Not only one or two intelligent people in the world, let alone under the reminder of some attentive individuals, many practitioners quickly thought of hoarding soybeans as a way to make money.
On the other side, on all major global media outlets, any discussion of the soybean industry would predict a continuous surge in soybean prices. It was recommended to hoard some soybeans while prices were low, as it would be a very profitable deal whether for speculation or personal use.
Furthermore, it was advised not to buy through intermediaries, as they would earn a profit in between. Instead, one should directly purchase from large futures trading markets in the United States, where prices were over 20% cheaper than buying from Chinese intermediaries, and they only needed to pay about 10% in shipping costs. It was incredibly cost-effective!
As the saying goes, rumors can spread like wildfire, and with all the world's media promoting this, everyone soon reached a consensus: soybean prices were definitely going to rise, and hoarding soybeans would be the right move.
It wasn't just investors; almost all large soybean-related enterprises in China began to eagerly prepare to purchase soybeans.
However, while traveling to the United States to purchase might not be an issue for some large corporations, it was quite problematic for smaller investors. After all, they couldn't possibly travel to the US just to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of soybeans; it simply didn't seem worthwhile.
Currently, there were very few domestic futures trading platforms, making direct online purchases impossible. The most practical method was to make an overseas long-distance call to the United States and conduct transactions over the phone.
This, however, would require opening a bank account usable in the US and entrusting someone to register it with one's complete identification information, which was quite troublesome.
Of course, in the face of economic benefits, these troubles were insignificant. Historically, even with such difficulties, many investors and companies would overcome them.
But this world was different. Just as everyone was enthusiastically preparing to invest, the China Soybean Enterprise Association stepped forward. They proactively contacted all their members, stating that for the healthy development of China's soybean industry, they intended to collectively represent the association in purchasing soybeans from the US futures market.
Due to the large volume, they would charter several cargo ships to transport these soybeans, which would further reduce shipping costs by over 70%.
This meant that the previously required shipping fee of 300 yuan per ton could be reduced by 200 yuan if the association uniformly purchased the transportation. After that, you would only need to arrange for a truck to pick up the goods from the association's warehouse!
The association's sudden involvement in organizing this matter naturally received widespread praise from many members. Although some doubted whether the association was exceeding its usual scope of business, a saving of 200 yuan per ton of soybeans was significant. Moreover, purchasing directly from the futures market and handling transportation would save a large amount of intermediary fees, resulting in an overall saving of about 300 yuan per ton.
Now, everyone was going to buy soybeans at the same time, but their procurement costs would be 300 yuan lower than ours. How could they make money then? They would lose right from the starting line!
Consequently, almost all domestic soybean processing enterprises quickly joined the association's procurement plan. The association also enthusiastically invited smaller enterprises to participate.
As for individual investors, they were welcome to join by submitting their personal information. However, the association would not proactively invite individual investors, as they had no way of knowing who was interested in investing.
However, this procurement delegation had a strict rule: anyone joining the delegation must follow the procurement command and adhere to the delegation's plan, not acting privately. Doing so would disrupt the delegation's plans, and upon discovery, the entire association and industry would impose severe industry sanctions and blacklisting. xxs one.
Good heavens, this rule was crucial. Many enterprises expressed their commitment to follow the delegation.
Thus, a grand procurement delegation began to take shape in China.
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"A national collective procurement delegation! My God, Chinese people really know how to play!" Kraft muttered to himself in disbelief as he saw the news delivered to him.
"This is quite normal. People of this country value unity as strength and tend to go all out in everything they do, using numerical superiority to achieve victory. This has always been their characteristic; we experienced it on the peninsula battlefield back then!" Hark, sitting beside him, said calmly.
His father had always told him that the Chinese won by using human wave tactics, and he firmly believed it.
"However, this is a good thing. It means our plan has been more than 80% successful, and the next focus will be this procurement delegation. Once the delegation starts purchasing heavily in the futures market, we can sell all our large inventory of soybean futures at a price of around 500 dollars, making a net profit of 200 dollars per ton of soybeans. Is there anything more wonderful than this?" Kraft said with a smile.
