Mastering "Gold, Silver, and Copper," the "Beijing Big Short" emerges

In just a few days, a floating profit of 3.6 billion RMB.

In early February 2026, the global silver market experienced a brutal collapse. After reaching a historic high of $120 per ounce, the price plummeted by 40% in just three trading days.

As countless speculators who leveraged high to gamble on a "silver version of GameStop" faced systemic liquidation, a hunter lurking behind a seat at the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) completed a precise strike.

Foreign media gave him a menacing nickname: "Beijing's Big Short."

He is Bian Ximing, the actual controller of Zhongcai Futures. According to calculations by the Financial Times and Bloomberg, the Zhongcai Futures seat established a large short position before the recent collapse in silver prices. The profit from this counter-trend positioning has exceeded $500 million (approximately 3.6 billion RMB).

This is not Bian Ximing's first move. It is estimated that the Zhongcai Futures seat controlled by Bian Ximing has achieved nearly $5 billion (approximately 36 billion RMB) in investment returns over three years by continuously going long on gold, going long on copper, and then shorting silver.

In the history of Chinese finance, no domestic seat has ever intervened in the global commodity pricing center as profoundly as Bian Ximing. This is not only a wealth creation myth but also a dimensionality reduction strike by local industrial capital in China against global financial capital using "expectation differences."

Although the Futures Daily and Zhongcai Futures officially responded that "the positions held by Zhongcai Futures are all aggregated client positions and do not represent the company's proprietary trading" , the story of Bian Ximing has frequently appeared in the public eye.

The $500 Million "Shorting" Myth

Bian Ximing is known in trading circles for regularly writing "self-reflective" blog posts. In one blog, he wrote:

"Everywhere there are traps, and everywhere there are opportunities—risk contains opportunities, and opportunities harbor traps. The essence of investment is a game about survival."

At the end of January 2026, this statement became the most expensive footnote in the silver market.

According to data from the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), the Zhongcai Futures seat began to establish large-scale short positions in late January when silver prices accelerated towards their peak. As of February 2, the short position in silver futures held by them was equivalent to about 484 tons, with a nominal value exceeding $1.5 billion at that time.

This was seen as a "suicidal" act at the time. At that point, driven by concerns over U.S. dollar credit and speculative retail trading in Asia, silver had risen by more than 24% since the beginning of the year, and market sentiment was extremely exuberant However, Bian Ximing seems to have seen through the weakness behind the prosperity—this is a bubble driven purely by capital, lacking fundamental support.

The outcome came very quickly. In early February, silver prices free-fell from a high point, plummeting to around $70 within just a few days.

According to foreign media estimates, although Zhongcai Futures suffered losses during a tentative short position last November, its precise increase in position at the end of January has resulted in a net profit of over $500 million during this round of silver's plunge.

Bloomberg cited sources saying that Zhongcai Futures "remained firmly committed to its short position" during the silver crash, even when prices fluctuated repeatedly.

From Gold to Copper: The Precise Timing of the "Hunter"

If the shorting of silver was a sharp tactical strike, then the layout over the past four years in gold and copper demonstrates Bian Ximing's profound strategic vision.

Back in 2022, under the shadow of inflation following global central banks' massive liquidity injections, Bian Ximing began to establish long positions in gold through Zhongcai Futures. He judged that the trend of de-dollarization and geopolitical frictions would push gold to new highs.

His judgment proved correct. As gold prices broke through $2,400 per ounce and later soared to $5,000, this multi-year long trade brought him astonishing wealth.

Bloomberg estimates that since the beginning of 2022, his bullish bets on gold futures have yielded nearly $3 billion in profits.

In May 2025, while gold trading was still booming, Bian Ximing turned his attention to copper.

His judgment was based on two certainties: first, the rigid demand for copper due to global energy transition (electric vehicles, data centers); second, supply disruptions caused by geopolitical games.

He has publicly stated: "Copper is not only the lifeblood of the electrification era but also a key lever in geopolitical games." Even when other institutions panicked and withdrew due to trade frictions, he remained calm and held his positions, ultimately achieving hundreds of millions in profits.

Against the macro backdrop of surging demand for copper due to global energy transition and artificial intelligence data center construction, he established the largest net long position in copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, holding nearly 90,000 tons of copper futures at its peak.

Even amidst the looming clouds of trade wars and panic withdrawals by other investors, he chose to increase his position.

Financial Thinking Grown from "PVC Pipes"

Unlike the high-profile hedge fund managers on Wall Street, Bian Ximing bears the distinct mark of "China's first generation of entrepreneurs."

Bian Ximing's wealth started not from Wall Street PPTs but from a factory workshop in Zhuji, Zhejiang.

In 1995, Bian Ximing founded Zhongcai Pipeline, primarily engaged in PVC plastic pipes. This is a typical infrastructure supporting enterprise, consistently ranking among China's top 500 private enterprises.

