I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 469 A trader in faraway America became interested in him
ADM, short for Archer Daniels Midland, is one of the world's four largest grain traders. It is also one of the world's largest oilseed, corn, and wheat processors, with approximately two-thirds of its revenue coming from the processing of soybeans, peanuts, and other oilseeds.

ADM certainly doesn't just deal in spot trading; it also engages in agricultural futures and options trading for arbitrage and hedging. ADM Investor Services (ADMIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of ADM, operates in this field and is located in Chicago, the largest agricultural futures trading center in the United States.

Brad Pitt is a senior trader at ADMIS, with nearly 20 years of experience in futures trading.

Tonight, as usual, Pete was drinking coffee and staring at his computer screen. He had been trading soybean futures for the past few months.

He was told to cash out and leave; this was a secret instruction given to him a week earlier by his boss, John Wilson.

He naturally had no objection.

In recent months, Brad Pitt has invested $6 million to gradually build up long positions, purchasing a total of 10 lots of soybean futures, and of course, he has made a fortune.

The profits reached over 30 billion!
If we don't leave now, when will we?
However, what troubled him was that he had originally planned to ship all the goods within half a month, but four days ago Wilson suddenly brought another message: the U.S. Department of Agriculture would release the latest soybean production forecast data ahead of schedule!
Normally, the announcement would immediately trigger a frenzy among soybean bulls—since June of this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been reducing soybean production forecasts!
The estimate has been reduced from 8300 million tons to 7327 million tons, compared to the previous estimate of 7169 million tons announced last month!

But this time, Brad Pitt was told that the Department of Agriculture would increase soybean production, and he was convinced of that.

It is an open secret that the president of ADM has a close personal relationship with the current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Which of those ministers and members of Congress doesn't have intricate connections with Wall Street and the heads of major companies?
Are hundreds of millions of dollars in political cash being wasted?
The problem is, I still have nearly 4 contracts that I haven't sold yet.

Why did those gentlemen in Washington release the data ahead of time?!
Pete thought to himself, "This is what I'm thinking."

During this period, he had been gradually selling off his holdings of the main soybean futures contracts. He couldn't do it too quickly, otherwise a sharp drop in prices would cause market panic.

If these small institutional investors see that the situation is not good, they will be in trouble if they run away faster than they can!
Pete held a coffee cup in one hand and clicked the mouse with the other, carefully listing hundreds or thousands of contracts in the seller's position.

This is a delicate task; it requires avoiding significant price fluctuations while ensuring fast and smooth delivery.

Just then, a huge order of 10,000 lots suddenly appeared out of nowhere, hitting the price down by 20 cents!

Immediately following was another sell order of 10,000 lots!
Futures prices have hit a new low!

Pete broke out in a cold sweat, immediately stopped operating, and carefully observed the price curve.

Will there be any copycat investments?
Will it crash and hit the daily limit down?!

Pete nervously considered his options.

If the price is driven to its daily limit down, he will immediately take the opposite action, buying back a certain number of contracts to keep the futures price on an upward trend.

Fortunately, what I had anticipated did not happen.

There was no follow-up buying, and the 20,000 contracts were bought by enthusiastic small institutional investors, causing the price to slowly recover.

Pete breathed a sigh of relief and picked up his coffee cup again.

What he's curious about now is, who did this?
Is this a normal profit-taking pullback?
Or did they know about the upcoming soybean forecast data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture? And that's why they fled overnight?

Pete immediately became interested.

It's not difficult to find out who these two investors are; large companies like ADMIS have their own secret channels in the futures trading market.

Pete thought for a moment, then picked up the landline on his desk, dialed a number, said a few words, and hung up.

He was somewhat surprised when the other party called back 10 minutes later.

“Mr. Pete, I’ve found the information you requested. It comes from faraway China.”

"Chinese investors?!"

"Yes, the company that opened the account is a branch of Guotai Junan Securities in mainland China. I don't have the authority to obtain detailed information about these two investors. Of course, if you are willing to pay enough money, I can help you find a way."

"Thank you, that's enough."

Pete wasn't willing to spend an extra coin on this; he was just curious. Ten thousand lots wasn't a large investment institution and wasn't worth paying attention to.

His mind started to wander back to the computer screen.

Fang Qingye was unaware that a trader in faraway America had taken an interest in him and immediately reversed course to short sell after closing his position, selling 10,000 lots of short positions!

You have to cut both ends off a radish.

After completing all of this, Fang Qingye had even less to do in Shanghai.

Bai Ou said she would stay in Shanghai for a few more days to familiarize herself with the three companies, especially Tomorrow Cube and Zhiyun Technology. As a liberal arts student, she needed to learn more about technology, so as not to be a complete novice and become a laughing stock for her subordinates.

I'm getting married during the National Day holiday in October, followed by my honeymoon. I probably won't be back at work until the end of October, so I need to make the most of these few days.

So Fang Qingye decided to return to Nanxin on her own, since there were still things to do at the bank.

Yue Kai was still driving.

Upon arriving at Nanxin Fangqingye in the evening, I went straight back to the nursery. After returning to the small building, I took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and prepared to chat with my grandparents for a while.

While you're at it, ask about the nursery's operations; he still holds the title of General Manager of Four Seasons Nursery and Flower Company.

Before she even went downstairs, Fang Qingye's phone rang. Seeing that it was Shi Guangrong calling, she answered it without thinking.

"Aoba, the USDA has released the latest soybean production forecast!"

"What did you say?"

"The reason why soybean production will recover to more than 8000 million tons is due to timely rainfall later in the season."

"Damn, they even made up a plausible excuse, they're shameless!" Fang Qingye laughed and cursed.

Shi Guangrong laughed after hearing this.

"Yes, last month they said the estimate was 7169 million tons, but now it's 8000 million tons. It's even less reliable than the data released by our XX Bureau."

"Alright, just keep an eye on US soybean futures, they're definitely going to plummet."

Sure enough, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture released this data, U.S. soybean spot and futures prices plummeted.

In particular, futures prices plummeted to their daily limit!
There was a chorus of sighs in the market.

Fang Qingye didn't pay attention to this. Now, Shi Guangrong was the one monitoring the futures market. He would call to report any major events to Fang Qingye, so that Fang Qingye wouldn't have to check the market all day.

However, this morning on my way to work, I received a call from Qiao Yongfeng.

"Aoba, you've seen the latest soybean production forecast released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, right? Sigh, I'm still not ruthless enough."

Fang Qingye understood what he meant.

It refers to the price of the soybean contract he purchased some time ago. If the data released now is accurate, the price should be even lower.

Fang Qingye comforted him, "Brother Qiao, you've already done quite well to get this price. After all, it's still a seller's market, and we don't have any other choice but to buy US soybeans for the time being."

"Yes, our domestic soybean production has been declining year by year, and we now rely on imports for most of it. This situation, where we are in a weak position in negotiations, cannot be resolved in the short term."

"So hurry up and get the Brazilian soybeans sorted out. But that's a matter for the country and you bigwigs, it has little to do with me," Fang Qingye said with a smile.

"Who says national affairs have nothing to do with you? Let me give you a sneak peek: Director Liu from the Ministry of Commerce has been invited to Jinghai to attend an expo, and he wants to meet you."

(End of this chapter)