Chapter 122 Chicago

   Without seeing the completion of the entire acquisition, Zhong Shi boarded the plane to Chicago, USA under the eyes of his family's reluctance, where he was going to complete his four-year studies.

  Chicago is the third largest city in the United States after New York and Los Angeles. Because the north is close to Lake Michigan, the cold current from the wilderness of northern Canada blows directly to Chicago through Lake Michigan. Although there are many tall buildings in Chicago, due to the famous fires that broke out in history, the intervals between urban buildings are very wide. Even the average width of the road is the widest in the United States. Therefore, the tall buildings do not block the wind, but form strips. Windy Alley, so Chicago has always been known as the "Windy City".

This is a multi-racial and multi-ethnic city, among which the proportion of blacks is the highest, reaching 38%. Urban public security has therefore become a very serious problem, especially in several famous black districts, where guns, drugs , Gang is the theme. The University of Chicago, where Zhong Shi wanted to study abroad, was located in one of the black districts.

  The plane landed from O'Hare International Airport in the northwest of the city center, then changed to a car, went to the University of Chicago 20 miles (straight-line distance), and then went through a series of cumbersome admission procedures, and finally was assigned to a double room dormitory.

   With a few days before school starts, Zhong Shi took the opportunity to visit the three major exchanges in downtown Chicago.

The first one to visit was the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). The exchange’s agricultural products and interest rate products are relatively active. In addition to traditional agricultural products such as corn, soybeans, and wheat, there are also long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, stock indexes, gold, Silver and other futures trading.

Then there is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which has a large volume of index futures, Eurodollars, short-term treasury bonds and currency futures. Its international currency market is the most important currency futures and options trading in the world. one of the markets.

In 2002, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was listed on the New York Stock Exchange; in 2006, the two exchanges merged and established Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Co., Ltd. to meet the challenge of the Euronext (EUREX); and then continued to expand, in 2008 In 2010, another giant of the futures exchange, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), was brought into his arms.

  These are all things to say later. Zhong Shi’s last visit was the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). This exchange mainly trades stock options, index options, etc. In this year, CBOE is about to launch an index to measure market risk and investor panic, named VIX index, which is essentially the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options, which to some extent reflects investors' benchmarking Confidence in S&P 500 stocks, and in turn infer confidence in the entire market, is a particularly critical confidence indicator.

  Options, strictly speaking, are options. In terms of types, they can be divided into European options and American options. European option is that buyers and sellers can buy or sell a certain amount of subject matter at an agreed price at a specified time point. Model) price model is calculated, while American options can be arbitrarily selected to be executed at a certain point of time within the agreement, so the price of this option cannot be calculated.

  Because American options give more power to the buyer, they are also more expensive than European options in terms of fees.

  In addition to the products listed on these exchanges, there are more varieties and more complicated financial derivatives in the OTC market. Since these derivatives are not regulated on the market, they are far larger than similar products on the market both in terms of transaction scale and target amount.

  After visiting the three major exchanges, Zhong Shi returned to the University of Chicago, and then lived a life like an "otaku". Basically, except for the remote control of acquisitions in Hong Kong by telephone, most of the rest of the time stayed in the school.

Zhong Shi chose statistics and economics as his major. Universities in the United States generally have four semesters, of which about three quarters are an academic year. Generally, undergraduates study for four years, but you can choose in other quarters. Studying, as long as the credits are full, you can graduate.

Zhong Shi has long admired the University of Chicago, the birthplace of Monetarism. The Caltech he attended in his previous life was a research-oriented university, and most of the graduates went to NASA or a national laboratory, etc. In such places, fewer people change careers halfway, and even fewer are active on Wall Street.

However, schools like the University of Chicago have similar guidance departments, and even guidance for minorities entering the investment industry, because the United States has very strict management of racial discrimination, even Wall Street, which is dominated by white elites. Major investment banks must also include employees of other skin colors, otherwise they are very likely to be accused of racial discrimination.

  In addition, institutions that enter Wall Street are very likely to become the kind of people whose income exceeds that of the majority. Under such circumstances, the funds that can be donated to the school will increase.

  Zhong Shi has no plans to enter other institutions. In fact, after he reaches legal person age next year, he will set up his own fund and appear in front of the world in an upright manner.

The person who lives in the same dormitory with Zhong Shi is a boy from Hong Kong. Generally speaking, students in Hong Kong have received British education since they were young, and most of them apply for British universities. However, in recent years, there have been many outstanding students. of Hong Kong students study at U.S. universities, which are some of the best in the world, after all.

