chapter 11
snowy day
#
Thursday, January 17, 2019 01:34:52.
While searching for individual stock option stocks in the US, Hyun-Jun came across a rather unfamiliar stock called [Brilante Chain].
It is a precious metal processing company active in North America, and its sales scale and market dominance itself was a great company.
However, the stock price of this [Brilante Chain] was currently on a downward trend, and was trading at $148.11, a -1.40% point compared to the previous trading day’s closing price.
In particular, these companies have a relatively high proportion of gold usage, so they are inevitably sensitive to changes in the international gold market.
When he suddenly had that thought, Hyeon-jun went straight to the gold futures market. I immediately checked the current gold price, and pure gold is trading at $1,289.11 per troy ounce. A troy ounce is a unit of weight for precious metals, meaning approximately 31.1034768 grams of gold.
So, compared to a month ago, the gold price rose slightly by +4.10%.
Hyun-joon looked closely at such data and also looked at the current trend of gold price fluctuations.
After that, I checked the gold futures quote chart meticulously.
In particular, futures expiring in March 2019 for gold futures.
I’ve been watching this game with my attention.
The contract unit of this futures is 100 troy ounces, the tick unit is 0.1 point, and the value per tick is about 10 dollars.
The customer margin required for trading is currently set at $2,578 per contract, and the maintenance margin is set at $2,344 per contract.
However, customer margin is the minimum standard cost required in the futures trading process. Maintenance margin is the amount of customer margin divided by 1.1, and can be said to be the minimum balance that an investor must maintain when trading futures.
So, if your account balance falls below your maintenance margin, you must pay additional margin immediately. At this time, if the payment is not fulfilled, you will immediately be subjected to reverse trading (forced liquidation), and at this time, even the principal may be lost.
So, will the price of gold rise or fall?
It’s kind of like a gamble, but it’s a kind of investment with greater risk. If you look at it, isn’t it the same with stocks? If you think it will rise, you can buy it in advance, but the problem is that it is difficult to know in advance.
Hyeon-joon looked at the current status of futures trading with more concentration.
It wasn’t as flashy as options, but futures trading was also very fast. Also, it seemed that various positions were repeating placing and removing orders without a break.
Again, the question is whether the price of gold will rise or fall. That’s where investing begins.
In particular, if there is no clear information, it can be seen as the beginning of gambling.
That said, it is too risky to make emotional investments in the way things go.
Just as the value of individual stock options can fluctuate by tens or hundreds of percent even if the stock price fluctuates by 1%, the range of fluctuations in general futures can sometimes become enormous.
In fact, even a 10% drop in the stock price will leave investors breathless, but in such a high-risk investment, the quoted price can drop by 30% or even 90% or more. In fact, if that happens, investors may feel like they are experiencing extreme cold.
Because of that risk, Hyeon-joon kept his eyes on the trend of the gold market. And after that concentration continued, about 30 minutes had already passed by.
Little by little, faint changes began to appear in Hyeonjun’s pupils, who were concentrating. Pupils getting darker. The size of the left and right pupils gradually enlarged. As such, bizarre changes that only Hyeon-jun was unaware of appeared gradually, and for a moment Hyeon-jun blinked nonstop as if he was greatly surprised by something, and then stared at the market window again to pierce through.
what the heck was that
1,293.15.
1,293.15???
what a weird number is it in vain
A bizarre number appeared as if it were overlapping with the original number, and then disappeared in an instant.
In fact, a while ago, I started to feel something like a mysterious certainty that I couldn’t understand when I focused excessively on this kind of investment ahead of time. Now things got a little weirder. It was because I felt like I was seeing something unknown with my own eyes.
#
Currently, the gold futures price is $1,289.11.
However, as he kept thinking about ‘1,293.15’ he had just seen, Hyeon-jun showed a subtle change in expression after a while and started to move the mouse in his hand quickly.
In particular, based on the March futures, Hyun-Jun carefully placed a new futures purchase order. I’m not sure what 1,293.15 means, but my senses were predicting an uptrend in the gold price. Although this may be an absurd emotional investment, Hyeon-joon decided to respect his quirky sense. This is because there is also a precedent for the last option investment.
Tring!
“The purchase order has been filled”
Tring!
“The purchase order has been filled”
The following trading alerts.
Thus, Hyun-Jun bought a total of 100 contracts of gold futures. If these 100 contracts are based on gold, which is a real asset, it means a total of 10,000 troy ounces, and if converted in grams, it is equivalent to underwriting a huge amount of futures, which is approximately 311 kilograms.
