Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 769: I have become a big capitalist without realizing it
This is because the champion knight is also strong, and his agility and physique are similar to those of horses of the same level.

So Chu Xiangqian estimated that when the foal turns 3 years old this year, strength may be its strong point.

But at the age of 2, its strength is only 1.1. Although it exceeds that of an adult horse, it is basically impossible for it to break the limit in strength and reach more than 2 points.

As for agility and physique, the probability is that they will not exceed 1.5.

That's similar to the attributes of the three-year-old horse refreshed in the Novice Village.

Otherwise, Chu Xiangqian really wouldn't have sold out the upgraded horse.

However, from the perspective of long-term interests, Chu Xiangqian would like to see that the two-year-old horse's three-dimensional attributes will be greatly enhanced through its growth last year and the first few months of this year.

If the strength is 1.7 or 1.8.

If the agility also reaches 1.6, then the probability of this horse winning the championship is at least 7%.

This is a good thing for Chu Xiangqian. Not only will the horses in his hands be easier to sell, but the price will definitely be higher.

As for whether there will be a descendant in the future whose three-dimensional attributes exceed 2 points, the negative impact on Chu Xiangqian is actually very small.

Anyway, for him, since it's all cheating, there's no difference strictly speaking between upgrading his horse by one level or two levels.

And no matter how strong the pureblood, Ferghana, and Arabian horses bred by the outside world become, it will take at least ten years in terms of time.

Maybe when he is in his seventies or eighties, a horse will appear, and only then will it be possible for it to break through the limit and exceed 2 points in attributes through natural breeding.

Moreover, Chu Xiangqian has been accelerating the improvement of the world's racing horse strength since he started selling and auctioning horses produced in the Novice Village.

Hundreds of three-dimensional racehorses, equivalent to mid- to high-end racehorses in the world, are sold from him every year. The first thought that comes to the buyers after they purchase them is definitely to develop them into champion horses.

Once you are sure you don't have the luck and ability, then treat me as a stud.

The racehorses produced in future games will become the ancestors of most of the racehorses in the world, and an improvement in overall strength is inevitable.

But as long as the offspring of the upgraded horses do not mutate, it will have no impact on Chu Xiangqian.

Even if there is a naturally bred foal with an attribute of more than 2 points, it is an extremely rare case.
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Now that the matter of the Triple Crown horse has been settled, Chu Xiangqian’s attention has returned to the auction.

As expected, the auction price of the 20 thoroughbred horses in the third and fourth batches exceeded US$700 million.

960+750+700+710万，这次40匹纯血马居然卖出了3120万美元。

The average price was US$78, a full US$50 increase from the average price of US$28 in the third auction the year before, far exceeding Chu Xiangqian's expectations.

This also made Chu Xiangqian realize that even though he had sold 40 purebred horses the year before, their performance throughout the previous year was not good.

But horse owners in Europe, America and Southeast Asia actually have a very high opinion of those 40 purebred horses.

This year's first batch of 10 Arabian horses was sold for a total of US$960 million, which is understandable because of the presence of the chestnut horse.

But the 30 horses in the next three batches were all sold for a minimum of 700 million for 10 horses, which has proved my guess.

However, this is also closely related to the fact that the economic situation in Europe and the United States has been good in the past two years.

Rich people are doing good business, people's income is increasing, and more people are paying attention to horse racing, so the demand for good horses will also increase.

This is just like the real estate price increase in Hong Kong Island. The higher the price goes, the more people buy houses.

At the Arabian horse auction that started at 3 pm, the overall selling price also exceeded expectations.

Bridge, executive chairman of the Jockey Club, thought that there were good horses among the batch of Arabian horses that Chu Xiangqian had hinted at.

Even if Chu Xiangqian didn't explicitly say which one it was, through observation and elimination, we can roughly determine which one of the horses is most likely the one Chu Xiangqian mentioned.

Even if you buy several horses together, the price will probably not exceed $100 million.

After all, the average price of 40 Arabian horses at the end of the previous year was only US$18.

However, Chu Xiangqian actually sold 10 horses at a time this time, which instantly made it impossible for Bridge to easily get a bargain.

Moreover, because Ahmed was about to get the Triple Crown horse, he successfully established relationships with the Royal Bank and Morgan through Chu Xiangqian and the Arabian horse.

It will be an external force for his future fight for the throne. In a good mood, he will naturally not give up the Arabian horse being auctioned this time.

Moreover, the starting price for the 10 horses was only 200 million US dollars, which immediately made many buyers who had wanted to bid before but had run out of money to bid too early because the Arabian horses and purebred horses were too expensive, subconsciously set their sights on these 40 Arabian horses.

