Chapter 632: Closing the Door on the Dogs!

Due to the Fed’s rate hike, gold prices at retail stores in New York, Chicago, and other locations, as well as in the futures markets, have taken a significant hit. However, the New York gold futures market has been hit the hardest.

The biggest factor affecting gold prices here wasn’t Li Yi, but William and his crew!

In order to take down Li Yi, they frantically bought 650,000 contracts of gold futures in just a few short hours.

Since gold futures in New York are traded in lots of 100 ounces, simply put, if the gold futures contracts held by William and his group were actually delivered, they would amount to over 1,800 tons of gold.

Keep in mind that under normal circumstances, the entire New York gold futures market sees a daily trading volume of only about 70 tons.

If they had held their positions without acting, the gold price in New York might have stabilized—at the very least, it wouldn’t have experienced significant fluctuations in the absence of other negative news.

However, as a top-tier financial predator, William knew full well that once the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, it wouldn’t be over anytime soon.

After all, their goal is to attract U.S. dollars back into the market. One or two rounds of rate hikes aren’t particularly appealing to global investors, so the Fed will likely need to raise rates eight to ten times to achieve its objective.

And during the Fed’s rate-hiking cycle, the price of gold will absolutely not rise against the headwinds; it will only fall further.

So, no matter how much you’ve lost, you’ll just have to grit your teeth and bear it—you must exit the market as soon as possible.

And to exit the market, one must cut losses; otherwise, it would be impossible to offload the 650,000 gold futures contracts currently held.

Consequently, when a massive volume of low-priced futures contracts flooded the market, the confidence of gold speculators in New York was completely shattered.

At the close of trading on November 8, in Chicago—the nation’s first gold futures market—the price of gold stood at $590, down just $9 per ounce from the previous day’s close.

In New York, however, the price had plummeted to $585—a full $5 lower than in Chicago.

Wow, that price drop was no small matter.

Keep in mind that in the gold futures market, price movements are calculated in increments of $0.10. While prices may vary slightly across different markets, the difference is usually no more than $0.50—let alone $5!

This shows just how much influence William and his team have on the New York gold futures market!

Fortunately, their influence is currently working in Li Yi’s favor—after all, the faster the price drops, the greater their profits.

Take this moment, for example: when the market closed and the price on the New York gold futures market settled at $585, the massive team surrounding Li Yi erupted in a deafening cheer.

Compared to the entry price of $596, the current price had plummeted by a full $11.

And for every dollar the price dropped, Li Yi made a profit of $17 million. In other words, in just a single day, Li Yi’s profits reached $187 million.

Consequently, upon returning to the Green Brothers’ estate, Li Yi immediately had a large supply of fine wine and gourmet food delivered to the estate to reward his team members.

………..

Hong Kong Island!

While Li Yi and his companions were enjoying a pleasant dinner at their Manhattan estate, it was already the early hours of the next morning in Hong Kong.

By this time, many people in Hong Kong Island were getting restless!

Like Li Yi, Li Futiao had also experienced a harrowing day yesterday.

Just as they were busy crashing the market, the British-funded conglomerates could no longer sit idly by. To avoid massive losses after the gold market crashed, they stepped forward one after another to publicly challenge Li Futao and Starry Sky Company.

Li Yi enlisted the South China Evening News as his mouthpiece, while the British-funded conglomerate mobilized several other major newspapers to tout the resilience of gold prices.

They even had the Governor step forward to deliver a speech, stating that international gold prices were stable and that a sharp price drop was impossible.

At the same time, the Governor urged the public to remain rational and not be exploited by those with ulterior motives seeking to destabilize Hong Kong’s economy.

Of course, these superficial measures alone were useless. After all, the public investing in gold had put real money on the line, and no one dared to gamble with their life savings.

Consequently, faced with investors determined to exit the market, the British-owned conglomerates had no choice but to keep pouring money in to stabilize the market!

