Melbourne.
These days, Anthony Johnston has put aside his work to assist Simon in managing the operations targeting the Japanese financial market.
In just over two weeks, the North American side successfully cashed out of the tech stock market, and local Australian funds also arrived one after another, with the final capital scale reaching $1.57 billion. Of this, Simon's personal funds amounted to $500 million, the Johnston family contributed $100 million, and other Australian capital forces totalled $970 million.
Speaking of which, many people in North America also wanted to invest and join the game recently, but Simon chose to refuse this time.
Over $1.5 billion in funds is already a very large target; continued increases would only dilute profits. Simon also didn't intend to be a major player influencing the direction of the Japanese stock market; if he crashed the Japanese stock market, his other companies would never be able to do business well in that country again.
By bringing Australian capital into the market, Simon believed that the Johnston family would definitely be able to transform this favour into tangible connections and benefits.
In North America, although Simon held American citizenship, his ties with local forces were very few, and it was impossible for them to build a deep friendship just by him casually bringing someone in to make a fortune.
In fact, Simon had unconsciously developed the idea of building the 'Australian gang' into his personal backing. Of course, the 'Australian gang' here was definitely not the Australian filmmakers in Hollywood, but the local capital forces in Australia.
The structure of financial power in the United States had been set for many years, and a new capital elite like Simon ultimately could not contend with the old financial groups, nor did he have any intention of being attached to any one side.
Therefore, to ensure that his industries could continue to expand, Simon had to possess more leverage.
In the confrontation between capital, the leverage ultimately remained capital.
Australia's current economic volume is still very small, but it is still a country.
By linking interests, Simon gathered Australian capital forces together, forming a financial power that would definitely be no less than any old financial group in the United States. Moreover, if operated properly, Simon could even gain a dominant position in this system.
Since it was to be operated in a standardized way, Simon also officially registered a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands.
Compared to onshore funds that require timely annual tax payments, the biggest advantage of offshore hedge funds is that as long as the funds are not repatriated, there is no need to pay high capital gains tax, and fund holders can repeatedly use funds that would otherwise be taxes for capital operations.
Although not intended for long-term operation, the fund still needed a name.
Simon once again brought out "Game of Thrones," naming this hedge fund 'Cersei Capital', with the codename 'Bad Woman'. Moreover, like Daenerys Entertainment and Melisandre Company, Cersei Capital also used Westeros Company as its controlling parent company.
All of the $1.57 billion in funds certainly could not be concentrated under one fund's name, so Simon set up five sub-funds controlled by Cersei Capital, each with a capital scale of approximately $300 million.
Affected by a series of hot events, including The Wall Street Journal article at the beginning of the month and Simon's personal statements, the Japanese financial market was very active in February, and Simon was therefore able to quickly complete the initial layout after obtaining the funds.
As of the last trading day of the single week ending February 17, the five sub-funds controlled by Cersei Capital had already established long contracts for Nikkei 225 index futures with a total value of approximately $7 billion on the Singapore and Osaka exchanges.
Simon was well aware of his advantages; he could only make relatively accurate judgments about the macro trend of the Japanese economy.
The average entry point for this batch of stock index futures contracts was roughly between 32,200 and 32,700 points.
If Cersei Capital could maintain a long position of around $7 billion in the coming months, and the Nikkei 225 index reached Simon's planned exit point of 37,000 points, this single investment alone could bring in $1 billion in profit.
Long contracts worth a total of $7 billion only used less than half of Cersei Capital's funds for margin. The volume of Nikkei 225 index futures was ultimately limited; although the Singapore and Osaka exchanges still had no strict position limits at this time, Simon could not infinitely increase his positions due to a lack of buyers.
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 the other major capital markets in Asia, which were equally booming, were all hunting targets for Cersei Capital.
Just in the week that just ended, Cersei Capital's trading team completed a brilliant operation in Japanese government bond futures.
Due to a series of news at the beginning of February stimulating a rapid rise in the Japanese stock market, all sectors speculated that the Bank of Japan would have to introduce interest rate hike policies as soon as possible to curb excessive market speculation.
