Chapter 38: A huge profit On

June 30, 2002, the Asahi World Cup final was held at the Yokohama International Stadium.

In the end, Brazil defeated Germany with a score of 2:0 and won the World Cup, adding a star to their jerseys, making it a five-star Brazil.

This also means that this rather "magical" World Cup has come to an end.

Before this, Barron had already collected the winnings from previous bets one by one after the other as the games ended. It was not until the final that he could start counting the spoils.

In order to avoid appearing too high-profile by winning every time, Barron's final strategy was to spread out his bets and deliberately mix in many concealed bets - these bets were made purely with the intention of losing money.

In the end, Barron's success rate for all bets was kept below 50%. Even so, because his correct bets were all high-odds and unpopular results, and he adopted this strategy after his principal reached 10 million pounds, so in the end, the after-tax funds he received were still as high as 40 million pounds!

According to statistics, the global gambling betting amount for this World Cup exceeded 30 billion pounds, and this number is only the data available through formal channels.

If private lotteries are included, the final number will be several times or even dozens of times higher than this figure.

It can be said that compared with the previous World Cup in France, the total amount of bets has increased greatly.

Because of the frequent upsets in the Asahi World Cup, it can be said that the bookmakers made a lot of money. Against this background, Barron felt more at ease with the bonuses he received.

Besides, what he earned was actually the betting money of other people, but without him, the money would most likely become the profit of the bookmaker.

But even if the bookmakers knew about Barron's achievements, they would probably be eager to promote him rather than anything else - after so many upsets, most gamblers suffered huge losses. Relatively speaking, conspiracy theories about "match-fixing" have a huge market at this time.

If Barron had such a promotional point, I'm afraid the bookmakers would be very happy to use this example to encourage everyone to place bets.

It's just that Barron was very careful to make separate bets on many companies, and the profit eventually averaged out for each company was not too exaggerated, and it has not been exposed until now anyway.

Of the funds Barron received, more than 2 million pounds has been used to pay his inheritance tax - although setting up a family trust fund can avoid most inheritance taxes, it does not mean that this method is completely tax-free.

Therefore, after the final calculation, the inheritance tax he needed to pay at that time included family funds and assets directly held by the family (subject to a 40% inheritance tax rate), totaling approximately 2 million pounds.

Another £5 million was loaned by DS Capital to the Devonshire Family Trust to settle the loan from Northern Rock Bank in advance (the interest for the remaining period was waived by the agreement, and the remaining interest was borne by the family trust fund).

This leaves a total of £33 million in funding.

However, within one year, Barron still needs to repay 5 million pounds of family debt and interest (before the end of the year), as well as 7 million pounds of overdue loans and interest from two other banks (to be repaid in installments within one year).

However, as for the £13 million loan from Barclays Bank, after the other party saw that £33 million had been deposited into DS Capital's account, the other party readily extended the repayment of the loan to two years later. Of course, the interest during the extension period still needs to be paid on time.

Yes, thanks to Daisy's efforts, DS Capital completed the registration procedures and established the investment company's account at Barclays Bank.

After all, no matter what, Barclays Bank, as one of the four largest private banks in the UK, will become one of the largest banks in the world in the future, so Barron still hopes to establish a cooperative relationship with them.

DS Capital currently has approximately 33 million pounds available.

Although more than 12 million pounds need to be repaid within a year, and more than 13 million pounds need to be repaid after two years, only less than 8 million pounds actually belongs to Barron, but at least the funds he now has have sufficient investment windows to bring him richer returns.

Another reason for choosing Barclays Bank is that it not only provides services for using dedicated securities accounts to directly purchase US stocks including NASDAQ, but also makes it more convenient to purchase British stocks and futures products.

Because Barclays Bank is one of the partners of the American stock market in the UK.

Moreover, there is no such thing as a securities firm in the UK. The intermediary institutions for securities trading are commercial investment banks, and Barclays Bank, as one of the four largest private banks in the UK, has this business.

Following Barron's instructions, Daisy has begun using funds to purchase NetEase shares in the Nasdaq market, and will eventually purchase shares totaling 2 million pounds.

Barron has also made arrangements for the remaining funds of more than 30 million pounds.

These funds will be invested in the U.S. stock and futures markets in the form of margin through a financing agreement signed with Barclays Bank!

As a senior overseas financial investor in his previous life, Barron also had some understanding of the international financial situation at that time.

It can be said that 2002 was a year of recovery.

After experiencing the Internet bubble, both U.S. stocks and crude oil and mineral products will begin a period of strong growth.

First of all, starting from June, the crude oil and mineral markets started a round of rise, and now is the initial period of accumulation of momentum for the rise.

This increase is caused by a variety of factors.

For example, China's entry into the WTO will increase its demand for energy and minerals...

After the economic recession caused by the Internet bubble, central banks around the world unanimously implemented quantitative easing policies, which boosted the real estate and building materials demand...

The United States began to put pressure on Iraq this year, and the shadow of war loomed, affecting the price of crude oil...

Therefore, if you enter at this time, whether it is crude oil, gold or mineral futures, it will be a long-term bullish trend.

In the U.S. stock market, after the bursting of the Internet bubble, the Nasdaq index has reached its low point, and technology stocks will also usher in a strong recovery.

Another thing worth investing in is real estate-related stocks. From now until 2007, there will be a real estate carnival...

As for after 2007...

As we all know, once a bubble is inflated, it will burst, such as the Internet before and the real estate later. The subprime mortgage crisis will be more destructive than the Internet bubble.

Of course, the UK stock market is also worth noting…

From the beginning of 2000 to the beginning of 2003, the British stock market experienced a long three-year decline, with the stock index falling by 47%.

During this period, Vodafone's share price also fell from 400 pounds per share to 78 pounds, a decrease of 80%!

However, although the communications industry has been in a slump, there are other fundamentals of the British stock market that are worth noting.

After the bursting of the Internet bubble, the commodity industry led the British stock market to rebound from the bottom.

Since 2002, the prices of crude oil and ore have been rising rapidly, profits of upstream raw material companies have increased, and related stocks have outperformed the market. The market value weight of the crude oil and mining industry in the UK stock market has increased from 14% in 2002 to 26% at the end of 2007.

Therefore, stocks related to crude oil and mining industries are also worthy of attention.

So at this time, Barron has more than 30 million pounds of funds left in his hands, of which 10 million pounds will be used as margin to enter crude oil and mineral futures.

The remaining funds of more than 20 million pounds will also be used for financing, through leverage to go long on technology and real estate related stocks in the US stock market; as well as oil and mining related stocks in the British stock market.