Destiny Only Han

"futures?"

Zhang Busu blinked his eyes, his face full of bewilderment.

Liu Ying explained:
"Futures is a way of trading that spans time. By signing a contract, buyers and sellers agree to deliver a specified amount of spot goods at a specified time, price and other trading conditions."

"To put it simply, it's like the textile factories you opened. Someone places an order with you, pays you a deposit at the current price, and then agrees to deliver the goods on a certain day in the future."

"What he bought is your futures."

"Of course, this is a very primitive futures transaction."

"Oh... I don't understand." Zhang Buyi shook his head, his face full of righteousness.

"No wonder you say that your son-in-law is half the height, you are more and more like my father... Ouch, who hit me..."

Liu Ying turned her head angrily, and what she saw was Liu Bang who was blowing his beard and staring, and Lu Wan who was watching the fun with his hands folded.

"Huh? Dad, why are you here?"

Liu Bang was stunned for a while, and then he said angrily for a long time: "Naigong can go wherever he wants now, I want you to take care of it!"

Well, he actually came to Xishi with Lu Wan to watch Orchid singing and dancing, but how can he tell Liu Ying about this kind of thing?
You can go wherever you want, I understand, you are Mondo...Liu Ying nodded and said: "Okay, dad, you are busy first, I am leaving..."

"Don't go!" Liu Bang grabbed the back of his neck: "Tell Naigong about the futures, it sounds strange, let's listen carefully..."

Zhang Buyi leaned over in a doggy manner:

"Since that's the case, don't just stand here. I have a restaurant by the side of the West Market, which is fairly clean... Well, the cook is from Pei County, and I just asked him to cook some hometown dishes for my father... "

Liu Bang nodded noncommittally.

To be honest, he really doesn't know what the so-called hometown food is, but it doesn't matter, as long as he is not asked to pay in the end, he can...

........................

Zhaixinglou is the largest restaurant near the West City of Chang'an. It got its name from the line in "Liu Ying's Poetry Collection" that "the dangerous building is a hundred feet high, and the stars can be picked by hand"...

The building is five stories high, with carved beams and painted buildings, colorful flags fluttering in front of the door, and a stage in the restaurant, which integrates catering and entertainment.

Just arrived at noon, the inside is already full of voices, the first floor is a scattered stage, and tables and tables of guests are pushing glasses and changing glasses, guessing wine and playing fists.

The shop waiter who sang the menu did not use paper and pen, but could remember what the guests at different tables ordered through his own memory, and reported the menu to the kitchen in a cadence, like singing.

Every time the waiter in charge of passing the dishes comes out of the kitchen, there are more than a dozen plates of delicacies arranged in order from the shoulders to the tips of the hands.
On the stage, the acrobat performers had just left the stage, and two blunt entertainers, one fatter and the other fatter, began to come out after long-awaited calls, folding fans and bamboo boards lightly.

Sitting under the corridors on both sides are orchids from the Western Regions with heavy makeup, or Silla maids dressed up like the little sisters next door, waiting for the drinkers to greet them, and there are many singers and dancers who twist their waists and hips and slowly go upstairs. The private room on the second floor is touting business.

Up the third floor, there is less hustle and bustle, and it is much quieter and more elegant. The wandering warblers and prostitutes are not qualified to come upstairs. After all, the diners here are either rich merchants or high-ranking officials who hold power. Usually, they order a few well-known leaders and second places from the brothels and restaurants in Xinfeng City to accompany them.

At this moment, Liu Bang covered his face with a folding fan, and while he boarded the restaurant as if nothing had happened, he looked at the shrinking Zhang Buyi with murderous eyes.

This is quiet?
As for him covering his face, it was mainly because there were too many acquaintances of him behind the screen of the box on the third and fourth floors...

After all, the folk customs in the Han Dynasty were open, and it was normal for officials to prostitute, as long as they were paid, there was no need to cover up like taking off their pants and farting like in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

........................

"Don't arrange people on the fourth and fifth floors..."

Outside the private room of Tianzihao, Zhang Buyi breathed a sigh of relief, and turned his head to order the manager of the restaurant who came after hearing the news. At the same time, he did not forget to ask someone to serve tea and snacks to the guards standing at the stairs.

"How about it, how does this kind of prosperity compare to the former Qin Dynasty?" Liu Ying threw off her shoes very rudely, and stepped barefoot on the priceless scarlet Persian carpet on the ground.

Well, to be precise, it should be a resting rug.

Liu Bang snorted and did not speak.

