World's Richest Man: I Leaped Across Time

Chapter 157: Jacob's Surprise

Thursday and Friday went by, and I spent most of the time prepping for upcoming exams, going over material I hadn't touched in a while. 30 years to be exact...

During those two days, the ruble was in a constant battle with heavy sellers, but it was showing signs of resilience, slowly gaining ground.

And together with Immortal investments, we were adding fuel to the fire, making Rubel stronger.

Immortal Investments started building their short position on USD/RUB.

I was still on the opposite side of things, but I was gradually offloading the last of my long USD/RUB position.

By the time I closed out, I'd managed to exit at an average of 40.12/RUB for the final billion dollars.

That added another $407 million to the profit pile.

[FOREX]

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[Total Balance: $1,189,181,626.93]

[Margin: 1:10]

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[PROFIT/LOSS DETAILS]

[USD/RUB LONG]

Opening Exchange Rate: 28.52 RUB

Average Close Exchange Rate: 42.72 RUB

Margin Fees: 0.2%

Profit/Loss Closed: +$989,181,626.93

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Beyond my FOREX account, I was also offloading my stakes in Chinese companies.

At this point, my brokerage account had only cash in it.

[Charles Schwab]

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[Total Balance: $543,552,915.37]

[Available Balance: $543,552,915.37]

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[Market Value of Holdings: $0.00]

[Buying Power: $1,500,000,000.00] (4x Leverage: Futures Trading)

[ALERT] Your buying power has reached a limit.

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Recent Operations:

[Futures Sell: $APA, Amount: 3,389,172 , Average Sell: $98.31, ...]

[Futures Sell: $TK, Amount: 6,316,595 , Average Sell: $51.81, ...]

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Charles Schwab had raised my buying power limit from $1 billion to $1.5 billion. This would definitely come in handy when I started grabbing more of Google, snatching up shares of Apple, and other growth stocks.

After the weekend, on Monday, March 15th, the ruble continued to slide up.

It was time to buy rubles.

Sitting in my office, I decided to go big and tried to enter a $4 billion short position on USD/RUB.

The transaction didn't go through.

Well... I was half expecting that.

However, the reaction from Charles Schwab was immediate.

Just a minute after my failed attempt to open a position, I got a call from John Curtis, my helping broker.

Alternatively, I recalled the man as the gym bro I met in Orlando.

I picked up.

"Good morning, Mr. Somnus," John greeted me professionally.

"Morning, John," I said. "I'm pretty sure I know why you're calling..."

He chuckled lightly. "Well, it's not every day a VIP client tries to open a 4 billion dollar position. I wanted to follow up on that."

"Yes, I tried to enter that position, but it didn't go through. I presume that you have set up limits on the instrument?"

"Right. Here's the situation: we can't allow more than $1 billion of leverage on any ruble exchange, even for clients like you, Mr. Somnus."

"What about the trades I executed over the past two weeks? There was $1.8 billion in leverage on those positions. I even generated over $3 million in fees for you."

"That's accurate," he conceded. "However, when those positions were opened, the volatility was significantly lower, and the regulations were different. We can't take that risk now."

He paused, gathering his thoughts. "With such high leverage and large market movements, the cash provided can quickly become insufficient to close a losing position. We cannot afford to be in that predicament."

I considered his words for a moment. "What if I put up $1.5 billion in cash?"

John hesitated. "Wait... you want to invest $1.5 billion in rubles in the current situation? Seriously?"

"Would you be able to offer me a $3 billion loan if that's the case?" I asked, confident in my strategy.

There was a moment of silence on the line, but I could hear the gears turning in his head. "I'll need to check with my higher-ups about that. Let me redirect you to a director at the brokerage. Just hold on a moment while I speak to them first."

"Sure thing, John."

After a brief wait, I was connected to a director of the brokerage.

After evaluating my request, they informed me that they could authorize a $3 billion loan at a monthly fee of 0.4%.

This fee was significantly higher than usual for forex trades—almost double what I'd typically encounter.

Nonetheless, I agreed.

From Monday until Wednesday, March 17th, my short position began to fill.

I was effectively borrowing 4.5 billion dollars and selling it in the market for rubles.

