Mastering "gold, silver, and bronze," the "Beijing Big Short" emerges.
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In just a few days, a floating profit of 3.6 billion RMB.
In early February 2026, the global silver market underwent a brutal collapse. After reaching a historical high of $120/oz, prices plummeted 40% within just three trading sessions.
While countless speculators who had leveraged heavily at the highs, gambling on a "Silver GameStop," were systematically liquidated, a long-standing hunter hidden behind a seat on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) completed a precision strike.
Foreign media gave him a menacing nickname: “Beijing’s Big Short.”
He is Bian Ximing, the actual controller of Zhongcai Futures. According to FT and Bloomberg estimates, the Zhongcai Futures seat established a massive short position before the recent collapse in silver prices. The profit from this contrarian move has exceeded $500 million (about 3.6 billion RMB).
And this was not Bian Ximing's first move. Estimates indicate that over three years, the Zhongcai Futures seat controlled by Bian Ximing accumulated nearly $5 billion in investment profits (about 36 billion RMB) through continuously going long on gold, long on copper, and then shorting silver.
In Chinese financial history, there has never been a domestic seat as deeply involved in the global pricing centers of commodities as Bian Ximing. This is not only a wealth myth, but also a kind of dimensionality reduction strike of Chinese domestic industrial capital against global financial capital by leveraging "expectational gaps."
Although Futures Daily and Zhongcai Futures have officially responded, saying, “Zhongcai Futures positions are all aggregated for clients and do not represent proprietary trading by the company”, the stories about Bian Ximing have already appeared frequently in the public eye.
The $500 Million “Short” Legend
Bian Ximing is known in trading circles for regularly writing self-reflective blog posts. In one blog post, he wrote:
“There are traps everywhere, and also opportunities everywhere — risk breeds opportunity, and opportunity harbors risk. The essence of investing is a game of survival.”
At the end of January 2026, these words became the most expensive footnote in the silver market.
According to data from the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), in late January, as silver prices accelerated toward their peak, the Zhongcai Futures seat began building large short positions. As of February 2, its short silver futures positions amounted to about 484 tons, with a nominal value at the time exceeding $1.5 billion.
At the time, this was seen as a "suicidal" move. Then, driven by concerns over the US dollar’s credit and Asian retail speculation, silver had risen over 24% year to date at one point, and market sentiment was extremely frenzied.
However, Bian Ximing seemed to have seen through the weakness behind the prosperity — it was a bubble purely driven by capital flows and lacking fundamental support.
The ending came swiftly. In early February, silver prices plummeted from their highs in a free-fall to around $70 within a few days.
According to foreign media estimates, although Zhongcai Futures suffered losses in a tentative short in November last year, by timing their increased positions accurately at the end of January, their net profit in this collapse has exceeded $500 million.
Bloomberg, citing informed sources, reported that Zhongcai Futures "remained firmly committed" to its short position during the silver crash, not exiting even as prices fluctuated violently.
From Gold to Copper: The Precision “Hunter”
If the shorting of silver this time was a keen tactical strike, then the previous four years of gold and copper arrangements display Bian Ximing’s profound strategic vision.
Going back to 2022, under the shadow of global inflation after central banks flooded the market with liquidity, Bian Ximing began building long positions in gold through Zhongcai Futures. He judged that the trend of global de-dollarization and geopolitical frictions would push gold to new highs.
Facts proved him right. As gold broke through $2,400/oz and later soared to $5,000 highs, this multi-year long trade brought him astonishing wealth.
Bloomberg estimates that since early 2022, his bullish positions in gold futures have earned nearly $3 billion.
In May 2025, while gold trading was still in full swing, Bian Ximing shifted his focus to copper.
His judgment was based on two certainties: First, global energy transition creates hard demand for copper (electric vehicles, data centers); second, geopolitical strife caused supply disruptions.
He publicly stated: “Copper is not only the lifeblood of the electrification era, but also a key lever in geopolitical contests.” Even as other institutions retreated in panic due to trade frictions, he calmly held his ground and ultimately achieved hundreds of millions in profit.
Against the macro backdrop of soaring copper demand from global energy transition and the construction of AI data centers, he established the largest net long copper position on the SHFE, at its peak holding nearly 90,000 tons of copper futures.
Even amid the storm clouds of trade war and the panic retreats of other investors, he chose to increase his positions.
Financial Thinking Growing out of “PVC Pipes”
Unlike the high-profile hedge fund managers on Wall Street, Bian Ximing bears the clear mark of China’s “first generation entrepreneurs.”
Bian Ximing's initial fortune was not made from a Wall Street PPT, but from a factory floor in Zhuji, Zhejiang.
In 1995, Bian Ximing founded Zhongcai Piping, specializing in PVC plastic pipes. It is a typical infrastructure support enterprise, consistently among China’s top 500 private companies.
