Chapter 236 (1/2)

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.