And if you calculate the expenses incurred at this time…
First of all, the purchase cost for one contract containing 100 troy ounces of gold is $128,911 in total (= 1289.11 times 100), so in the case of 100 contracts, a cost of $12,891,100 (= 128,911 times 100) is required.
However, due to the nature of futures investment, leverage is applied here.
In other words, leverage is called the leverage effect, and it is a principle that allows you to buy futures much more than your investment cost based on your margin.
So, in the case of this future, the leverage is up to 50x, so you can trade up to 100 contracts with only $257,822 (= 12,891,100 divided by 50).
Anyway, Hyun-jun ended up buying gold futures worth a total of 100 contracts, so his investment position became a long position.
This ‘buy’ position is a position where profits are made only when the real gold price rises unconditionally. On the other hand, if the future gold price crashes, it is in a position to suffer a big loss. In particular, Hyun-Jun boldly implemented a very risky investment that could result in the loss of the entire principal in the event of an investment failure, as leverage is applied.
#
5:45:55 am.
Hyeonjun lightly massaged the area around his eyes because of the sore eyes, then stretched out and stood up.
Another full night was lost. As I frantically paid attention to the changes in the gold market and monitored the fluctuations in the price of gold futures, time passed in an instant.
In fact, unlike the US stock trading hours or individual stock option trading hours, which are set only for a certain amount of time, futures trading continues without a break except for a one-hour break a day.
For example, in the case of virtual currency coins, isn’t the transaction time conducted in a 24-hour pool without break time?
So Hyun-joon decided to take a break for a while. He took off his pajamas, changed into sweats and thick padding instead, and took his wallet, cigarette, and officetel key. Then he went out of his officetel.
But when I came out, it was not unusually cold.
The cold wind of winter that blows wheezing.
Plus, it’s less than yesterday, but it looks like it snowed all night.
It looked like white snow was piled up everywhere.
Phew.
After coughing up white breath, Hyeon-jun put a cigarette in his mouth. Then, as if taking a walk, I trudged toward the paid parking lot in the back. Standing in front of the fence, Hyeon-jun smoked a cigarette, puffing out white smoke, then slightly turned his head.
A small commotion that happened yesterday morning, that’s what I suddenly remembered.
So, when I looked at it with my brow furrowed, it seemed that the car was still there at that time, or it seemed that it was not there. My vision is blurry because of the darkness that has not yet gone.
Thinking just in case, Hyeon-jun jumped over the low fence and entered the paid parking lot. Then I went closer to the road across the street and took another look.
uh?
BMW vehicles are still there.
It seems that he has been unable to come and go because of the snow.
In addition, since it snowed today, it became impossible to move today.
Hyeon-jun looked at the vehicle once, lost interest, and immediately turned around…
At this time, he heard the sound of rapid footsteps and involuntarily turned his head again.
A strong wind blowing.
With the wind, a woman wearing a fur jacket came running quickly. And beep at the same time! There was a noise, and the car’s headlights were on.
But at this time, the woman who was approaching quickly stopped in shock. She found a strange man staring at her.
While the eyes of caution were getting stronger for a while…
“excuse me. Are you a parking lot manager?”
A question from a woman who suddenly asks.
damn, what to do with this
I’m a little perplexed.
However, Hyeon-joon had no choice but to answer.
“No.”
“yes?”
“Hey, I live in that officetel. I went out to smoke…”
Hyeon-jun also showed the cigarette he was burning, and the woman said ‘ah’ with a slightly relieved expression.
On the other hand, Hyeon-joon started to talk a little more in order to completely dispel any unnecessary misunderstandings.
“You won’t be able to take your car today.”
Then, the woman looked at Hyeon-jun carefully and then nodded.
“But you’re the one who helped me yesterday, right?”
“yes.”
“You always wake up early, don’t you?”
“yes. Normally…”
But just at this time.
A Land Rover vehicle appears between the alleyways.
“Hey, Kim Chae-won, get on quickly.”
The driver’s window opened and the man shouted. At that moment, the woman looked at Hyeon-jun once more and nodded her head to say goodbye.
Then she packed her belongings in the back seat of the BMW, locked the vehicle door, and immediately got into the passenger seat of the Land Rover.
Soon, the Land Rover vehicle was slowly disappearing along the dark alleyway.
Hyeon-joon turned his body to extinguish the cigarette.
Why is it snowing so much these days?
Inevitably, he has no choice but to become a tramp crossing the snow field again.
Should I just pick up a good one as a new car?
I have my own money too.
However, Hyun-joon smiles and shakes his head.
Not yet. You need to watch your gold futures investment a bit more.
But what if that investment ends sooner or later?
Actually, there is money too.
It can be a great motivator for future investment activities.
So Hyun-joon began to think more seriously about buying a car.