hunt hollywood

However, in Simon's memory, Ted Turner did not take out the money in the end. What the media tycoon valued was actually the thousands of film copyrights accumulated by MGM for more than half a century.

Turner Broadcasting is preparing to build a new basic cable station, requiring a lot of content resources.

In the end, the most precious batch of film resources in MGM's film library was successfully preserved. After some toss, MGM returned to Kerkorian's hands again.

In the next few years, the casino tycoon began to use MGM to play capital operations again.

All in all, the once most powerful film company in Hollywood probably has the least interest in doing movies now.

Chapter 108 If You Win

Taking advantage of "Run Lola Run" and "The Butterfly Effect" are still in theaters, Disney announced the next day that it will cooperate with Daenerys Pictures on the "When Harry Met Sally" project. information.

Daenerys Pictures here.

Although he expressed dissatisfaction with Simon's promise of Disney's $600 million guarantee commission, but because the original agreement in the contract was that the project distribution was completely dominated by Daenerys Films, Dennis O'Brien, the head of Craft Films, could only complain in his mouth some.

After several days of negotiations, on May 5, Daenerys Pictures formally signed a distribution contract with Disney for "When Harry Met Sally".

After finalizing the release of "When Harry Met Sally", Daenerys Pictures only needs to complete the production of three films without distraction, and Simon also began to turn part of his energy to another of his plans.

October 5, Wednesday.

In the apartment of Century Building, Simon did not go out this morning.

For the sake of confidentiality, two managers of Lehman Brothers came to him personally to handle the formalities of opening a futures account for him.

Nearing 11 o'clock, Jeff Robertson, the senior vice president of Lehman Brothers, re-examined the various formalities and certificates, carefully put some documents into his briefcase, then got up, and said to Simon: "Mr. Westeros , for the next thing, you can directly contact Noah. Of course, if you need any help, you can also call me at any time. "

Simon shook hands with Jeff Robertson politely, sent him out the door, and then looked at the 30-year-old white man who stayed beside him.The man was about the same size as Simon, with brown hair and a clean face, wearing a meticulous white shirt and black trousers.

This is the classmate Janet introduced to Simon, named Noah Scott, who is currently serving as the vice president of the Chicago branch of Lehman Brothers, mainly responsible for the business of commodity futures.

In order to sign Simon, a major client, Noah Scott rushed over from Chicago.

The two sat down on the sofa in the living room again. Simon looked at the young man across from him and tentatively said, "Noah, if I'm right, you and Jenny are not from the same class, right?"

Noah Scott shook his head, looked at Simon in the same way, and said, "Unfortunately, Simon, Jenny and I are still in the same class."

Simon raised his eyebrows slightly, and said, "Then, you should be stronger than I imagined."

If it is the same class as Janet, Noah Scott may only be 27 years old this year. Became the vice president of Lehman Brothers at the age of 27, which was somewhat beyond Simon's expectations.

Investment banks have a different job system than other firms.

In the early stage of investment banking development, in order to maintain an equal status with corporate executives in the process of business negotiations, investment banks successively crowned their employees with positions such as managing director, executive general manager, senior vice president, vice president, and assistant vice president. The titles were all retained later.

Therefore, on Wall Street, slightly larger investment banks usually have several hundred vice presidents.

However, this by no means means how easy it is to become a vice president of an old investment bank like Lehman Brothers. An excellent business school graduate joins an investment bank, from the bottom analyst to assistant vice president to vice president , under normal circumstances, it is basically impossible not to survive for seven or eight years.

Facing Simon's surprise, Noah Scott was very calm and said: "Actually, Simon, my father is a senior executive of American Express. Of course, I am also confident enough to be qualified for the current position. Your funds are placed in I'm perfectly safe here. So, what are you going to do next?"

Simon vaguely remembered that American Express seemed to have acquired Lehman Brothers a few years ago, but his memory was not too detailed in this regard.However, Simon also knows that although there are many elites in large investment banks, they are also full of various relationships.

Out of trust in Janet, Simon didn't bother with this.

However, upon hearing the other party's question, Simon did not intend to tell Noah Scott all about his plan.The two have not yet reached that level of trust, and there are too many things about Wall Street backhanding their own clients.

"Noah, there will be $7500 million in Westeros' account this afternoon. Back in Chicago, all you need to do is buy 1000 contracts of S&P 500 futures during the last two days of the week Long September contract."

Noah Scott nodded slightly, and asked: "And then?"

Simon said succinctly: "Wait. Wait for the next instruction I give you."

Noah Scott thought for a while, then tried again: "Simon, do you want to do long-term?"