His entrepreneurial background has given him two advantages that financial elites lack: first, an intuition for the supply and demand structure of industrial raw materials; second, an extreme aversion to and sensitivity towards cost fluctuations. In 2003, Bian Ximing acquired Zhongcai Futures. Over the next twenty years, he did not turn this company into a pure intermediary but instead evolved it into a top hedge fund characterized by efficient decision-making and rigorous logic.

That year, through the acquisition of Zhongcai Futures, Bian Ximing completed a thrilling leap from industry to finance.

Interestingly, this tycoon, who holds positions worth billions of dollars, has lived in Gibraltar for years, away from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai, commanding his vast business empire through video calls.

He rarely gives interviews but is keen on writing "self-reflective" articles on the company's internal network, exploring human nature, markets, and survival.

"A good investor must 'let go of oneself, have fewer obsessions, choose the right goals, and then be persistent,'" he wrote in a blog post. "When choosing goals, focus on trends; when implementing projects, focus on timing; when maintaining projects, focus on costs."

The corporate spirit of Zhongcai Futures seems to resonate with Bian Ximing's philosophy—"Nine lacks, one round, harmony as one."

This calm, even somewhat philosophical investment style sharply contrasts with the Hunt Brothers, who once attempted to manipulate the silver market.

In the 1980s, the Hunt Brothers in the U.S. tried to monopolize silver with money but ended up bankrupt; Bian Ximing, on the other hand, follows the rules, acting at the peak of extreme emotions. He is not fighting against the market but harvesting irrationality.

Foreign media has dubbed him the "Anti-Hunt Brother"—he does not attempt to distort the market with financial advantages but, like a crocodile, delivers a fatal blow when market sentiment reaches extremes and fundamentals become disconnected.

The Fog of "Client Positions": Who Holds the Truth?

Regarding this series of god-like operations, in response to the astonishment of foreign media, Futures Daily and Zhongcai Futures official responded: The positions held by Zhongcai Futures are all aggregated client positions and do not represent the company's proprietary trading.

In response to the market rumor that "Zhongcai Futures shorted silver with a floating profit exceeding 3.6 billion yuan," after reviewing exchange data and interviewing the company, this information is inaccurate.

The positions held by Zhongcai Futures are all aggregated client positions, and their data shows that there were indeed many sell orders at the high silver prices at the end of January, which gradually decreased during the price correction in February.

The company stated that the changes in positions reflect client position changes, and it adheres to compliant operations. This rumor mistakenly views the overall behavior of clients as the company's proprietary trading.

In fact, the positions of futures companies are a collection of thousands of client positions. However, such uniformity, such a large volume, and the ability to withstand severe fluctuations may indicate a unified will behind it Bloomberg and FT pointed out through data analysis that the precious metals positions of Zhongcai Futures are mainly composed of Bian Ximing himself and the products he directly manages.

Whether this incident is a "shorting silver and making a fortune" essay or Bian Ximing's "personal foresight" remains a topic of ongoing industry attention.

Commodity Pricing Power Shifts to Asia

While the market is still embroiled in disputes over the truth.

A profound insight is emerging in media reports and online public opinion.

Some analysts believe that Bian Ximing's story is essentially the "awakening" of China's private capital's global pricing power.

For a long time, the pricing power of gold, silver, and copper has been held in London (LME) and New York (CME). The script has been written by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, while Chinese companies have long played the role of "high-position receivers" and "low-position stop-loss victims."

However, Bian Ximing chose to establish the main battlefield at the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE). He leveraged China's vast spot trading as a moat and utilized his deep understanding of the local industrial cycle to reverse-harvest global speculative funds.

This may signify a change in the logic of commodity pricing: from being driven by financial speculation to being driven by both industrial supply and demand and macro expectations.

A widely circulated internal letter shows that Bian Ximing mentioned a goal of achieving a profit of 36.74 billion yuan by 2032. This is not arrogance, but rather confidence based on his "self-seeking path and self-evident integrated logic."

The Highest Realm of Survival Games

In Bian Ximing's blog posts, the words "trap" and "survival" frequently appear.

For him, the silver bull market in early 2026 is a significant period of volatility, and positioning against the trend is the highest form of survival.

He transformed from a factory owner in Zhuji, Zhejiang, into a hunter in the multinational metal market, with his core unchanged—always seeking that most overlooked and simplest value anchor.

While global retail investors are still entangled in next week's candlestick charts, Bian Ximing has already seen through the industrial cycle of the next decade.

Although the title of "Beijing's Big Short" is loud, Bian Ximing is more like a watcher. He is waiting for the market to go crazy and then quietly take his share of the interest.

In this game of survival, he may have already mastered the ultimate winning formula