After all, the Qin Dynasty paid attention to making a profit. The behavior of eating, drinking and having fun is prohibited except for the monarch and the upper class dignitaries. Not only is it prohibited, but those who violate it will be punished!

Liu Ying took a sip of sugar tea and was in a good mood: "Father, what do you want to hear?"

Liu Bang pinched a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake: "Futures, otherwise, why do I climb all the way up and down, just to eat snacks that don't cost money?"

No cost?Well, you won... Liu Ying said with a smile:
"Futures?

"Well, to put it bluntly, the essence of futures is a commodity, and there is no difference. Whether it is cotton or wheat, even air, it is a commodity after all. Why? Because it does not generate any value by itself. Putting [-] catties of cotton there One year, that’s still [-] catties of cotton.”

"The purpose of commodities in the futures market is for people to trade. No matter what the purpose of purchase is, it is for trading after all. It is just a zero-sum game. That is to say, the money you earn is the money others lose. ..."

Liu Bang shook his head to express his understanding, but said softly when he looked at the door: "Go downstairs and call Cao Shen and Wang Ling up..."

Fuck, today is not a holiday, it's too much... Liu Ying put her hands on her hips, ready to go crazy when the two old guys come up.

After a while, Cao Shen and Wang Ling walked in with a little drunken face, but the moment they saw Liu Ying, they broke out in cold sweat and stood there dumbfounded.

They thought only Liu Bang was there, but they didn't expect Liu Ying to be there...

Well, this is similar to going to a concert under the pretext of meeting a client, but after entering the venue, you find that the boss is sitting next to you...

"I didn't say, half a year's salary is not too much, right?"

"Not too much, not too much..."

After the two old things exploded the gold coins, they were very well-behaved and did a good job, but when they looked at Liu Bang, their faces were a little more sad.

Liu Bangcai didn't bother to pay attention to many things, so he pretended not to see them.

These two are his enemies!

For example, Cao Shen, when he accidentally injured Xia Houying, it was Cao Shen who arrested him and locked him up for more than a year, and was whipped hundreds of times!

As for Wang Ling, he thought too highly of himself and looked down on him in various ways, which made him lose face many times!
Now that he is not the emperor, he naturally doesn't need to be magnanimous!
After Liu Ying told Prime Minister Cao Can and Wang Ling about futures, he began to give examples when the room was full of bewilderment.

"For example, Zhang Buyi has several cotton textile factories, but the price of cotton is soaring now. He worries that one day in the future, he will not be able to buy enough cotton to maintain the operation of the factory with his own money, so he negotiates with the cotton farmers. , use the current price to buy the cotton that will mature next year."

"So he signed a contract with the cotton farmers to 'buy the future of cotton.'"

"This is futures trading."

"But Zhang Buyi was extra careful, and he didn't pay the deposit."

"When next year, there will be a bumper harvest of cotton, and the current price will be reduced from [-] yuan per catty to [-] yuan per catty... At this time, Zhang Buyi was thinking that if he didn't fulfill the contract and bought cotton from other cotton farmers, he would spend every [-] yuan per catty. You can save five dollars by catty..."

"Therefore, Zhang Buyi decided to breach the contract and buy cotton elsewhere. The end result was that he earned [-] cents per catty, while the cotton farmers lost [-] cents... After all, there is no guarantee deposit, and the cotton farmers have to bear the losses themselves."

"Well, if you don't make a profit, you will lose..."

"Am I that shameless?" Zhang Buyi crossed his arms, furious.

Liu Ying didn't bother to pay attention to him, and continued:

"Therefore, in order to avoid this kind of thing from happening, Zhang Buyi and the cotton farmers signed another agreement under my witness, and each took out a certain percentage of the total amount as a deposit. No matter which party breaches the contract, the deposit will belong to the other party. all."

"Therefore, Zhang Buyi and the cotton farmers each put up [-]% of the total amount, which is two yuan per catty as a deposit, and handed it to me."

"It's just that this time when the cotton was harvested, the price dropped from the original twenty yuan a catty to ten yuan a catty..."

"Then Zhang Buyi calculated that if he breached the contract, he would lose two cents per catty, but he could buy cotton from other places at the price of ten cents per catty, which is far more cost-effective than buying cotton according to the contract, which is twenty cents per catty."

"Therefore, Zhang Buyi breached the contract again...Since the security deposit that Zhang Buyi gave me was not enough to cover the cotton farmers' losses, the cotton farmers still lost money..."

"It's really not a thing!" Liu Bangji pointed at the aggrieved Zhang Buyi, furious.