The background of an industrialist gave him two advantages that financial elites lack: First, an intuition for supply/demand structure of industrial raw materials; second, an intense aversion and sensitivity to cost fluctuations.
In 2003, Bian Ximing acquired Zhongcai Futures. In the following 20 years, he did not turn the company into a pure intermediary, but instead evolved it into a top-tier hedge fund with efficient decision-making and rigorous logic.
That year, by acquiring Zhongcai Futures, Bian Ximing made a daring leap from industry to finance.
Even more interestingly, despite holding multi-billion-dollar positions, Bian Ximing lives in Gibraltar, far from the noise of Shanghai, commanding his large business empire via video calls.
He rarely accepts interviews, but enjoys writing self-reflective articles on the company’s internal network, discussing human nature, markets, and survival.
“A good investor must ‘let go of the self, have fewer obsessions, pick the right target, then be persistent,’” he wrote in a blog post, “Focus on trends when choosing targets, focus on timing when executing projects, focus on cost when maintaining projects.”
The corporate spirit of Zhongcai Futures seems to be in line with Bian Ximing’s philosophy — “Nine losses complete a circle; harmony brings unity.”
And this calm, even philosophical, investment style stands in sharp contrast with the Hunt Brothers, who once sought to manipulate the silver market.
In the 1980s, the American Hunt Brothers tried to corner the silver market with money, only to end up bankrupt; while Bian Ximing moves with the tide, seizing opportunities at the height of extreme sentiment. He does not fight the market, but rather harvests irrationality.
Foreign media call him the “Anti-Hunt Brother”— he does not try to distort the market with capital advantage, but like a crocodile, delivers a fatal blow at moments of extreme sentiment and detached fundamentals.
The Mist of “Client Aggregated Positions”: Who Holds the Truth?
For these god-level maneuvers, in the face of foreign media exclamations, Futures Daily and Zhongcai Futures officials responded: Zhongcai Futures positions are all aggregated for clients and do not represent proprietary trading.
Regarding market rumors that “Zhongcai Futures made over 3.6 billion RMB shorting silver,” after checking exchange data and interviewing the company, this information is untrue.
Zhongcai Futures positions are all client-aggregated; data shows that at the end of January, high silver prices indeed saw many sell orders, which gradually reduced as prices corrected in February.
The company says changes in position reflect client behavior, and the firm operates in compliance. The rumor confuses overall client behavior for proprietary trading.
In reality, a futures company seat is the aggregation of tens of thousands of client positions. But such uniformly massive, one-sided positions able to withstand violent volatility, may be driven by a singular will behind the curtain.
Bloomberg and FT, through data analysis, concluded that Zhongcai Futures’ precious metals positions are mainly composed of Bian Ximing himself and products under his direct management.
Whether this episode is a “short silver windfall” fairy tale, or a testament to Bian Ximing’s “personal foresight,” the industry continues to watch closely.
The Shift of Commodity Pricing Power Toward Asia
While the market keeps arguing endlessly over the truth,
a profound insight is quietly appearing in media reports and online discussions.
Some analysts believe that Bian Ximing’s story is essentially a “awakening” of China’s private capital to global pricing power.
For a long time, the pricing of gold, silver, and copper was controlled by London (LME) and New York (CME). The script was written by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, while Chinese companies long played the part of “taking the high hand-off” or “stopping loss at the bottom.”
But Bian Ximing chose to make SHFE his main battle ground. He leveraged China’s massive spot trade as a moat and used a profound understanding of local industrial cycles to harvest global speculative funds in reverse.
This may signal a change in commodity pricing logic: from financial speculation-driven, to dual drivers of industry supply/demand and macro expectations.
An internal letter, widely circulated, showed that Bian Ximing once said: The goal is to achieve 36.74 billion RMB profit by 2032. This is not arrogance, but confidence borne from his methodical approach for “self-searching, self-verification, and logical integration.”
The Ultimate State of the Survival Game
In Bian Ximing's blog posts, the words “trap” and “survival” appear frequently.
To him, the silver bull market in early 2026 was a huge period of volatility, and taking contrarian positions was the highest level of survival.
He transformed from a factory boss in Zhuji, Zhejiang to a hunter in the global metals market, but his core remained unchanged — always seeking out that most basic value anchor point overlooked by the majority.
While retail investors the world over are still worrying about next week’s price chart, Bian Ximing has already seen through the next decade’s industrial cycle.
The nickname “Beijing’s Big Short” might sound grand, but Bian Ximing is more like a watchman. He waits for the market to go crazy, and quietly collects his share of the interest in silence.
In this game of survival, he may well have already mastered the ultimate trump card.
Risk Disclaimer and Legal NoticeThe market involves risk, and investments require caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are appropriate for their particular situation. Investing based on this article is at your own risk. ```