The owner of Sheffield’s gold trading cafe might go to jail soon. He doesn’t seem to mind

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Though my interview with Ricky Chu — the founder of XAU USD, the UK’s first “gold trading cafe,” in Neepsend — is pretty serious overall, it’s clear the 48-year-old has a mischievous streak. Last month, the Telegraph reported that the gold pistols mounted on the cafe’s wall once belonged to Saddam Hussein. I’m obviously eager to know: how did he get his hands on them?

“I met him in a casino,” he quips, before clarifying he’s joking. Like all the decorations in XAU USD — a name taken from the abbreviation for the current market price of gold in dollars — Ricky purchased the replica guns from the flea market next door. He’s not the type to meet anyone in a casino, deceased totalitarian leader or otherwise. “I hate gambling,” he tells me. “My dad was a gambler.” 

That might surprise some people, given the USP of the business we’re sitting in. While you could just pop in for a latte, XAU USD is aimed at those looking to make money from fluctuations in the value of gold. A display on a large wall-mounted television tracks the price in US dollars per ounce in real-time; the idea is that traders can gather here to share strategies for predicting when to buy and sell. They’re not technically gambling, but there’s also not a huge difference to the untrained eye. You could make £100 in 30 seconds, or you could blow through a grand. 

“If you don’t know what you’re doing, trading is gambling,” Ricky admits, which is why he tries to steer novices towards a more academic approach. “Once you understand the trends that can manipulate the market,” he claims, “you start to be able to read it like a book.” Though he’s only been trading, self-taught, since February, he alleges he “could comfortably survive” off trading already. “I like to trade between 6-9am, when it’s quiet. By the time I come here, I’ve generally made my money for the day.”

If that’s true, he may be something of a financial prodigy. Statistics suggest only around 10-15% of “retail” day traders — those using their own cash, rather than working with a firm — make a profit in their first year. Plus, if he’s doing that well, why bother with the shop at all? To help other people make money, he replies. “It’s not so much financial freedom I’m looking for,” he adds, “I’m looking for time. To do whatever I want, wherever, to sit by a pool.”

Speaking of freedom, Ricky is in danger of losing his pretty soon. On 14 December, he will be sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court for possession of a class B drug with intent to supply, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. He seems to be taking it on the chin. “There are 30 to 40 people who are still here that shouldn’t be,” he claims, “so, though I might go to prison, I’m alright with it.” His co-owner and girlfriend of a year, Annie Robinson, is happy to run the shop for as long as he’s locked up.

It was actually Ricky’s last coffee shop, the business that occupied this space before the birth of XAU USD, which landed him in his current legal trouble. 

Originally called Starbuds (until Starbucks objected), Cheeba Cheeba sold coffee and other products infused with CBD: a non-intoxicating cannabis derivative that supposedly has a range of health benefits. After its original location on Chesterfield Road opened in 2019, “owner” Imogen Pollard — who, unlike Ricky, was never listed as a director on Companies House — reassured the public that the shop was entirely legal. “The first thing people ask is 'will it get me high?'” Imogen told the Star. “Absolutely not because, if it did, we wouldn't be allowed to be in business.” But it seems Ricky didn’t let the law restrain him for long.