With Chris's introduction, Barron understood why she said that.
In the British newspaper industry, there is a distinction between broadsheets and tabloids.
So-called broadsheets generally have larger pages and carry more serious news, represented by The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.
The so-called tabloids (Taroloid) generally have smaller pages and mainly publish "sensational news". Their main representatives are The Sun, The Mirror, The Daily Star, The Daily Express, etc.
Well, the so-called "sensational news" refers to gossip, social focus, exposed beauties, politician scandals and other things that people particularly like to watch...
The Independent is the youngest national newspaper. Since its founding in 1986, it has used "independence" as its slogan - unlike other newspapers that have a fixed political leaning.
This newspaper was once loved by intellectuals and white-collar workers, with a daily circulation of 400,000 copies at its peak.
But in recent years, The Independent has been the most difficult of the four major newspapers in Britain, with year-on-year sales often falling by more than 10%! Over the past
few years, the newspaper has adopted various tactics, such as changing editors-in-chief and raising prices, but none of them can reverse the decline.
Rumors often circulate that the newspaper is going to close, that the newspaper is going to be sold, or that the newspaper is going to be changed into a tabloid.
The Independent's parent company, INM Group, survived a crisis last year through a debt-for-equity financial restructuring, but the newspaper's decline has not stopped.
Compared to other newspapers such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, The Independent has a far smaller circulation, which is why Chris did not recommend Barron to publish his novel in it.
"I can help you contact Mr. Thornton, the editor of the Daily Telegraph. I believe he will be interested in this novel."
Seeing Chris about to take out her cell phone to dial a number, Barron quickly stopped her:
"Wait a minute, ma'am, I want to talk to the editor of The Independent first, is that ok?"
"The Independent?"
"Yes..."
Barron said calmly,
"I think that although the sales of The Independent are slightly lower now, relatively speaking, they can pay more attention to the novel Downton Abbey and have the motivation to use more resources to promote it. After all, they also hope to boost sales, right?"
"Although I don't think this is the best choice, if you wish, Your Highness, I will call Mr. Whitney, the editor-in-chief of The Independent, and recommend your novel to him."
"Thank you so much, ma'am."
Chris got on the phone at this time:
"Hello, Mr. Whitney? I'm Chris Booth, long time no see..."
As she spoke, she glanced at Barron, and in her eyes, Barron seemed to sense some charm.
…
DS Capital's offices are located in the City of London.
The City of London, abbreviated as the City of London, is one of the 33 administrative districts of Greater London, England. It is located on the east side of the famous St. Paul's Cathedral in London, covers an area of 2.6 square kilometers, and is also known as the "Square Mile".
Because there are a large number of financial institutions such as banks, stock exchanges, gold markets, etc. here, it is also called the City of London.
This is also the main reason why Barron placed DS Capital here. After all, DS Capital itself is the entity used by Barron for financial investment, and it would be more convenient in the financial city.
Of course, London is one of the most important financial centers in the world, and the City of London is the financial core of London. The rents of office buildings in this location are also sky-high.
But at the same time, being able to squeeze into this essential "one square kilometer" as the company's headquarters can also demonstrate the strength of DS Capital.
"We are currently using the funds in our account to build positions. We have already spent 2 million pounds on the initial purchase of NetEase stock, with an average purchase price of 0.95 U.S. dollars. We now hold approximately 3.15 million shares of NetEase stock..."
As Daisy introduced DS Capital's current positions and holdings to Barron, Barron also learned about the investment situation of the funds he had deposited into the company's account.
When NetEase stock was first purchased, its share price was still below $0.8, but as DS Capital bought in - of course, there were other buyers as well - the stock price began to rise gradually. By the time they completed their positions, NetEase's share price had exceeded $1.1, a full 37.5% increase from their initial purchase price.
After all, the total circulation of this stock is only more than 30 million shares, and their purchase volume has exceeded 10% of the circulation!
In terms of other investments, they are currently bullish on crude oil futures and gold futures with a 20% margin, and will continue to reduce the margin in due course, which means that they will increase the leverage, and it is expected that the leverage will eventually increase from about 5 times to about 10 times.
Daisy had some opinions about this at first. After all, although the prices of crude oil and gold futures are stable most of the time, at least more stable than the stock market, if there is a black swan event, then both will also have relatively large fluctuations.
Crude oil prices, in particular, are very susceptible to news, and a 10x leverage means that if the prices of the two fall by less than 10%, their investments will face liquidation!
However, Barron was still impressed by the prices of crude oil and gold during this period, which were initially stable and then accelerated upwards, and would not fall by nearly 10%. Therefore, under his insistence, he still took such a risky operation.
Finally, there is the investment in the US and UK stock markets, a total of 21 million pounds, and more than 15 million pounds have been invested so far, but leverage has not been used yet. After all, most stocks will have a wave of fluctuations in the third quarter of this year, and leverage of less than five times will be gradually added at that time...
The only exception is Amazon stock. It is estimated that a full £10 million of the £21 million will be invested in this stock which has risen strongly this year. Currently, more than £8 million of Amazon stock has been purchased. In the future, the company will continue to buy a full £10 million and start to leverage to maximize the profits of this stock.
"I still think your plan is too radical and too risky, Boss."
Daisy was talking, watching the Nasdaq market trends and the London North Sea Brent crude oil market trends on the screen:
"But since you are so confident, I will strictly follow your plan... I am afraid that my heart will be under great pressure during this period. After all, with leverage, we are controlling the buying and selling of assets worth hundreds of millions of pounds."
"Believe me, Daisy, and you'll have to get used to this sooner or later. It's better to get used to it sooner than later, isn't it?"
"I'd rather wait until later. I don't have a complete team yet."
She saw Barron spread his hands with a relaxed look on his face, and said:
"It's your money anyway, Boss. By the way, regarding your assistant, I have received some resumes and selected the three most suitable ones according to certain conditions. When are you going to meet and confirm?"