NOVEL NEXT Chapter 154: Re: Investing
Sam was silent for a moment, then asked; "So what do you think I should do? I don't think I can avoid the punishment. If what you're saying is true, even if I make more money than Gabriel, Father could still favor him in the rankings."
"There's no need to go out of your way; Sam. We should just keep investing like we always have and keep making money. But if, at the birthday party, your father decides your efforts aren't enough, I don't think you should accept the punishment."
"So you want me to leave the family?"
I looked at him, my voice softer. "I'm sorry to say this, Sam, but do you really see them as your family? Didn't certain someone in the family cause you to go blind?"
He didn't say anything, but I could see the pain in his eyes.
"You have a majority stake in the company," I continued, "and I own shares too. Do you really need the inheritance? Or do you think you could do without it?"
Sam was listening, his gaze steady.
"If you're father isn't going to accept you as someone who can inherit his wealth, then we should buy out the rest of the shares from Arnold," I suggested. "And if he doesn't agree, we can split the company. Leave Arnold with his part, and take the rest to build a new one."
I leaned in. "Together we could create an empire bigger than your family's. There's no need for you to go through all the suffering."
We pulled up to the building where Johnson Trading was located. Sam and I got out, and we walked into the building.
A minute later we got to the trading floor. The floor had expanded, with new trading stations lined up.
There were around two dozen traders now.
At the front of the floor, Mark had his station, and he turned to say hi.
Next to him was Louis, new at the company but an experienced trader with greying hair. His face was stern, but it softened as he recognized me, and he straightened up, a hint of respect in his eyes.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Somnus." Louis said, his tone warm.
I reached out to shake Louis's hand, then I turned to Mark. "Alright, Mark, how about giving me a rundown on the portfolio?"
"You got it."
Together with Louis and Sam, we moved from the busy trading floor into a newly furnished room that was set up for meetings like these. It had a large table in the center, with sleek office chairs and a screen on the wall to display charts and data.
Mark and Louis laid out the current state of investments for me. They had been selling off shares in BB Investments, trading Netflix as well as Microsoft on the downtrend.
They've also been taking long-term bullish positions in Amazon.
Mark had also been doing some trading on penny stocks.
Overall, their trading division had made $50 million in the last quarter.
The profit from BlueBerry was sitting at over $400 million, and additional profit from Amazon in early 2004 brought the balance to a solid $1 billion.
They already sold a lot of BB, but they were still holding onto $310 Million worth of shares as well as $150 million in Amazon.
I reviewed all the details. Then, crossing my arms, I made my thoughts clear. "Keep some of the money in BB for now. Don't sell all at once," I said firmly. "And... I recommend you to invest in Apple."
"Their iMac G4 and iBook G4 are popular, and they've been innovating non-stop. Did you see the new in-ear headphones they released? I think you should start leveraging into Apple instead of focusing on Netflix or Amazon. They are still quite far from being in a position to capitalize on their potential."
Mark turned to his notebook. "Wait, I'll pull up their earnings."
I didn't exactly remember what Apple's earnings were in 2003, but I knew that they would blow up in 2004 and 2005
"Yeah..." I looked at the numbers. "so last quarter of 2003 they reported a 36% increase in revenue compared to the year before. That's fast growth." I stated. "I think their branding has been very successful; they know what their doing."
Louis nodded thoughtfully, and Mark scribbled down notes.
"Not only do I think we should invest in them," I said, "I think that we should use as much leverage as we can. What are the banks offering you at the moment?"
Sam looked at me, then spoke. "We've been talking with J.P. Morgan lately. They could offer us a 3x leverage, but the fees are 0.5% a month, so we've been avoiding that. With 2x leverage, we managed to negotiate it down to 0.2%, which made more sense."
I thought for a moment. "I think you should take the risk for 3x leverage and try to accumulate a position of $1.5 billion before June."
Louis' eyes widened. "That's crazy. That would take up half of our liquid assets," he quiped.
I didn't answer him directly. Instead, I looked at Sam. "Sam. I have a good feeling about this."
Sam considered it for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, let's do it then."
Louis looked between us like we had lost our minds.
Mark just chuckled and noted the plan down.
...
After the meeting wrapped up, I made my way back out to the car. I had a notebook in the passenger seat that I needed, but before I grabbed it, I took out my phone and dialed Derec Johnson.
I set up a meeting at Immortal Investments in Boston for Saturday.
It would be a general meeting, concering the direction in which the company was going.
After he confirmed I headed back inside.
I had some decisions to make about my own investments. Once back in the building, I made my way to a quieter office and opened up my Charles Schwab account.
[Charles Schwab]
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[Total Balance: $848,960,151.31]
[Available Balance: $275,750,715.62]
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[Market Value of Holdings: $690,108,806.59]
[Borrowed Margin: $116,899,370.90]
[Buying Power: $1,000,000,000.00] (4x Leverage: Futures Trading)
[ALERT] Your buying power has reached a limit.
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Portfolio:
[Single-Stock Futures ($APA)] [$101.32] {[ 3,389,172 shares ]}
[Single-Stock Futures ($TK)] [$54.89] {[ 6,316,595 ]}
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First of all, I needed to set aside $49,720,000 for taxes from last year.
Second of all, the growth opportunities in the Chinese stocks were running out, and so the plan from now on was to start scaling out of them.
Before I knew what would happen in the next few days, I planned to invest in growth stocks like Autodesk and Apple.
I also had to prepare for Google's IPO, which was coming in June. It would likely come in with a valuation of $23 billion.
Google has already reached one revenue goal from our agreement and so my 5% stake increased to 7%, which would be worth about $1.61 billion at the IPO.
As the company grew, my share would hopefully increase to 11%.
But that wasn't enough. I wanted as much of the public float as I could get. Google would almost certainly double in value by the end of the year—provided, of course, that Liberation had my back and wasn't planning to break it.
However, I didn't know that the events of the next few days would throw a curveball into my investment plans.
...
Late on Wednesday, news broke that Russia had formally declared its support for Iraq and sent the military aid.
On top of that, Russia was building up troops near key borders, and military convoys were seen moving through regions near Ukraine.
It looked
exactly
like it did in my past timeline, right before Russia started a full invasion against Ukraine.
This time, they were still in the middle of their invasion of Crimea.
But... for some reason, just like in my past life, many took it as "military exercises."
Now, in what ways did that affect me?
It meant that the time has come for me to enter FOREX.
When the war happened in my past life, I was following the economy very closely and the exchange rate between the Russian ruble and the U.S. dollar at the beginning of the war was a very interesting phenomenon.
Something that I would study for the years to come.
The war was happening a bit earlier this time, but the NATO and EU situations were already very similar to what it was in 2022.
Public opinion on Ukraine was turning positive as well.
Given all this, I assumed the outcome would likely be similar.
It was time to move.
I opened my Forex exchange account that I haven't used till now. It was linked to my Charles Schwab account, which made transferring funds easy.
I quickly transferred $200 million.
[FOREX]
[Total Balance: $200,000,000.00]
[Max Leverage: 1:10]
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Current Exchange Rate:
[1 USD = 28.52 RUB]
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It was Friday, February 27th, 2004 and I decided to "short" the ruble.
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[TRANSACTION DETAILS]
Transaction Type: Long Buy
Currency Pair: USD/RUB
Amount: $200,000,000
Leverage: 10x
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I placed a trade for the full $200 million at 10x leverage, which meant I was now positioned for a potential $2 billion in exposure.
$2 billion was not little even in FOREX.
The trade lit the candle on fire! And where big money comes, more money follows.
I unleashed the floodgates, but... I shall change course soon.