Chapter 236

Simon arrived at Johnston's estate on the Yarra River outside Melbourne near noon.

The morning call was from Anthony Johnston, but only Raymond Johnston and his wife had dinner together. Simon has been here more than once during this period. Janet's parents have treated him as their son-in-law, and they have long since been estranged from each other.

After lunch, Raymond Johnston took Simon to his study.

They sat down on the sofa near the window of the study. The maid delivered coffee and left. Raymond Johnston opened the door and said, "Simon, I know you're very busy, so I won't talk any more. Can you bring more money with you this time? "

Before Simon came, he roughly guessed the old man's intention and said, "yes. However, ray, because of the events in recent days, I can't see the situation clearly and can't give any guarantee. Therefore, it's better to use only surplus funds here, not to affect the normal operation of the company, and not to blindly raise funds through loans. "

Raymond Johnston was a little surprised by Simon's words, but then he said with a smile, "of course I understand. Simon, I'm surprised that you can be so sober."

Simon also smiles and says: "the development space in the fields of entertainment, technology and fashion is already very broad. I don't intend to spend too much effort on the financial market. This time, I just feel that the time is right. It doesn't matter how much I want to raise some funds, so I won't make a heavy bet."

Raymond Johnston nodded and asked, "well, how sure are you now?"

Simon thought for a moment and said, "there should be no problem in making profits. Moreover, the various restrictive measures introduced by the Japanese government after the 87 stock market disaster have ensured that the financial market will not rise or fall sharply in the short term. Even if the market turns, we can withdraw in time."

Japan's stock market and futures market now have strict price limits. It is impossible for Simon to copy the miracle of S & P 500 index futures in 1987 on Nikkei 225 index futures. At the same time, these restrictions also mean that if the market trend changes, as long as the timely exit, investors will not suffer too much loss.

Raymond Johnston was very satisfied with Simon's unconscious use of the word "we". However, he restrained his expression and said, "actually, Simon, not only me, but also some business partners want to give you some money to help with the operation."

Just in the preparation stage of Batman, Simon has already felt the deep-rooted strong influence of Johnston family in Australia. Some of the social parties held in Johnston's mansion clearly showed Simon a big net.

In order to maintain such a huge network of contacts, besides friendship, interests are obviously the most solid link.

Simon has never thought of breaking up with Janet, and Janet's attitude is obviously even more so. Therefore, Simon is bound with the Johnston family. He enjoys the benefits of this network in the process of preparing for Batman, and naturally needs to help maintain it.

But as soon as he nodded, Simon thought of another thing and asked, "ray, how much is this money?"

Raymond Johnston said: "you have to agree to count, but it should be no less than a $1.5 billion."

Simon was startled.

Living in Australia, Simon knows that the exchange rate of Australian dollar to us dollar is about 1:0.7 recently. A $1.5 billion, equivalent to $1 billion, is twice the amount Simon had planned to spend.

At the end of the 1980s, 10 billion level hedge funds did not exist at all.

After being hit hard by the 87 stock market crash, Soros's Quantum Fund has been less than US $2 billion in size in the past two years, which is already the top giant in the industry. More hedge funds only exist at the level of tens of millions.

If Raymond Johnston only takes out a $300 million and a $500 million, Simon can nod his head directly, but if he jumps to the level of 1 billion, he will not dare to take it rashly.

"Too much, ray. I'm not going to run a big hedge fund."

Simon's understanding of the financial market is limited to the knowledge accumulated by the operation in 1987 and the macro-economic trend in his mind.

For small-scale capital operation, he can invest all his chips in the field of financial derivatives such as stock index futures according to the information he has. Involving billions of dollars of capital operation, a single financial product is certainly unable to carry it. However, he knows little about foreign exchange, bonds and other fields, and now he has no time to learn these.

"I probably understand your scruples, Simon," Raymond Johnston said, "but the commander of an army doesn't need to have superb riding skills or be a marksman. All he has to do is to use his own strategy to command thousands of soldiers who are proficient in these skills to win a war. Now the same is true of the problems you are facing. You have the foresight and overall outlook that others can't match. As for the specific and subtle things, you can completely find other people to complete them. "

When Simon heard Raymond Johnston's words, he immediately understood where Janet's character came from.With a smile on his lips, Simon said, "but ray, I can't find anyone who is trustworthy and capable of operating this fund in a short time. James can only help me focus on the existing trading team. He doesn't know much about this than me."

Raymond Johnston said, "as long as you nod, I can recommend some people to you."

In the 1980s, Australia's economy was still very small, but with the Johnston family background, it was obviously not a problem to find some reliable financial talents.

Simon leaned back on the sofa, pondering in his mind.

With this $1 billion, Simon needs to control $1.5 billion.

The larger the volume of hedge funds, the more difficult it is to achieve too high profit margins, which is the disadvantage of accepting external funds.

However, although he did not talk about the Commission issue, Simon could not help manage it for free with such a sum of money. The fees charged by hedge funds are very high. The usual practice is 2% management fee and 20% revenue share. With Simon's current appeal, he can even further increase the commission ratio.

In any case, it's very exciting to have a huge amount of money of more than one billion US dollars to maneuver in the financial market.

As for success or failure.

In memory of an argument to describe, the Japanese stock market is now a tuyere, as long as the right direction, pigs can fly.

What's more, Simon is not afraid of failure in his heart.

Simon doesn't think he can't run a hedge fund as a layman. There are many laymen in this circle. In contrast, the real experts are all working for others. As Raymond Johnston just said, professional things are left to professional people, and they only need to control the overall situation.

In terms of timing, the time difference between Melbourne and Tokyo is only one hour. During this time, when filming Batman in Australia, Simon can pay attention to the trend of Japanese stock market at any time.

