God of Technology: Creating the Internet in Another World-Chapter 423: Different Reactions from All Sides

"The City of Gold suddenly got bigger? And then the futures market just appeared out of nowhere?"

"Is that for real? Is this a miracle from the God of Technology?"

"If you said it was a miracle from the God of Creation, I’d believe it. When did the God of Technology’s miracles become like this?"

"Who else could it be besides the God of Technology? The dragons don’t have divine power."

"The Magic Net just updated with new features, and this building appeared out of thin air. Obviously it’s related to the God of Technology."

"I thought the dragons had already been working on it and were just holding back a big reveal without telling us. I even thought people in the City of Gold must have already seen an extra building but weren’t posting anything about it online—so unfair. Turns out they just found out too."

"But the update announcement says this is a feature developed jointly with the dragons."

"Making the dragons run it counts as doing it jointly with the dragons, doesn’t it?"

"Right now I just want to know how exactly this futures market works. I still don’t quite get it."

"Futures, futures—it’s trading orders for goods. You’re betting future prices against current prices. If the current price is higher than the future price, you lose. If the current price is lower than the future price, you profit. Then before delivery, everyone can trade these orders with each other. But when it expires, if the order is still in your hands, you need to take the actual goods."

"Feels like this one is more complicated than stock trading and bond trading."

"..."

The futures market was originally the least popular of the three features. After all, the first and second features had way too much impact—you could say pretty much all Magic Net users might be involved.

Basically, every Magic Net user would use either the first or second feature. In that situation, naturally not many people paid attention to the third feature.

It was mainly those especially wealthy groups. They’d already made huge profits in the stock exchange and bond exchange, so naturally they were super excited about a new financial investment market.

But when the futures market suddenly appeared out of nowhere and brought massive shock, people’s attention also indirectly shifted to the futures market.

When they opened the futures market, they discovered it actually directly listed prices for all kinds of bulk commodities.

The first thing that caught their eye was agricultural products. However, right now the agricultural product categories were pretty limited, mainly grain crops like wheat, rye, oats, Golden Spike Grain, plus cotton and white sugar.

Due to transportation inconvenience, the agricultural products that could be traded across the entire continent were currently just these grains and cotton, white sugar—goods that stored well—and oil crops.

In the future, as transportation continued to develop, eggs, pork, beef, mutton, and other meats would inevitably be listed on the futures market too.

But obviously now wasn’t the time.

After skipping past agricultural products, there were all kinds of other things—steel, glass, monster secretions, and so on—all the stuff people needed was there.

All products listed here had prices marked. What surprised people was that every 10 minutes, the prices of these goods would change.

If people went to observe the market and looked over a longer period, they’d definitely discover that the prices marked on the futures market were the normal prices in the current physical trading market.

Not that every market across the continent had this exact price—after all, there were still transportation, storage, and warehousing costs.

The prices on the futures market were just like a factory price, though they did factor in other things too.

Prices couldn’t be super low or super high just because factory prices were low and prices elsewhere were high.

This price was definitely the most meaningful reference point.

When people discovered this, everyone was shocked.

Soon on the Magic Net, people’s discussions about the futures market completely changed direction.

"Oh my god! The futures market actually marked the prices of most important commodities."

"Several of those commodity prices are actually lower than prices here. Are there any folks willing to sell at the prices listed there? If Dragon Delivery handles shipping, what would the cost roughly be?"

"I think I get how the futures market works now."

"It’s basically like we place an order now, pay money for someone to produce it, and then it’s our order. We trade this order among ourselves based on market price fluctuations. The last person holding the bag takes the goods. Other people might make money or lose money in this process. Pretty interesting actually."

"Thinking about it this way, all three features are used to promote commodity production and circulation."

"Sure enough, the most important thing in the magic-tech industrial era is expanding production and accelerating commodity circulation. Everything revolves around these points."

"Why think so much? The key now is to see how to profit from this futures market."

"I own a super large-scale steel production factory. Doesn’t that mean I can make 100% profit in this trading market? After all, I don’t participate in trading orders—I just provide goods for the orders."

"..."

Countless people started discussing the futures market. Only now did they belatedly realize how the futures market worked.

Watching these people’s discussions, Wool Ryan suddenly felt like laughing and crying. These people’s reactions were so slow. What he couldn’t believe even more was that those factory owners hadn’t realized that for them, the futures market’s biggest use was risk hedging, not the huge number of orders it would generate.

Wool Ryan, who originally thought he was just an ordinary god’s son, suddenly realized that in this era, he actually stood out from the crowd.

"If I use my understanding of the futures market well, can’t I actually make some profit from these people who don’t understand or only half-understand the futures market’s meaning?"

Watching the discussions on the Magic Net, Wool Ryan increasingly felt that this really could work.

All of a sudden his mind became active.

The futures market’s gameplay was just as good as the stock exchange.

In fact, Wool Ryan felt the futures market’s risks were even greater than the stock exchange. Price risk was actually just the most obvious risk.

There were other hidden risks too. Like commission risk—the factory commissioned to produce was also an uncertain factor. What if it went bankrupt during the commission period? Then that futures contract definitely couldn’t be sold.

Also, liquidity-caused trading risk, delivery risk after futures expired, market risk from possible natural disasters... there were just way too many.