So as to avoid coming to Hong Kong Island and returning empty-handed.

As 10 Arabian horses were led by stable boys onto the track for buyers to view, more and more people began to unite privately.

Although Chu Xiangqian did not add any points to the Arabian horse he mentioned, he upgraded the Arabian horse, which had a physique of 1.5, strength of 1.1, and agility of 1.5, by 1 level.

So when this horse is on the track, it is stimulated by other horses and appears to be very active.

They may even take the initiative to provoke the horses around them.

It immediately attracted many horse owners.

Once on the track, Chu Xiangqian specifically instructed a short young rider apprentice who was only 17 years old, weighed only 69 kilograms and was less than 1 meters tall.

In the excitement, I no longer cared about the instructions from the rider team leader, which was not to let the horse enter the racing state.

After running a lap of 800 meters, it seemed that its performance was almost the same as that of the chestnut horse.

Of course, this was actually a misjudgment.

Agility 1.5 and Agility 1.6 may seem to differ by only 0.1, but on the track, this 0.1 means a difference of several horse lengths or even more than a dozen lengths.

But the buyers were unaware of the hidden truth here. It could even be said that Chu Xiangqian deliberately asked the apprentice rider to ride the horse for a lap, which was misleading and deceptive.

But this Arabian horse's physique and agility are both 1.5. Even though Arabian horses are famous for their endurance, this horse is considered a top Arabian horse.

Bridge quickly confirmed that this was the horse Chu Xiangqian was talking about.

The enthusiasm for participating in the auction instantly rose.

But what annoyed Bridge was that after the auction started, even though he had bid up to $250 million, someone on the phone still made another bid of $255 million.

Bridge took a few deep breaths, suppressed his anger, and soon realized that there were many knowledgeable people among the other buyers.

He could only curse his competitors, even Chu Xiangqian was cursed several times by him, and at the same time he had to grit his teeth and continue to raise the price, and finally offered a price of 260 million US dollars.

Ahmed hesitated for a few seconds, then secretly glanced at Chu Xiangqian's expression.

Chu Xiangqian naturally hoped that the price would be as high as possible, but looking at the people in the stands who continued to bid, Bridge was the only one left.

I secretly thought that I should not break my promise to him, lest our friend become enemy just because of one or two hundred thousand dollars.

So Chu Xiangqian had no label on his face at this time, which made Ahmed hesitate. The idea of ​​taking a gamble flashed through Ahmed's mind for more than ten seconds. Just when he gritted his teeth and planned to raise the price to 300 million, if someone offered a higher price than him, he would give up.

The auctioneer in the stands saw that Bridge was staring at him and knew he could not hesitate any longer.

With a bang of the gavel in his hand and the word "deal", the 10 Arabian horses were in Bridge's hands.

The starting price for the next three batches of 3 Arabian horses was also US$30 million, but the buyers were not stupid and the best one had already been bought.

Moreover, if calculated based on the average price of Arabian horse auctions at the end of the previous year, the price of the Arabian horse that everyone was optimistic about had reached 98 US dollars.

It exceeds the psychological price of most people.

The subsequent 30 Arabian horses suddenly made many buyers lose interest.

Fortunately, all 30 horses were finally sold, but the prices were only 210, 215 and 205.

Chu Xiangqian shook his head helplessly. The last 10 horses were almost not sold. Chu Xiangqian began to feel lucky that he had taken out an Arabian horse with really good three-dimensional attributes this time.

When Bridge takes that horse to win a championship in Hong Kong Island, even if Hong Kong Island horse racing has just become a Grade Two event, the value of that horse will double or triple.

Otherwise, the starting price of Arabian horses may have to be lowered in the auctions in the second half of this year or next year.

Fortunately, the auction of Arabian horses and thoroughbred horses exceeded expectations, with the total auction price of 120 horses reaching US$8190 million.

After accepting congratulations from Ahmed, the agents of the two consortiums, Uncle Hai and others, Chu Xiangqian led everyone out of the private room.

Arriving at the large conference room used for settlement of payments for goods, he shook hands and chatted with the buyers who had successfully purchased horses, but most of his attention was focused on the staff of Standard Chartered Bank.

The most feared thing at an auction is someone bouncing a check. It took Standard Chartered’s people and buyers nearly an hour to successfully transfer all the proceeds from the two auctions in the afternoon to Standard Chartered’s special account.

Chu Xiangqian finally felt relieved and took the document personally delivered by Standard Chartered's boss Juan and took a general look at it.

While not noticing the problem, Chu Xiangqian still kept his attention on his personal barrister, Huang Weixin.

Huang Dazhuang was both envious and increasingly afraid of Chu Xiangqian at this time.

