business News wants to interview me, right? Go tell them I’ll have an hour after 9 a.m. Have their people come directly to the company to wait for me!” Li Futiao added.

“Alright, I’ll call the TV station right away!” the secretary replied respectfully.

“Also call the weekly and biweekly magazines—tell them the product is ready for market!”

“Yes…”

With Li Futao’s string of orders, the situation in Hong Kong suddenly took a dramatic turn…

……..