If Japan's stock market develops according to Simon's memory, it will not reach its peak until the end of the year and turn to decline.

Simon plans to relax for a while after finishing Batman and let go of the company as much as possible, at least not as busy as he is now. At that time, he can also spare more time to continue to focus on the follow-up operation of the money.

Simon made up his mind and looked up at Raymond Johnston.

Raymond Johnston didn't disturb Simon's thinking just now. Realizing that he had made a decision, the old man put down his coffee cup and looked over.

After rearranging his thoughts, Simon said, "ray, our own funds can be pooled together. But for outsiders, if they want to join in, my condition is that if the profit is less than 30%, I only charge 20% of the income as a commission. If the profit exceeds 30%, then the Commission proportion will increase to 30% for the part between 30% and 100%; if the profit exceeds 100%, I will ask for 50% commission. Unlike other long-term hedge funds, the operation of the Japanese market is one-time, maybe one year, maybe two years. As long as this is over, I will choose the right time to liquidate all the funds to investors. "

The impression that hedge funds give to ordinary people often means huge profits.

But in fact, the goal of most hedge funds is just to beat the market. Few funds have an annual interest rate of more than 30%.

Raymond Johnston knew about this, so he was not surprised by Simon's offer. He even took it for granted.

A $1.5 billion, let alone a profit of more than 100%, even if it can double in the next year or two, everyone will be satisfied.

In fact, the net profit of the whole Johnston holding group last year was less than a $200 million. This time, the annual profit scale of other investors behind the scenes is probably the same.

The normal investment means, can harvest 20% 30% return a year already very good.

If it can be doubled, in fact, it will be equivalent to a year's profit for everyone. In this case, no one would be reluctant to pay a higher commission.

As for profits exceeding 100%, Raymond Johnston doesn't have any expectations. He also knows that the larger the scale of hedge funds, the more difficult it is to achieve high profit margins.

There are so many opportunities in the financial market. Small funds with millions and tens of millions of US dollars can double the number of times a year by seizing the opportunity. Simon's operation in 1987 was probably like this. However, the investment of large-scale hedge funds with hundreds of millions and billions of dollars must be diversified, which will inevitably lead to profits and losses, and it is impossible to maintain a high profit margin.

Raymond Johnston did not, in fact, accept funds from outsiders without screening.

Except for some special partners, the investment threshold of other people is set at a $100 million. Those who can't afford to lose or take out so much money will be directly excluded, and their son-in-law will certainly not be able to dig a hole.

So Simon offered these terms, and Raymond Johnston immediately nodded his head.

As for Simon's words that he combined the Johnston family's funds with his own, and didn't talk about commission, Raymond Johnston didn't refuse this kind of kindness. Each other has acquiesced to their own family identity, so it's not necessary to be so polite.It's just that it would be better if the boy could marry his daughter as soon as possible.

Don't worry.

Seeing Simon off, Raymond Johnston called his eldest son and asked him to help him select some useful people. By the way, he asked if his younger sister, who was in a bad mood after the new year, had come back from Europe.

It's also a worry.

The beginning of the year is the busiest time for the financial department, and the company's operation in the past two years has not been smooth. As a financial officer, if he says he doesn't want to work, he won't work.

If you can really get back from your vacation, a son-in-law will come and go alone every time.

When my father died, he was still talking about my little sister. Now, how can I explain to my parents in the future.

Thinking about it, Raymond Johnston was a little angry. He just found his contact information and dialed to London. After a few words, the woman over there can't hold the fire. She has to go back to Melbourne next month, or she will fly to London to catch people.

And repeated warnings, this time it's serious.

Simon returned to the center of Melbourne, and the major stock and commodity exchanges in Asia ended their trading day.

Influenced by the news that Simon westero is optimistic about the Japanese stock market, the trading volume of stock index futures contracts in Singapore and Osaka stock exchanges has increased greatly since the opening of trading today, and even many types of futures unrelated to Japan have been stimulated.

At the same time, the Japanese stock market is also all red today, a large number of stocks have realized the limit. The Nikkei 225 index rose 613 points throughout the day, accumulating 31992 points, or 1.9%. In fact, if it were not for the limit of the Japanese stock market, the one-day rise of the index would definitely be more than that.

Nikkei 225 index futures has been launched for less than three years, and its price is far higher than many other futures. It is usually bought and sold by powerful institutional investors. However, due to the high growth of Japanese stock market, the trading volume of Nikkei 225 index futures has increased rapidly in recent years.

Many analysts had predicted that the total trading volume of Nikkei 225 index futures this year would reach 5 million, involving more than $100 billion. However, because of the disturbance caused by the articles in the Wall Street Journal, the trading volume of Nikkei 225 index futures in Singapore and Osaka broke through the 60000 hand mark only today.

Some follow suit, some go against the trend, and some flee.

Simon, who caused the storm, did nothing. He just looked at today's statement for the first time after the closing.

After the margin crisis on Black Monday last time, the major exchanges have adopted the daily non debt settlement system. Investors no longer need to settle the final profit and loss when buying and selling stocks as they do when buying and selling stocks.

Now, every day after the end of trading, the exchange will calculate the profit and loss data of investor contracts and carry out cash transfer.

Simon's share of Nikkei 225 index contracts on Osaka stock exchange has increased to 6000. As a result, he earned 3.678 billion yen, or 29.9 million US dollars, just today.

With a principal of 200 million US dollars and a profit of nearly 15% in one day, Simon was not too happy.

The Nikkei 225 index rose 613 points in a single day, which is close to the previous month's increase. If it is still calculated according to the limit of 38000 points in memory, Simon's follow-up funds may not be in place, and the Japanese market has already peaked.

If this situation continues, it will be too sad.