"That's true, but I still feel something is not quite right!" He was a cautious person, and even with success seemingly near, he instinctively maintained a skeptical attitude.
"What do you think is not right?" Kraft, understanding his friend and competitor's personality, asked curiously.
"I just feel the development speed is too fast. We've only been creating buzz in various global publications for less than a month, and the procurement delegation has already been formed. This response time is simply too quick!" Hark said.
"No, a month is already long enough. Don't you know that Little Swift went from a fallen god to a black demon, and then back to a financial god, all within less than a month?" Kraft shrugged, a look of extreme weariness on his face. "In less than a month, 19 billion dollars turned into 43 billion dollars. We've been preparing for half a year and haven't seen even a dollar of profit, only outgoing. Do you still think this is fast?"
"That's different. Crude oil encountered unforeseen events, and Little Swift was lucky enough to find enterprises willing to take on large quantities!" Hark said.
"You're right, he was lucky. But don't forget, the enterprises taking on the quantities were also Chinese enterprises. What does this tell you? It shows that Chinese people truly like to act in large groups. It was like this with oil before, and it will be the same with our soybeans!" Kraft said with a smile. "Curiosity aside, it's not just a month; we've been preparing for this matter for half a year. Considering all aspects, the effort and cost we've put in, you won't find this timeline problematic if you think about it that way!"
"Alright!" Hark figured it made sense. Forming a procurement delegation was, by all accounts, not a bad thing for them. The only possibility was that this delegation might not purchase from the futures market but attempt to buy directly from production bases.
But this was impossible, as the next batch of soybeans wouldn't be listed until October of this year, a full seven months away. Almost all of last year's harvested soybeans were in the futures market.
And in the futures market, everyone was cooperating to drive up prices and hoard supplies, as who wouldn't want to sell at a high price? Therefore, this procurement delegation could only purchase from the futures market. As long as they came, they could clear out their large inventory of soybean contracts, and then they could just sit back and watch the soybean market collapse, causing all these Chinese enterprises to go bankrupt.
After that, their behind-the-scenes companies would come into play, and it would no longer be related to them, the financial institutions.
"By the way, there was a slight fluctuation in the market today!" Hark recalled something and said.
"What fluctuation?" Kraft asked.
"There were suddenly more soybean contracts on the market, at slightly lower prices than the current ones. To maintain the price, I've bought all of them!" Hark said.
"How much more than yesterday?"
"About 5,000 tons."
"This is normal fluctuation, nothing to worry about!" Kraft said dismissively.
"So be it. However, according to our agreement, it's your turn tomorrow to maintain the price!" Hark said.
"I know that naturally!" Kraft nodded. This time, over a dozen institutions were jointly operating. Considering the difficulty of unified coordination, both sides agreed that each institution would be responsible for market stabilization for one day, rotating continuously, unless a large-scale market change occurred.
"Sigh, with today's increased position, our institution's holding cost has gradually risen to 340 dollars. It's best to withdraw quickly!" Hark said.
"Sigh, the last time there was a larger fluctuation, we were responsible, and our institution's holding cost has risen to 346 dollars. I want to complete the operation even more than you do. Be patient, the Chinese won't drag this out for too long. They won't wait much longer, as prices change daily. Perhaps their representatives will come to negotiate with us tomorrow!" Kraft said cheerfully.
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"Sir, this is our latest research and development achievement, the latest Android mobile phone system!" In a spacious office, Andy Rubin, the founder and CEO of Android, was showcasing their latest R&D achievement to Mr. Huang – a system program based on a miniaturized mobile phone chip produced by Qualcomm.
This was the first generation of the Android system, though it was Android 0.21, indicating it was still in internal development and testing. Android would only be officially released and made available for use as Android 1.0.
However, according to Andy Rubin, as long as Huang He was willing, Android could become Android 1.0 and be released at any time, as it was already a very perfect mobile operating system.
This was much faster than the historical Android system, as Android 1.0 was released in 2007, ten months after Apple.