Under normal circumstances, interest rate hikes often lead to a fall in government bond prices. If hedge funds seize the opportunity to short, they can obtain generous returns.
However, Simon remembered that in the original timeline, the Bank of Japan did not announce its first interest rate hike in several years until May. By then, the Japanese stock market and real estate market had already missed the best opportunity to prevent market collapse through tightening policies.
Even if history had changed, Simon did not believe that the Japanese government would announce an interest rate hike three months in advance.
Just the rumoured news caused market volatility. All levels of Japanese society, who had been immersed in the illusion of economic prosperity, clearly did not wish to rashly introduce interest rate hike measures to break the current favourable situation unless absolutely necessary.
Confirming this judgment, Cersei Capital's trading team began establishing positions in Japanese government bond futures with a total value of $6 billion starting last week, with half being long and half being short.
The margin ratio for government bonds only required 3%, which meant a leverage of about 33 times.
As news of the Bank of Japan's impending interest rate hike further spread, Japanese government bond futures fell sharply after trading began this week, and the trading team also timely closed all short positions before Wednesday.
Then, on Thursday morning, a spokesperson for the Japanese Ministry of Finance publicly clarified that the Bank of Japan had no intention of introducing an interest rate hike plan in the near future.
Japanese government bond futures rose in response.
Simon was not greedy; he instructed the trading teams of all sub-funds 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 $36 million.
Speaking of which, this operation actually utilized some inside information; otherwise, Cersei Capital would not have been able to accurately close short positions before Thursday.
Japan's rapid economic rise in recent years, especially the development of the real estate industry, has led to a significant increase in its demand for various mineral resources, and Australia happens to be a country rich in mineral resources.
Therefore, the economic ties between Japan and Australia have been very close in recent years, and the same applies to political and business circles. The Johnston family has a sizable subsidiary in Japan, managed by Janette's second brother, Norman Johnston.
The news that the Japanese Ministry of Finance would issue a clarification on Thursday was relayed by Norman Johnston, who was on a business trip in Tokyo recently.
Simon didn't feel any guilt about this insider trading, nor was he worried about being discovered.
Many well-known hedge funds he remembered had invited a large number of politicians to join their company boards, such as the current British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who joined the famous Tiger Fund as a board member in the 1990s in the original timeline.
Probably no one would be naive enough to think that these hedge funds invited politicians to join in order to consult them for investment advice.
On the other hand, affected by the rumours of an interest rate hike, the Japanese stock market also fell into turmoil this week, once dropping 236 points on Monday's opening day.
As of the close on February 17, over five days, the Nikkei 225 index only slightly increased by 76 points compared to last Friday's closing of 32,821 points, reaching 32,897 points. Compared to the substantial gains from the Japanese government bond futures operation, Cersei Capital's long positions in stock index futures only had a book profit of $13.71 million this week.
February 18, Saturday.
Because most of the 'Batman' story takes place at night, yesterday was still a night shoot.
This situation would likely continue until mid-March, with the last few weeks being studio shoots, at which point Simon would no longer need to work day and night.
Melbourne did not have professional soundstages like the major studios in Los Angeles, so the crew's prop team had been building film sets like the 'Batcave' in large factory buildings within an abandoned factory in Melbourne's western suburbs during this period.
Although it was the weekend, and he had been adding three extra hours of work each day to manage Cersei Capital, Simon still woke up on time after only five hours of sleep, as he had formed a habit.
Breakfast was with Anthony Johnston.
Out of caution, the dining location was not the Kendall Hotel restaurant, but a nearby coffee shop that served breakfast.
Simon did not expect Cersei Capital's operations to be absolutely confidential; being too airtight was not necessarily a good thing. He only hoped to control the news within a certain range as much as possible.
However, due to Simon's brilliant performance in 1987, those watching him this time were truly pervasive.
Anthony Johnston, who had temporarily set aside other matters to assist Simon in operating Cersei Capital, had one main task: to help improve security measures. The team even hired a retired official from the Australian National Security Department as a consultant for this purpose.
