Chapter 79: Only Money Earned Matters

Huiyin Precious Metals.

The main trading focus here is spot silver, but the price is pegged to the international silver rate and converted into domestic currency. There’s no need to exchange into U.S. dollars like in forex trading.

After conversion, the spread between the buying and selling price is eight points, a fixed number.

And if you add the bilateral commission fees?

…

“Eighteen points?” Zhang Long couldn’t help but gape. “That’s way too high. No matter which instrument you buy, just entering the market means you’re paying an eighteen-point cost. For fifteen kilograms, that’s 270; for thirty kilograms, 540; for fifty kilograms, 900—and that’s just for a single lot…”

On the spot silver board, one point equals one unit of currency. Whether you buy up or down, you need to capture at least twenty points just to make a two-point profit after covering costs.

If you choose the right direction, you must seize a thirty-six-point swing just to break even with the platform’s charges.

If you’re wrong, it’s not even worth mentioning—the loss is however many points you missed, plus the eighteen-point fee.

“Zhang, you’re mistaken.” The account manager smiled slightly. “The eight-point spread is simply the currency conversion difference, just like exchanging for U.S. dollars to trade forex. After the exchange rate, there’s always a deduction—everywhere is the same.”

“As for the handling fee?”

“Right now, silver prices are high, and the overall trend is bearish. As silver drops, the trading fees will gradually decrease; it’s a floating, not fixed, rate.”

“More importantly…” The manager pulled up the recent spot silver price movements. “Look, Zhang—on average, the intraday price fluctuates between 150 and 300 points. Think how many opportunities there are to profit in those swings! Once you cover the eighteen-point cost, every additional point is pure profit, and there’s no limit on the number of trades.”

“Say what you will, stock trading fees are lower, but you can only buy up, and it’s a bear market right now.”

“There’s hardly any chance to make money.”

…

For investors, whether there are profitable opportunities is more important than the cost of fees. Zhang Long didn’t really care about the eighteen-point cost. As for the commission potentially shrinking as silver’s price falls, that was even less significant.

In any case, if he couldn’t anticipate the market, there was no way he’d do spot trading.

Without a “hook,” you’d only lose, never win.

The reason spot trading became popular is mainly due to its large intraday fluctuations and abundant opportunities, coupled with the fact that trading is available almost all day from 6 a.m. to 4 a.m.—you can trade as often as you like, anytime. You can buy one second and sell the next—it’s flexible.

Stocks, however, can only be sold the day after you buy, and each day has just two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon.

In terms of trading mechanisms, spot trading wins by a landslide.

Of course, the more flexible spot trading is, the greater its risks. If you start losing control, the million you deposit in the morning could be gone by afternoon—there’s no cooling-off or buffer period, just instant ruin.

…

“All right, let’s open the account first.” Zhang Long’s thoughts returned. He stopped fixating on the cost. Huiyin’s scale was decent, and its facilities were even larger than Shengxin’s—good enough.

Even if Huiyin was secretly trading against its clients, it didn’t matter; they had deep pockets.

Only then could he feel at ease “shearing the sheep.”

If it were just a small intermediary platform, with a capital pool of maybe only tens of millions or a hundred million, how much could you shear? Not much before you’d hit the platform’s risk alert line, and then they’d negotiate for you to stop trading.

As for freezing your account and refusing withdrawals? Zhang Long just chuckled. If he could anticipate the market, he’d only deposit a million to activate, then, once he’d made back his principal, withdraw it and continue playing with his profits.

After that, every time he earned another million or two, he’d withdraw again, accumulating small gains into a large fortune.

A million isn’t considered a big client. Even if you make off with several million or ten million in profits, it’s not a big deal.

Making tens of millions or even a hundred million—that’s worth talking about!

…

“Hello?” That afternoon, while at home, Zhang Long received a call from the official Huiyin customer service line. They were making a risk disclosure recording. He’d only submitted the account opening application that morning and recorded his risk disclosure confirmation—this call was just a backup.

There was nothing much else; mainly, they just confirmed his identity and that he was personally opening and operating the account, informing him not to let others use it, and so on, for compliance reasons.

“Yes, it’s me.” Zhang Long nodded and answered as prompted. The call ended quickly, and about half an hour later, Huiyin Precious Metals sent him his trading account and initial password. The trading platform was already downloaded; he immediately reset the password—no need to wait for activation.

He also reset both his login and funding (deposit/withdrawal) passwords; all set.

All that remained was to deposit funds and activate the account.

But it couldn’t be done today. Tomorrow morning, he’d go to the bank to open the required third-party custodial account, then deposit funds and activate the account—he’d be able to trade immediately, unlike stocks, which require activation before trading the next day.

Zhang Long did the math—it’d be better to do it next week.

Today was Wednesday, and since the stocks hadn’t been closed out, he’d have to wait until tomorrow to settle gains from JunCai and TuoHai Energy. On Friday morning, he could withdraw the funds, but after depositing and activating the Huiyin account, the funds would need to settle before he could withdraw. That meant waiting until the following Monday—not ideal.

Better to leave the funds in the Huiyin account over the weekend, so activate on Monday, and try a test withdrawal on Tuesday to make sure everything worked.

Though, realistically, there probably wouldn’t be any issues.

“Buzz, buzz buzz—” Suddenly, his phone vibrated. Zhang Long glanced at the screen—it was Huiyin’s account manager calling. He slid to answer, and they began discussing the recent trends in spot silver.

Even if spot trading relied on having a “hook,” it was still necessary to maintain some contact with the account manager.

…

“At last, it’s stopped.” A quiet night passed. Day broke—Thursday.

Countless retail investors watched as TuoHai Energy, having hit the daily limit six days in a row, finally paused. Though it opened higher, at least it didn’t hit the limit again.

Still, despite having an entry opportunity, few dared to buy in, fearing a sudden reversal.

It was just like with Yunfeng Technology—after consecutive limit-ups, as soon as retail investors rushed in, the price turned and plummeted.

The bitter memory was still fresh.

“Alright, let’s go!” Zhang Long exhaled softly. He didn’t wait for TuoHai Energy to reach its peak in the afternoon, but closed out his position directly. After all fees were deducted, his account total reached 2.5 million!

He’d close out positions in the HSBC and UBS accounts tomorrow morning—then each would have 2 million!

Three and a half million net profit in the first month—a solid performance.

“Five hundred thousand? Not bad, not bad…” In the JunCai trading department, a certain advisor manager saw that Zhang Long only withdrew 500,000 and breathed a sigh of relief. With tomorrow being Friday, he was only taking 500,000 out—it was a sign he wasn’t cashing out everything. Otherwise, if he really needed money over the weekend, it wouldn’t be just 500,000.

This meant that, in a few days at the start of December, Zhang Long would still have 2 million to keep trading—a very good sign.

His luck really was exceptional.

The advisor’s eyes gleamed with envy. With 3 million just activated, and immediately catching the platform’s recommended stock TuoHai Energy, netting 1.5 million—what luck! Ordinary people couldn’t compare.

“Oh, done!” After closing out TuoHai Energy in JunCai, Zhang Long applied to withdraw 500,000. He’d combine that with another 500,000 from his bank card to activate Huiyin.

Next month’s financial operations: 2 million in each of his three stock accounts, and 1 million in spot trading.

Although spot trading offered far more opportunities and could easily outpace the stock market in returns, Zhang Long was calm—he knew what he wanted and wasn’t greedy.

Even if a million in spot trading doubled in one afternoon, he wouldn’t be tempted!

He weighed everything carefully in his heart.

What’s in your hand is the only real gold!