Chapter 120: Shorting the Lira

[Chapter 120: Shorting the Lira]

That afternoon, Ian came to the hospital to visit Gaskill, as usual.

The old man appeared increasingly vigorous and was able to walk freely now.

He cheerfully set down the newspaper he had been holding and said, "All settled?"

"Yes," Ian replied as he sat down beside Lena.

Lena chewed on her lip and said, "I'm feeling jealous, Ian. I know you've been with those girls over the last few days."

"Not really, Jessica went home, and the rest of the five girls won't be back for a few more days."

Ian helplessly hugged Lena, saying, "You will always be the most important to me, but Gaskill has to be the most important to you!"

"Of course!" Lena smiled happily at the old man.

Ian then turned to Gaskill, asking, "When can you officially be discharged from the hospital?"

"The doctor said another two weeks, though I think they just want to make more money," Gaskill replied with a laugh.

He waved his hand and said, "Let's go outside for a walk."

The two of them exited the hospital and strolled down the street.

...

The midday sun was beautiful, and the tall buildings around them, along with the dazzling array of merchandise, made it hard to take in everything.

They walked casually along the street, with Lena helping the old man to avoid tiring him out too much.

After a bit of walking, Gaskill sat down next to a fountain by the road.

He gazed into the distance and asked, "Am I twitching? Tell me the truth, Ian."

Ian earnestly replied, "In the last three hours, you've twitched over forty times, but it's not too bad."

"Not too bad, but annoying at crucial moments," Gaskill sighed.

Then he turned to Ian and asked, "So, how's Katherine doing?"

Ian shrugged, "Not much, I haven't been in touch with her lately. I guess she doesn't want to see me."

Gaskill shook his head repeatedly, saying, "No, you must reach out to her. You need to get your newspaper to keep tracking her story and make her the best police officer in Los Angeles."

Ian was puzzled, asking, "Why?"

"Because I'm worried about you," Gaskill sighed. "You've gotten too deep into the gang life."

For Gaskill, business setbacks were not too frightening, but getting involved with gangs could easily lead one down a path of no return.

Since discovering that Ian had some special methods, the old man firmly believed that with his own experience and wisdom, combined with Ian's abilities, even if this attempt to short the Italian lira failed, they would still be able to create a comeback in the future.

However, because of this, Ian's involvement with gangs would become his biggest bottleneck.

After all, no matter how strong one's personal abilities were, they could not stand up to national forces.

The old man said, "I can't stop you from taking risks, but you need to make sure you have a safe escape plan. In the future, being a hero isn't something you should attempt anymore. Journalists have butterflies, heroes have..."

Ian understood: "Katherine!"

The old man chuckled, "Yes, that's the best solution. Plus, it's also a way to win over feminists."

Ian nodded slightly.

That was indeed the case.

Environmentalists, animal rights activists, feminists, gun rights advocates, and various unions were all powerful grassroots forces in America. No matter how ridiculous their actions seemed, what mattered for businessmen was the number of people they could rally and the influence they could exert.

Ian nodded, saying, "Okay, I'll get the Herald to increase coverage on her and make her a real star in the police force."

Gaskill shook his head, "That's not enough. You also need to be able to control her. You have to understand that women can sometimes be tricky, especially one with a bit of a sense of justice. She might act on her emotions and could eventually ruin you, even if it means destroying herself."

Ian asked, "So what should I do?"

Gaskill chuckled, "Fuck her."

Ian was speechless.

Lena shot a fierce glare at Gaskill.

She was jealous.

Ian quietly said, "You mentioned emotions would affect business."

"So you need to learn to manipulate emotions. Don't fall in love with her, don't make her angry, but it's okay to let her be disappointed. If a woman is angry with you, she can ruin you. If she's disappointed, she'll leave. But before that, she'll work wholeheartedly for you... until one day, even if she self-destructs, it won't affect you!"

As Gaskill smiled, he said, "I believe that day won't come too soon. So you just need to endure for a while."

Ian wanted to say that this wasn't about being enduring, but seeing Lena, he laughed and said, "Alright, but before that, let's make sure we get the upcoming tasks done well."

He wore a reluctant expression that made Lena's heart flutter even more.

...

Three days later, Ian successfully secured a $200 million loan from Lino Bank.

This money was to short the lira.

Gaskill had already connected him with both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, so Ian began shorting the Italian lira through these two banks, leveraging thirty times.

The foreign exchange market behaved differently from the stock market. Its currency rates were relatively stable and didn't fluctuate much -- while the depreciation of the Italian lira was among the fastest in the world, it had only devalued by 20% over two years.

A 20% currency devaluation from a national perspective was considered rapid, second only to places like Venezuela, but those areas had little shorting opportunity.

So, in the international foreign exchange market where shorting was possible, the Italian lira was quite promising.

Since the maximum time for shorting through margin loans was only half a year and the euro would be formally implemented next year, Ian would essentially short it for half a year.

The floating range was about 5%.

Even though currency fluctuations were relatively stable, the greedy speculators could always turn low-risk situations into high-risk ones.

For items that didn't fluctuate much, they could easily apply high leverage, raising profits and risks in tandem.

Even Ian was cautious about taking too high a leverage since all the money he was using was borrowed, and he had limited certainty about this matter.

Thirty times leverage meant he could only absorb a 3.3% fluctuation, which was considered the lowest level in the foreign exchange market, while the bold could play with up to 500 times leverage.

But Ian didn't dare to do that.

He knew the two worlds were different, and in a stable trend, small details could be fatal.

What if the Italian lira unexpectedly made a rebound?

What if they abandoned the euro?

A 1% difference in the world, a slight change in details could be deadly, especially since Ian was creating a butterfly effect himself.

With 500 times leverage, if the Italian lira rose by just 0.2%, Ian would be bankrupt.

So, Ian preferred to use the lower leverage of thirty times, which required a large initial investment on his part.

...

After beginning to short the Italian lira, Ian boldly announced: "Bearish on the lira, major investment."

Upon hearing the news, Americans were astonished.

"Ian Carr, are you that amazing?"

"You think you're Soros or something?"

But Ian was different from Soros.

Soros created crises even when there was none: he wasn't just a user of crises but also a creator of regional financial crises. Just as Ian wasn't merely repackaging news; he was more of a producer.

However, in areas outside the media, Ian was honest: he didn't have the power to influence a country's exchange rate; he could just go with the flow.

After all, it was only half a year, and he would see how much it could drop.

As long as the lira fell, Lino Bank wouldn't worry about collection problems, since they had locked in the funds.

Besides the above news, Ian also released a series of stories about Bayer Chemical's environmental pollution and Senator Natum's domestic violence against his wife.

These were all stories he had deep-dived in recent times with Gaskill's guidance.

Of course, only a small part was released, and much more would never be broadcast.

The continuous stream of major news raised the value of Carr Media and WND considerably.

*****

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