"Maybe," Simon replied noncommittally, looked at the young man opposite, and said, "Noah, you have to understand that I don't need investment consulting. My request is very simple. I say, you do it."

Noah Scott felt Simon's sharp gaze instantly, shrugged his shoulders after a while, changed his posture on the sofa slightly, and said, "Of course, Simon, the customer is God. However, you don't seem to trust me too much. "

Simon asked rhetorically, "If we switched places, would you trust me the first time we met?"

"If I was 19 years old, I might believe it," Noah Scott said with some teasing in his tone, but then said: "In this case, Simon, in terms of business, maybe we don't have much to talk about." .So, can you tell me how you caught up with Jenny? Many of us tried to pursue her back then, but all of them failed."

Simon didn't want to talk too much about his and Janet's privacy. He just shook his head and got up and said, "Sorry, Noah, I can't invite you to lunch today, maybe I will have a chance later."

Noah Scott didn't bother, he got up and shook hands with Simon, and said, "I look forward to seeing the trust between us increase next time."

After sending Noah Scott away, Simon found a recent trend chart of the S&P 500 Index from the coffee table in the living room and came to the study.

Standing in front of the large white writing board by the wall of the study, Simon raised the S&P 500 trend chart as of yesterday in his hand, and compared it with another S&P 500 trend curve drawn from memory on the writing board.

In order to avoid memory interference, Simon had not paid attention to the recent stock index curves before today.But at this time, the S&P 1987 curve in his hand before May 5, 6 basically coincided with another curve before the relevant time node on the writing board.

The memory, then, is clearly not faulty.

Simon is also basically relieved. Although his own "butterfly" appears, he does not think that the S&P 10 futures market with a daily trading volume of more than 500 billion US dollars will be too seriously disturbed.

According to the data accumulated during this period, Simon found that 1987 was completely a "wild era" for stock index futures trading.This era is full of opportunities, but there are also countless traps. It can make people rich overnight, and it is enough to make people bankrupt instantly.

Unlike commodity futures, which have been developed for more than a century, the world's first stock index futures only appeared in the United States in 1982, that is, 5 years ago.

In 1982, it happened to be the beginning of a new round of stock bull market in the United States.

Since 1982, the Dow Jones Index, the most important measure of the U.S. stock market, has risen from 800 points to the recent 2300 points. Simon also knows that in the next few months, the Dow Jones Index will reach a peak of more than 2700 points.

The vigorous development of the stock market easily conceals various drawbacks in stock index futures trading.

Anyone with a little knowledge of futures probably knows that stock index futures have trading rules such as daily price limit rules, circuit breakers, debt-free settlement, position limits, etc. to protect the market.

however.

Now in 1987, none of these things exist.

The Dow Jones index futures have not yet been launched. Taking the mainstream S&P 500 index futures in the market as an example, the trading process of stock index futures is actually very simple.

近期的标普500指数在270点左右，西蒙记忆中标普500在8月底最高冲到了330点以上。

Then.

Take the integer of 500 points of the S&P 300 as an example:

Each stock index futures has a 'contract multiplier', later the S&P 500 futures 'contract multiplier' was $250, but now it is $500.

Therefore, the actual value of each S&P 500 futures contract is 'index points' multiplied by the 'contract multiplier', which is $15.However, futures speculators only need to pay a 10% margin to buy a contract, which is $1.

Next, every 500 point increase or decrease in the S&P 1 index means a profit or loss of US$500 for a contract.

$500 may not seem like much, but if multiplied by 1 contracts, the profit and loss represented by every 1 point change in the index will expand to $500 million.

Based on the $1 margin for each contract, 5000 contracts would require a $1 million margin.Therefore, on the surface, the profit and loss of 1.5 million US dollars is still nothing.

From 1982 to the present, the North American stock market has shown a very stable upward trend, with few violent fluctuations.Because of this relatively flat market conditions, the 'floor tick' for S&P 500 contracts is actually 0.1 points.

Since no major changes have been experienced, the federal regulatory authorities have not imposed various restrictions on the stock index futures market in the past five years.

There is no price limit rule, no circuit breaker mechanism, no daily debt-free settlement system, no position limit...

then.

Disaster struck when the Great Crash of October 1987, 10 occurred.

西蒙的记忆中，10月19日当天，标准普尔500指数直接从此前周五收盘时的281点跳空低开至200点以下。

80 point drop.

what does that mean.

It is still calculated on the basis of 1 contracts.

