The variation in gold prices in the time they carried out this exchange process.

So they had 129 tons of gold, and now they have 129 tons of gold and 11 billions of euros? Sounds like a good deal if so.

Edit: wtf is going on with you for downvoting a question…

▲

sixhobbits 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They had gold worth X to the market but X minus 11 billion on paper. So when France accounted for its gold in euro terms they would say they have X minus 11 billion Euros worth of gold.

Now they still have the same amount of gold but they "realized" a gain of 11 billion. They don't have that much cash left after the repurchase but now they say they have X Euros worth of gold which is 11 billion more than before.

So no they didn't make a profit from this as gold is higher on both sides of the Atlantic than last time they did their accounting updates.

	▲	littlestymaar an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> worth X to the market but X minus 11 billion on paper. Why was it worth “X minus 11 billions”?

▲

6031769 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Welcome to the wonderful world of commodities trading.