At the start of the trade, I received a whopping 168,705,000,000 rubles at an exchange rate of 37.49 rubles per dollar.

My strategy hinged on the dollar weakening against the ruble.

When it came time to close the position, I would buy back the $4.5 billion at a lower price than the one I had borrowed it for.

This meant that once I returned the dollars, I would keep any excess rubles I had acquired during the trade.

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[PROFIT/LOSS DETAILS]

[USD/RUB SHORT]

Opening Exchange Rate: 37.49 RUB

Current Exchange Rate: 36.29 RUB

Exposure: $4,500,000,000

Profit/Loss: +RUB5,400,000,000 (+$148,801,322.67)

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I wasn't asking for an even higher loan for a few strategic reasons.

First, while the potential profits from my ruble position looked promising, I needed to consider the fact that eventually I would want to exchange the rubles back into dollars.

This conversion will push the dollar's price up due to the increased demand, which could negatively impact my profits.

Second, given the current volume on rubel related instruments, it wouldn't be wise to overextend my exposure. I had to keep in mind that a sudden influx of dollars being sold off could create market instability.

Immortal Investments had already taken on $3 billion in exposure, so that makes it even harder to not crush the market prematurely.

The average daily volume before the invasion was around $5 billion. However, that number had surged in the last two weeks to between $25 billion and $30 billion, with the last couple of days witnessing over $40 billion in transactions.

A significant portion of that activity was driven by me and Immortal Investments entering short positions on the dollar, prompting many others to adjust their positions.

The market reacted to my moves.

...

In the evening I was sitting in the living room with Charlotte when my phone rang.

I recognized the number immediately.

It was Jacob McCoy.

"Hey, Jacob, it's been some time. What's up?" I answered enthusiastically.

"Yo, Jack! I wanted to give you a heads-up about something. I'm planning further expansion and will be bringing in more investors for a second round," he said.

Six months ago, Jacob took out a $100,000 loan to get his company off the ground. In that short time, his car mechanic business had blossomed. Continue reading on mvl

He'd opened two new locations around Orlando, so his company was now totaling four shops.

Thanks to an influx of clients and revenue, the bank was more than willing to support him.

But it sounded like he didn't want to take more loans, but he still wanted to continue expanding the business.

"I mean, that sounds great. I've seen the revenue at the new shops is doing just as well as the first one," I replied. "You don't need to look far for investors. I'd be more than willing to be part of that second round of investments. Don't count me out yet, Jacob."

He chuckled. "Oh, and guess what? I convinced my parents to invest in Blizzard, and I also put some of my own earnings into it. We made like a 30% gain over a few months! It's nothing compared to you, but it still feels nice."

"And there's one more piece of news," he continued. "I proposed to Lucy, and she said yes!"

I was taken aback for a moment. "Holy shit... I mean... Wow." I replied, a smile creeping onto my face.

It was amazing how the small changes that I have caused, over time completely changed Jacob's future.

Just two years ago, all he did was talk about smoking weed and picking up girls, and now he was engaged and was managing his team at his successful company.

"That's incredible, Jacob. Congratulations to both of you!" I said, glancing over at Charlotte, who was sitting next to me on the couch. She was looking up at me from her book, wondering what made me react like that. "I'd love to meet up with you and Lucy sometime—maybe I could bring my girlfriend along too."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow, looking intrigued.

She hadn't met Jacob yet, but she'd heard me mention him a few times.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Jacob got engaged," I told her with a grin.

She smiled. "Wow."

"Wow indeed.

On the phone, Jacob seemed excited about the idea of meeting up. "Definitely! Let's set something up."

"When?"

"Hmm... damn," Jacob hesitated for a second, clearly going over his schedule in his head. "I'm a bit tied up for the next two weeks, but how about Friday, April 2nd?"

"Okay, okay," I replied, nodding. "Where and what time?"

"Would you have any trouble getting to Orlando?"

"No problem."

"Alright, let's meet up at Eola Park at 5 p.m.," Jacob suggested.

"Sounds good," I agreed.

"I'll need to confirm with Lucy," he added quickly.

"Perfect. Let me know once it's locked in."

Eola Park.

That's where everything started... It might be interesting to get back there.