If no one stepped in to prop up the market, the public’s gold futures contracts would be unsellable, inevitably triggering a chain reaction—at which point the market would likely collapse outright.

At that point, the gold futures contracts and physical gold held by the British-funded group would suffer a massive devaluation—a scenario the group certainly did not want to see.

Thanks to the British-backed group’s all-out efforts to prop up the market—injecting 600 million Hong Kong dollars in just half a day—while trading volume in Hong Kong’s gold market surged yesterday, gold prices remained largely unaffected.

Not only did it not drop at all, but it actually rose ever so slightly.

In light of this, after the market closed, the British-funded group once again publicly criticized Li Futao and Star Company on television, accusing them of spreading falsehoods, colluding with criminals, and harboring ulterior motives—they were practically pointing their fingers at Li Futao and calling him a traitor to Hong Kong!

Compared to the Li family, the situation at Star Company was even worse.

Incited by certain individuals with ulterior motives, a large crowd gathered at the base of Yuanhua Tower, where Star Company was located, surrounding and hurling abuse at the employees, which disrupted their normal work to some extent.

Fortunately, Huang Lixing had been prepared and had Yan Guangming bring a large contingent of security personnel to the scene to maintain order, which kept the crowd from going too far.

Although these incidents didn’t have a major impact on Li Futiao, he still felt somewhat frustrated after reading the newspaper reports and watching the news on TV.

So he got up early this morning and had someone contact Li Yi in New York to inquire about the situation.

Soon, a reply came from New York.

Upon reading the message Li Yi had sent him, Li Futiao immediately burst into a delighted laugh.

He then followed Li Yi’s instructions and immediately had someone contact the Nanhua Evening News to arrange for a special edition to be printed.

At the same time, he personally called Li Jiuying.

First, he informed Li Jiuying of the sharp drop in gold prices in New York, Chicago, and other locations, and at the same time conveyed Li Yi’s orders: he wanted all of the Li family’s gold shops on Hong Kong Island to immediately adjust their gold prices and post the reasons for the price reduction at the entrances of their stores.

Li Futiao understood that Li Yi was doing this to prevent the British-funded conglomerates from exploiting the information gap to dump large quantities of gold financial products after the market opened today, thereby minimizing their losses.

Put simply, he intended to completely block the British-funded groups’ escape route, forcing them to become the ultimate scapegoats and fall guys in this gold price crash.

In Li Yi’s words, this was called “trapping the dog inside the house”!

Since both sides had already burned their bridges, there was no need to hold back.

Having realized this, Li Futiao sprang into action. He immediately mobilized all the business elites in the Chinese-funded circle of the Far East Association to spread the news of the falling international gold price.

He believed that Hong Kong Island was a small place; as long as he moved fast enough, he should be able to get the news to those investors before the British-funded group’s bunch of foreigners could act.

As long as no one stepped in to take the fall for the British-owned group, this wouldn’t just be a minor setback for them—who knows how many people within that tight-knit circle would end up losing everything.

Just as Li Futao was busy mobilizing his network to make the news of the international gold price crash public, the British-owned group had already received word from William and his associates about the Federal Reserve’s rate hike and the resulting slight dip in international gold prices.

Perhaps feeling uneasy about having the British Capital Group shoulder the vast majority of the losses, William included a warning in his telegram to Hong Kong Island, addressing the Duke, Smith, and others. He stated that the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes would continue indefinitely and that the plunge in international gold prices was virtually unstoppable, urging them to prepare in advance.

Upon hearing this bad news, Smith and the others were stunned.

In their panic, they immediately adjusted their strategy, deciding to take advantage of the fact that the people of Hong Kong Island hadn’t yet reacted. They planned to begin a massive sell-off of their gold and related financial products at first light, in an effort to minimize their losses as much as possible.

But what they didn’t know was that Li Yi and Li Futiao had already blocked off their last escape route…

……….