如果有人在10月16日当天错误地以281点建立1万份多头合约，全部保证金约为1.4亿美元。10月19日当天，他每一份合约的亏损就将是500美元乘以80点，也就是4万美元。

With 1 long contracts and a loss of $4 per contract, the overall loss will reach $4 million.Compared with the $1.4 million deposit, the loss ratio is close to 300%.

Actually.

During the stock market crash in 1987, there was indeed such an unlucky guy who mistakenly bet on a huge amount of long contracts. That person was named George Soros. The later financial predators lost 8 million U.S. dollars because of this battle.

In the end, Quantum Fund, whose net asset value just exceeded $30 billion that year, shrank by more than a quarter in just a few days.

just now.

In the apartment of Century Building.

Simon looked at the S&P 500 index, which had been rising all the way until the end of August, on the writing board in his study, and his fingertips felt slightly numb because of the plans to be implemented in the next few months.

in front of the curve.

五月初的270点到八月底的330点。整体60点的上扬，波动幅度丝毫不亚于一场股灾。60点涨幅，每一份多头合约可以盈利3万美元。利润率足以超过200%。

Shocking September.

Avoid.

10 month 19 day.

281 points to 200 points, 80 points drop, the real stock market crash.

Soros has a famous reflexive theory. Simply put, there are unpredictable interactions between market participants and the market all the time.

Simon naturally considered that the addition of his 'butterfly' would change the original market trend.

but.

Counting all the expected bargaining chips, he now only has more than 1 million US dollars.

If you really lose, you lose.

Just start all over again.

but.

If won.

On his way to the top of the pyramid, Simon will climb too many steps at once.

Chapter 109 How Can It Be Normal

Beverly Hills.

In a coffee shop near the WMA headquarters on Camino Street, Simon and Jonathan sat down again after seeing off the other two.

Flipping through the novel titled "Dances with Wolves" that had just negotiated the rights to adapt it again, Simon glanced at the paparazzi shaking outside the glass window, and said to Jonathan: "ICM must be nervous, you just signed Down with Robert De Niro, and down on their stars."

ICM (Innovative International Management Company) is a talent agency company in Hollywood after WMA and CAA. It owns big stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Eddie Murphy, and its strength should not be underestimated.

The two people who left just now, one is Michael Blake, the author of "Dances with Wolves" in Simon's hands, and the other is Kevin Costner.

In the era before Simon's rebirth, most people's impression of Kevin Costner may only be the role of Superman's adoptive father Jonathan Kent in "Superman: Man of Steel".But in fact, with such blockbuster works as "Dances with Wolves" and "Bodyguard", Kevin Costner can be said to be one of the hottest big-name male stars in Hollywood in the 90s.

Kevin Costner is now a client of ICM. Although he is not as big as he was later, he is still quite famous.

Jonathan Friedman had successfully signed a contract with Robert De Niro last week. Hearing what Simon said, he shook his head and said with a smile: "Kevin and Bob both belong to the kind of actors whose style tends to be introverted. I'm not as good as CAA." Greedy, signing one is enough. Speaking of which, Simon, counting "Dances with Wolves", you have already bought eight copyrights during this period, do you want to continue?"

Simon felt the dissuasion in Jonathan's tone, but said: "If there is something promising, of course we will continue."

Even so, Simon felt a little helpless.

Among the eight novels, remakes or original script copyrights that have already been obtained, Simon is actually only interested in two, "Dances with Wolves" and "Forrest Gump", and the others are just randomly collected to make smoke bombs of.

Due to technical limitations, "Forrest Gump", which once won the Oscar for Best Special Effects, will definitely not be able to start filming in the short term.

"Forrest Gump" was just published last year, and the author of the novel, Winston Groom, is also considered a minor celebrity in the industry.However, compared to several other works of this author, the sales volume of "Forrest Gump" can only be described as a failure.

From last year to now, "Forrest Gump" has sold less than [-] copies.

After Jonathan contacted the other party, Winston Groom initially proposed various strings attached.But when Simon raised the price to $20, Westeros successfully won the film and television adaptation rights of the novel for 10 years.

As for Dances with Wolves.

In the original time and space, this film not only achieved a global box office of more than 2200 million US dollars at a production cost of 4 million US dollars, but also won a series of heavyweight Oscars such as Best Picture and Best Director.

This movie does not have the technical threshold of "Forrest Gump".

However, Simon also couldn't rush the project.

Daenerys Films does not have the operational strength to support a blockbuster film with a global box office of 4 million US dollars, and it is impossible for Simon to transfer the various distribution rights of this project to other film companies.

During this period, Jonathan was mainly negotiating the copyright deadline with Michael Blake, the author of "Dances with Wolves".