Well, Liu Bang knows that this is just an example, but it doesn't matter, he just wants to scold the pig who stole his cabbage...

On the other side, Cao Shen and Wang Ling remained silent. Although they had a good relationship with Zhang Liang, they did not make any attempt to smooth things over for Zhang Buyi.

After all, it was this guy who brought Liu Ying here!
Liu Ying paused, and then said:

"That is to say, relying on the margin system alone cannot prevent the occurrence of default."

"In order to better allow both parties to fulfill the contract, I came up with version 2.0 of the margin plan, which is the same-day margin settlement system."

"For example, Zhang Buyi signed a contract with the cotton farmers, and each paid a deposit of five qian."

"But the next day, the price of cotton fell by five cents. At this time, Zhang Buji's loss was already equivalent to the deposit. If the price of cotton fell again tomorrow, Zhang Buji would definitely default on the contract!"

"Therefore, I gave the deposit of five qian per catty that Zhang Busu paid to the cotton farmers, and at the same time updated the content of the contract, that is, when the cotton matures, the cotton farmers will sell cotton to Zhang Buyi at a price of fifteen qian per catty. "

"Zhang Buyi made some calculations. My decision didn't affect his interests. After all, he would definitely default on the contract. And the cotton farmers wouldn't lose money, because the cotton hasn't been sold yet."

"But the problem is that the security deposit that Zhang Busu placed with me is gone, so in order to fulfill the contract, he needs to place a security deposit of [-]% of the contract amount with me, which is one and a half five baht coins. .”

"After Zhang Buyi paid the deposit, if the price of cotton falls again tomorrow, then I will repeat the above steps to ensure that both parties cannot avoid losses through breach of contract."

"Next autumn, a month before the cotton matures, Zhang Busu's poor management caused the textile factory to go bankrupt, but at this time, the price of cotton has skyrocketed to [-] yuan per catty!"

"It's just that Zhang Buyi no longer needs cotton, so he has no reason to perform the contract. However, he found that Cao Xiang's textile factory is still open, and he intends to buy cotton, so he found me and asked me to arrange him to sign with Cao Xiang. The contract stipulates that after one month, he will sell a batch of cotton to Prime Minister Cao at a price of [-] yuan per catty."

"In this way, by signing a futures contract for selling cotton, Zhang Busu offset the futures contract for buying cotton, and completed the entire transaction without the need for physical delivery!"

"So Zhang Buyi found out that he only needs to use a margin of [-]% of the total price to make a deal. Under ten times the leverage, he can buy futures at low prices and sell futures at high prices, and make a lot of money by buying and selling. , from then on to the pinnacle of life..."

Amidst Zhang Buyi's complacency, Liu Ying silently swallowed another ending, such as the trapeze...

Liu Bang was silent for a moment, exchanged glances with Cao Shen, Wang Ling and Lu Wan, frowned and said: "So, your futures are no different from gambling, except that it can make some people earn some money, what's the benefit to the country? "

"No way!" Liu Ying drank a few sips of herbal tea to relieve the dry mouth before, and then said:

"The most important function of the futures market is to hedge risks and stabilize product prices...Well, in fact, it transfers risks from farmers and factories to speculators."

"Taking wheat as an example, assuming that the cost per stone is [-] renminbi and the expected profit is [-] renminbi, then the final selling price of wheat is [-] renminbi."

"If the market price of wheat is 120 renminbi when the wheat is sold, then there will be an extra profit of [-] renminbi, and if it is [-] renminbi, there will be a loss of [-] renminbi."

"Obviously, while price changes bring about the possibility of gain, there is also the potential risk of loss."

"But if there is a futures market, farmers can place a wheat futures contract with a price of [-] yuan per stone."

"In this way, when the wheat is sold, if the market price is 120 renminbi, the farmer will gain an additional [-] renminbi from selling the wheat, but the futures market will lose [-] renminbi. One plus and one minus will lock in the expected price of [-] renminbi; If the market price of wheat is [-] renminbi, the farmers sell the wheat at a loss of [-] renminbi, but the futures market makes [-] renminbi, and they still lock in the expected price of [-] renminbi!"

Liu Bang was stunned for a while, looking at Cao Shen and others who were equally stupefied, showing off: "Look, this is my son!"

ps: In 1848, 82 businessmen (farmers, agricultural product traders and processors) voluntarily initiated the establishment of the Chicago Grain Exchange, which is now the predecessor of the Chicago Board of Trade (CB0T).