excerpted from "Falling in Love with Gold", written by Wen Gangrui.
What is the daily work of a gold practitioner like?
How many gold nuggets can you move?
The gold nugget settlement specifications for spot gold gold in London, in terms of weight, refers to about 400 ounces of gold gold gold, and 400 ounces is about 12.5 kg.
When working in the bank's gold department, the bank conducted a large number of discrete transactions, often transporting gold from London to Hong Kong, and then converting it into 99 gold (or other real gold transactions) as a means of closing positions, earning the price difference between the Hong Kong and London gold markets.
Due to the transportation cost considerations, the gold nuggets shipped from London are at least half a ton, that is, 40 400 ounces of gold nuggets, and the most one impression is 2 ton.
When the escort company transports the gold nuggets to the bank, we have to open the wooden box or cloth bag containing the gold nuggets one by one, put the gold nuggets one by one on the ground, and then check the number, weight and color on each gold nugget. After verification, the gold nuggets were moved by manpower and placed in the bank's large vault. Is it a pleasure or a chore to move these nuggets? It would be a pleasure to have these gold nuggets belong to us, but I didn’t think that moving gold nuggets would be a chore, and we would still entertain ourselves at work.
One of the ways to entertain is to practice "Tiger Claws", which means to grab a gold nugget weighing 12.5 kilograms with only five fingers. This action is very easy at the beginning, but after taking ten or eight gold nuggets, the fingers will start to get a little numb. I have made great contributions in life. After several years of training, my "tiger claw skills" is pretty good.
The second way to entertain is to see how many gold nuggets we can hold with both hands? We move the gold nuggets from the bank office filled with gold nuggets, and we usually hold a gold nugget and move it with both hands. Occasionally, when time is tight, we need to speed up the movement, so we will fold the two gold nuggets together with both hands. Once we did a test to see how many gold nuggets can an ordinary person move at the same time? The result of the
test is that when you move a 12.5 kg nugget, you can run easily; when you move 2 25 kg nuggets in total, you can only move forward at a walking speed; when you move 3 37.5 kg nuggets in total, you can only stand and move three or four steps; when you move four 50 kg nuggets in total, you can only hold back and hold them together in one breath, and then put them down immediately without bearing. The four gold bars will make it difficult for you to move.
Real gold is not afraid of red furnace fire
"Real gold is not afraid of red furnace fire" is correct, indicating that the value of gold is eternal and can retain its value even after being calcined by a fierce fire. The melting point of gold is about 1064℃. When the temperature exceeds this melting point, gold will melt into liquid state, but gold cannot be burned and still exists in the form of gold after cooling.
Recalling my days in the bank, although I was an office employee, I also worked as a job that many people could not imagine. I personally processed and produced 99 gold particles and 9999 gold particles weighing one or two, and experienced the process of real gold not afraid of red fire.
Every day before I arrive at the factory, I first need to take the 99 or 9999 gold bars obtained from other gold refining companies to the bank's basement. There is a gold cutting machine there, and I'm going to cut these gold bars about 10 to 15 cm long into small pieces and small particles. Then, using a small balance, after several combinations and additions, we weighed a gold material that was exactly one or two taels of weight. After standing for one morning, I could make about 100 pieces of gold or two.
The equipment in the small workshop in the bank canteen is very simple, it is a stove made of refractory bricks. After igniting the gas, a blower was turned on. The originally light gas flame quickly turned into a column of fire. The gold material was burned by the column of fire and melted into liquid within a minute. I carefully poured the gold liquid on the mold, and then used a fire-closing action called "opening the surface" with a skillful gesture. When the gold liquid cooled into a complete round gold particle, it could be poured out of the mold.
It takes about two hours to cast 100 gold particles of one or two. Our equipment is just a pair of sunglasses to block the dazzling flames of high-temperature flames.The temperature in the workshop is very high, and I feel sweaty every time after completion. I have to take a cold shower at the workshop before I can return to the bank. After returning to the bank, the cast gold particles must be "overweighted" one by one to see if the weight of the cast gold particles is sufficient. Unqualified gold particles must be recast. Those who are qualified will have the marks of "99 color" and "Baosheng" on the surface of the gold particles.
After two or three years of training, I finally mastered this craft, adding a unique and rare work experience to my golden career.
Trader in pajamas
When I entered the gold department of the bank, as the gold price fluctuates and the increase in gold transactions in the bank, I often have to use COMEX futures trading to hedge or buy and sell. Banks find that there is a need to increase transactions at night. Therefore, when the gold price fluctuates significantly or holds positions, we must stay at the bank, observe the fluctuations in the futures market at night, and trade at any time.
I still remember the first night on duty. I, along with Mr. Zhao Chengan, who was already the head of the gold trading department at the time, and another Mr. Feng Zhijian, who later became a strong man in the gold industry, were on duty at night. We set up temporary beds at the bank's daytime office location and wore pajamas to wait for the fluctuations in gold prices to appear.
On this night, the gold price did fluctuate. Mr. Zhao hoped to trade during the transaction time in New York. He summoned Mr. Feng and I to the bank's telecommunications room (because the bank did not have long-distance telephone installations at the time, and the external contact was only based on a special telecommunications machine "TELEX"). At that time, every bank or gold merchant would have a telecommunications machine number, which was a bit like the current telephone number. We used the other party's telecommunications machine to instantly use words to talk.
This telecommunication machine is like a traditional English typewriter. It is front of it. After pressing the letter keyboard, the letter keys in front will pop up, and the entered English letters are typed on the scroll of paper. The other party's telecommunication machine also typed English letters. Both parties rely on English sentences composed of letters to talk. However, there are two problems with this type of telecommunication machine. One is that when everyone enters text at the same time, the message will be affected and garbled, and it is impossible to see clearly what the other party is going to say. The second problem is that when the telecommunication machine enters the English letters and then types the numbers, it must first press a conversion key to type the numbers, and then turn back to the letter key to type what it said.
I remember that time, Mr. Feng asked me to try to trade, and of course I was a little nervous. When Mr. Zhao asked me to type 2,000 ounces of buy, I had to press the numerical conversion key to type the four numbers 2,000 after I typed out the English Buy (Buy). But I don’t know if I didn’t successfully press the conversion key or the other party was also entering the text. As a result, I only saw the purchased English words on the printed roll, and the quantity was not 2,000, and then there was a bunch of garbled codes. The same was true after trying it twice in a row. Of course, everyone was anxious and didn’t know if the transaction was completed.
is fine. After a bunch of garbled codes are printed out, I enter the transaction quantity again, and the other party responds that the transaction has been completed. In an instant, these three traders in pajamas smiled.
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