What's funny is that this student named Li Weigang is an out-and-out pro-British faction. When Zhong Shi said the first sentence, he showed a look of disdain. There is an inexplicable sense of superiority on the Internet, but Zhong Shi speaks Mandarin out of time.

  But he didn't maintain this attitude for long before he was broken by a sudden phone call.

   "Hello, Mr. Zhong? I'm Linda, an employee of the North American Department of HSBC Private Bank. If you need anything in Chicago, you can contact me anytime!" A woman's voice with a poor Mandarin accent sounded through the microphone.

  Her Mandarin is extremely strange, her voice is frustrating, and she pauses every word, as if she is reciting to the mark, and it seems that she is just learning Chinese.

  The attention of Li Weigang, who was pretending to read a book at the side, was immediately attracted. He is from Hong Kong, but he knows the huge influence of HSBC.

"Uh..." Zhong Shi resisted the urge to laugh and said in English instead, "You should stop speaking Chinese, it's very strange. If this is the case, then you can help me find an apartment in the city center, and give me Find a bulletproof car with a low-key exterior."

  The city center of Chicago is at the mouth of the Chicago River, which is the Loop District, where there are countless high-rise buildings. The famous Sears Tower and the three major exchanges are located there. Naturally, housing prices in such places are not cheap.

The University of Chicago is also close to Lake Michigan, but it is about ten kilometers away from the city center, and it is located in a black area. After two black mayors in the 1980s, the security of the entire Chicago has become a big problem, so Zhongshi couldn't wait to move out of here.

Li Weigang, who pricked up his ears to eavesdrop, was stunned and almost yelled out. He never thought that the young man in front of him who had not met for a long time turned out to be a hidden character. He had just come to Chicago Buying an apartment in the city center. He thought of the previous muttering again, and couldn't help but secretly regret it in his heart.

The pattern of this place in Chicago is a bit strange. Lake Michigan is like a wedge inserted deep into Illinois, and Chicago is a city group built around the west side of Lake Michigan, from the mouth of the Chicago River to the north along the coastline. A large area is a rich area.

The working efficiency of HSBC Private Bank was very fast, and they called again half an hour later: "Mr. Zhong, I know there is an apartment that meets your requirements, and the owner just wants to sell it. If you have no comments, I can help you contact the owner first, but this place is a bit far from the University of Chicago." The female voice on the phone paused, and then continued: "And it is in an absolute prime location in the urban area, and the price may be relatively high."

  Business is like this, everything should be ugly first, but Zhong Shi doesn't care about this little money. His current net worth is enough to buy Sears Building. He said nonchalantly: "The price is not a problem, you can contact me first, and I will go to see it in person when I am free, and if there is no problem, I will prepare a contract. But we must hurry up about the car, and there is also the issue of the driver's license."

   Soon, in the afternoon, HSBC's pick-up car drove to the University of Chicago on the South Side of Chicago, and picked up Zhong Shi, who hadn't visited the entire campus of the University of Chicago.

This is a 70-story apartment building located at the mouth of the Chicago River. The name of the building is Lake Point Tower. It is located in the famous Chicago scenic spot Navy Pier. The body shape is very modern, and it is the tallest apartment building in the world after its completion in 1968. Because of its prime location on the shores of Lake Michigan, it immediately became a well-known high-end apartment building in Chicago.

"This apartment is located on the top floor. You can see the Sears Building when you open the window. When the weather is good, you can even see other states. The area of ​​the room is 300 square meters and the decoration is Baroque. Of course, you can also redecorate. If I hadn't been eager to move, I wouldn't have sold it at such a low price."

  A 30-year-old white man took Zhong Shi and others to look inside and out, and finally quoted a price of 750,000 US dollars.

  Zhong Shi was naturally very satisfied, he nodded: "Check or cash?"

  A look of astonishment immediately appeared on the white man's face. First, he didn't expect that this small young man didn't even have to bargain, so he agreed immediately. Then he said "cash", which made him feel even more at a loss. You should know that due to the perfection of the US credit system, basically not many people will use cash, especially when buying and selling large amounts.

   Thank you book friend ttjc for voting for the monthly ticket. I am really grateful for still supporting this book. In fact, the author is really sorry for everyone during this period, but there is no way to do it. The author is very grateful for being considerate.

  

  

  (end of this chapter)