The phones in Simon's hotel suite had now been converted into encrypted lines, and meetings to discuss investment strategies with various sub-fund managers and analyst teams were no longer held in the hotel, but in the heavily secured headquarters building of Johnston Holdings Group in downtown Melbourne.
Furthermore, to avoid leaking the various investment holdings of Cersei Capital, the five sub-fund teams did not know much about each other's identities.
Anthony also privately told Simon that he had arranged for people to monitor each team, and any internal mole found leaking information would be removed immediately.
Involving fund operations exceeding a billion dollars and a considerable scale of expected returns, such rigorous caution was not excessive. Simon was very satisfied with Anthony's arrangements; at least, regular anti-eavesdropping checks could relieve him from worrying about finding bugs in his room again.
Every time Simon thought of that incident at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, his scalp tingled.
The coffee shop was not crowded on a weekend morning. Simon and Anthony sat in a corner by the window, with two bodyguards nearby blocking outsiders from approaching.
After a casual chat, Anthony brought up Cersei Capital's 'meagre' earnings in the stock index futures market last week, feeling that Simon was being too conservative.
Simon took a sip of juice, put down his glass, and explained, "Tony, you must have seen my operations on the S&P 500 index futures back then. Just like last time, I'm betting on a macro trend. As long as the Japanese stock market continues to rise, our positions in Nikkei 225 index futures can yield very stable and generous returns. As for government bond futures and other areas, the variables are too great; we made money last week, but we could lose it all next week. In my opinion, many excellent hedge funds suffer losses driven by this impulse to gain more, thereby lowering their profitability".
Anthony had already learned Simon's general operational strategy.
Compared to 1987, Simon's goal this time could be said to be very low; he only hoped that Cersei Capital's funds could double before the Japanese market turned, and he would absolutely not ask for more.
After chasing the rise, and then earning some profit during the decline to cover taxes and trading team commissions, Simon would be content.
If the Japanese stock market could maintain the same trajectory as in the original timeline, Simon, after completing his operations here, could then turn his attention to the crude oil futures market.
Of course, Simon also knew that due to the influence of his 'big butterfly,' such an expectation was no longer very realistic. However, he still firmly set the peak of the Japanese market at 38,000 points and planned to exit starting from 37,000 points.
Perhaps it would crash earlier this time, or perhaps it would unexpectedly break through 40,000 points.
But…
No matter what, Simon would suppress his fear of an early crash and his greed for the market to go even higher, and stick to his target.
Similarly, because he understood his true strength, Simon would not adopt overly risky investment strategies. He had already planned to invest as much surplus capital as possible into the Japanese stock market.
Compared to the volatile financial derivatives market, directly speculating in stocks carried very low risk. At least a bull market cycle that could last another six months would be enough to ensure Cersei Capital obtained very generous returns.
Anthony Johnston had actually been warned by his father never to presumptuously interfere with Simon's decisions; he only needed to ensure that Simon could complete this operation without distractions.
Listening to Simon's explanation, Anthony stopped at the opportune moment and smiled, "Alright, Simon. Also, your birthday is coming up; we should definitely celebrate. Do you want to arrange it yourself, or should I? Oh, Janette should be back in a couple of days".
Simon didn't stand on ceremony and said, "Tony, then I'll trouble you. Next Wednesday, I'll give the crew a day off, and you can decide the guest list".
Anthony nodded and said, "In that case, let's have it at the mansion in the suburbs. I'll start preparing the party tomorrow".
As the two chatted, after breakfast, Simon returned to the hotel.
Jennifer, as usual, had prepared a stack of documents for Simon to review today.
Leaning back in the leather chair, Simon saw Nancy Brill's proposal for the Blockbuster data analysis team and the film data database, and he was truly surprised. He hadn't expected that this woman had already come up with the concept of 'big data' so far ahead of her time, before the internet era.
The film data database, if combined with the Intercom element, was clearly IMDb (Intercom Movie Database). Amazon acquired IMDb for online sales of DVDs and video tapes, and Netflix used the big data concept to establish its dominant position in the streaming media field.
Now, a certain petite woman had proposed both solutions at once.