Bian Ximing made nearly $3 billion trading gold. Then he flipped the script and made another $500 million when silver crashed.
This was a cold, calculated betting in a market spinning out of control. Bian is known for staying out of sight. He spends most of his time in Gibraltar and doesn’t speak to the press. But his trades speak for him. He went all in, shorting silver, and now he’s made one of the biggest profits in China’s futures market.
Bian’s trading arm, Zhongcai Futures, loaded up on short contracts as silver hit its peak in January.
By January 30, Bian’s short position had exploded to 30,000 contracts, which equals about 450 tons of silver. That’s when silver hit its all-time high in Shanghai.
Since then, the price has dropped over 16%, handing him a paper profit worth 2 billion yuan, or around $288 million. After subtracting earlier losses, he’s still walking away with a net gain of 1 billion yuan.
Bian went short on silver while others chased the rally
It all started in the final week of January. Data from the exchange showed Zhongcai’s short position at 18,000 lots on January 28. Two days later, it had jumped to 28,000 lots.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange doesn’t name who’s behind each trade. But people with knowledge of the accounts say this was Bian’s strategy. It wasn’t just his money.
He also manages a few client portfolios, and most of those were stacked into this same trade. He had exposure across contracts, including the longer-dated ones. He stuck with them even when silver bounced. He didn’t flinch.
Before this, Bian had actually made money going long on silver. Last August, his long trades earned him over 1.3 billion yuan. But by November, he started switching sides. He was trying to catch the top. At first, it didn’t work. A few trades went south. He took losses. But last week, he went in hard, stayed in, and it paid off.
Silver crash wasn’t about fundamentals, just speculation
Institutional investors still treat gold like a hedge against interest rate drama, global tension, or central bank buying. But silver has become a different animal, as its monster rally wasn’t about supply or demand, it was pure speculation.
Traders were piling in fast. Bian saw it and pushed back. He called it right.
The timing helped. The volatility in silver this year has forced some investors to stop treating precious metals as one group. What worked for gold didn’t work for silver. Bian was one of the first to act on that. And now, while others lick their wounds, he’s counting profits.
Bian didn’t respond to emails. Neither did Zhongcai Futures. No one close to him has made a statement. That’s typical. He doesn’t talk. He trades. And this time, silver’s fall gave him exactly what he was waiting for.
SHFE data was used to track the trades. It shows the size of the positions, but not the entry prices. So while the exact profit number might shift slightly, the result is clear. Bian won big. Again.
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