Seeing the big boss looking at him and nodding hurriedly, Chu Xiangqian finally felt relieved and signed the document.

Including the 8190 million U.S. dollars this time, the total amount of U.S. dollar cash in banks and Novice Village warehouses has exceeded 2 million U.S. dollars.

Chu Xiangqian thought about it and decided to give up on transferring 3 million US dollars from Standard Chartered to the Chu Foundation.

He had a lot of British pounds in his hands. After deducting the 1 million Hong Kong dollars, or 834 million pounds, he still had 1375 million pounds idle.

So Chu Xiangqian whispered to Juan, "I plan to exchange British pounds for 30 million US dollars and put it in the Chu Fund, but it's best not to use Standard Chartered's foreign exchange for this exchange order."

Juan was stunned. He thought that there might be some problem with the source of Chu Xiangqian's money, but then he thought, even if there was a problem, the other party would not tell him so.

Besides, Chu Xiangqian had just received more than 80 million US dollars, so he would most likely not be short of US dollars.

Even if there are huge projects waiting to be funded, the worst that can be done is to borrow money, which is safer than taking out a large sum of pounds of questionable origin and exchanging them for dollars through Standard Chartered.

In an instant, Juan realized something and asked Chu Xiangqian, "Mr. Chu, do you think the pound will continue to fall?"

After saying that, Juan frowned and muttered without waiting for Chu Xiangqian to answer. The pound has been falling for almost half a year. If it falls further, the economy of Britain will be in trouble.

For countries where exports exceed imports, a drop in the exchange rate of their currency by a few percent means that their exports will become more competitive.

But for a country like Britain, where imports have gradually exceeded exports, a falling exchange rate means more money is needed for imports, which will have a greater impact on the manufacturing industry.

Then there was no money to buy new equipment, profits kept getting lower and lower, and we slowly fell into a vicious cycle.

Juan's face soon turned dark with worry, but after thinking about it, he realized that he had no way to deal with the situation.

In the end, he could only sigh helplessly and comfort himself that he was not a politician in Downing Street and that such matters were not his business.

Then he started to think about how to use this information to benefit Standard Chartered and himself.

Pulling Chu forward, he asked, "Sir, do you think Standard Chartered needs to borrow some US dollars for backup?"

Chu Xiangqian understood what Juan meant as soon as he heard it. Whether borrowing US dollars from the British government or other financial institutions, it would definitely be repaid in pounds in the end.

You can even return it in Hong Kong dollars, after all, the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the British pound at this time.

Regardless of how much the exchange rate between the British pound and the US dollar falls, the Hong Kong dollar will always be calculated at a fixed exchange rate of 16 Hong Kong dollars to 1 British pound.

When the exchange rate of the pound does fall, you can make a profit from the exchange rate difference.

This is a pleasant surprise for Standard Chartered.

Chu Xiangqian suddenly had an idea and whispered to Juan, "I have 1 million pounds as collateral. How about you help me leverage 10 times and borrow 3.6 million US dollars from HSBC?"

A 10x leverage means 1 million pounds, which can be converted into 3.6 million US dollars at the current exchange rate.

If the pound sterling exchange rate falls by 1% one year later, when the repayment is due, Chu Xiangqian can use the US$5 million he borrowed one year ago and only use US$1 million to buy back the 3.6 million pounds and return it to the bank.

Moreover, after receiving the $3.6 million, he can deposit the money in the bank to offset part of the loan interest.

Probably around $1500 million.

The profit seems small, but Chu Xiangqian’s actual capital is only 1 million pounds, or 3600 million US dollars.

A 41% profit is enough to drive many people crazy.

And that’s how foreign exchange trading works. It’s rare that there’s a stock market crash, with a 30% or even 50% drop.

This was also one of the reasons why Chu Xiangqian was reluctant to enter the foreign exchange market before.

This little profit is like chicken ribs to him.

But if you entrust Standard Chartered to operate, as long as the money is borrowed, the money will not be touched, and even if there is a loss, it will not be big.

After all, it is basically impossible for the foreign exchange market to plummet by 10%.

Of course, if the price really soared by 10%, he would only lose 1 million pounds.

Juan shook his head without even thinking, "That's impossible. Even if HSBC can afford such a large foreign exchange futures order, it wouldn't dare to really lend you $3.6 million.

The risk is too great. No big boss dares to withdraw 30% or 40% of his bank's deposits."

In the 54th year of Hong Kong Island, the total deposits of all banks were only 10.46 billion. In the past 9 years, it has only increased seven or eight times.

If it were Chu Xiangqian, he wouldn't take the risk either.

(End of this chapter)