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mort96 • today at 9:58 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

Then they made money thanks to gold prices fluctuating, not thanks to gold prices rising?

And how does a 10% market shift lead to gaining $15b, roughly the value of 100 tons of gold, from the sale and re-purchase of 129 tons of gold?

This math ain't mathing.

Replies

defrost • today at 10:42 AM

It's more that the english ain't parsing, for some at least.

The mining.com quote is classic weasel phrasing, seemingly meaningful yet disturbingly ambiguous:

  Due to rising gold prices, the move helped the bank to generate a capital gain of 13 billion euros ($15 billion), bringing it to a net profit of 8.1 billion euros for the 2025 financial year after a net loss of 7.7 billion euros in 2024.
So, the move helped the bank generate ...

Just as, say, one guy helped four others push a car back up on the road.

We've been given, accurately or not .. likely true, figures on how the bank did over a period, we've also been told the gold movements helped with that ... so they almost certainly kicked in at least $1.

danparsonson • today at 10:30 AM

Other costs? Deviations in the actual figures from the estimates we're using here? 100 is not a million miles away from 129.