Chapter 758
: How could someone who can see the future possibly lose?
Everyone can be pessimistic about Lu Yang.
But Lu Yang wouldn't, because his eyes had already seen the future.
The dawn in Manhattan, New York, pierced through the clouds, but it could not dispel the gloom that shrouded the hearts of the young prodigy's overseas investment department.
Three months have quietly passed since that high-stakes gamble agreement was signed.
The cold, hard numbers danced on the huge screen, a startling sight.
The chart of MSFT (Microsoft stock code) resembles a wound that has been repeatedly ravaged and meanders downwards.
32.35 dollars.
This number, like a heavy hammer, struck the hearts of every follower.
Three months ago, Lu Yang used over 600 million US dollars in cash (purchased in batches) to heavily invest in Microsoft stock at an average price of nearly $53 per share.
The stock price has now fallen by nearly 40 percent from its peak!
This means that Lu Yang's initial investment of 600 million US dollars has suffered a paper loss of more than 240 million US dollars!
Converted to RMB, that's a huge loss of over a billion!
It is enough to crush any ambitious new company, and even makes many established giants tremble with fear.
If it weren't for the loan agreement that used Lu Yang's personal core shares in the prodigy as the final guarantee and had a term of up to one year, such a terrifying hole would have required even the seemingly massive "Century Group" behind Lu Yang to sell off its core assets to barely fill it.
The buffer zone built by the agreement itself has become the only moat at this moment.
"Brother-in-law! It's...it's dropped again! It plunged 3% at the opening today!"
Xiao Jun practically slammed the door open and rushed into Lu Yang's temporary seaside office in Hong Kong, his face deathly pale and his forehead covered in cold sweat.
He clutched a freshly printed market report tightly in his hand, his fingertips turning white from the pressure.
“Those damn institutions are still dumping shares! Rumors are flying that Wall Street is treating us like lambs to the slaughter, and if we don't cut our losses soon, we'll lose everything! Mr. Wei, Mr. Mou has called me, they're all advising you…”
Xiao Jun's voice sounded somewhat sharp due to his urgency and anxiety.
The "stop-loss" he mentioned is the "golden advice" that countless people have repeated to Lu Yang over the past three months.
From Wei Shu, the company's president known for her calm and wisdom, to Mu Qizhong, a mentor and friend who has weathered many storms, and then to various "concerned" individuals conveying messages through different channels, the core message is the same:
Admit defeat and cut your losses! While you've only "only" lost a little over two hundred million US dollars, there's still time!
“Lu Yang, the capital market is not a place to act impulsively. Once the wolves of Wall Street have their eyes on their prey, they won’t let go until they’ve chewed the bones clean.”
"They've got their hands on that $600 million."
“Sigh, it hurts to withdraw now, but the foundation is still there. It’s not that we can’t afford to lose money. At most, we’ll lose some of Little Prodigy’s stock. But if we keep dragging this out, the hole will only get bigger once the agreement expires. If we can’t come up with that much money to pay out then, the company might not even be able to keep control of Little Prodigy!”
This was Wei Shu's analysis, delivered with unusually strong emotion during a transoceanic phone call.
She understood Lu Yang's confidence, but she was even more in awe of the cruelty of the market and the greed of capital.
"Brother, listen to your older brother's advice."
Losing once is not shameful, but losing everything is truly a laughing stock.
"Those people on Wall Street are ruthless and heartless. How can you possibly fight them all by yourself?"
Mu Qizhong's words were more straightforward, carrying the vicissitudes of the martial arts world and his concern for his promising younger brother.
Meanwhile, in the distant capital, Lao Liu of Lianxiang looked at the newspaper report about "the founder of Little Prodigy suffering huge losses overseas," and a barely perceptible smile crept onto his lips.
The executives around him made no attempt to hide their schadenfreude: "Young man, you don't know your place. Do you think the United States is so easy to conquer? Wall Street is the den of wolves and tigers in the financial world. You've taken a big fall now. Let's see how arrogant you are now!"
At the Lee family mansion on Hong Kong Island, Superman Lee and his son Lee Cheuk-kui sit facing each other, drinking tea.
Li Zekai flipped through the financial section: "Daddy, it seems this Lu Sheng has really bitten off more than he can chew this time. More than two hundred million US dollars...tsk tsk."
Li Ka-shing put down his teacup, his gaze deep: "The younger generation is formidable, but a bit too aggressive. In the world of capital, vision alone is not enough; one must also know how to be respectful and patient. Let's see how he gets through this. Our Li family just needs to do our own thing. Also, you should pay more attention to your brother and not let him go astray."
It was impossible to tell whether his tone was one of regret or scrutiny.
He also gave instructions to his eldest son.
Recently, the Li family has been making headlines. The conflict between the two sons has deepened because he separated the mainland VCD business from the younger son and handed it over to the older son.
Although he was the one who brought all of this together.
Unlike other prominent families in the port city, the Li family would not allow its wealth to be divided equally among its descendants. Instead, the family's wealth would only be passed on to future heads of the family. In his view, a centralized system was the best way to build a family that could last for a thousand years, as history had shown that enfeoffment would only lead to the gradual demise of the family.
Hunan Province, Nanyue City
Yin Mingzhu had just finished inspecting a newly expanded Lianxiang dealership and leaned wearily against the back seat of the car.
The assistant carefully handed her a financial newspaper about the president of Century Group suffering huge losses from speculating in US stocks, and the possibility that the company might lose the listed company Little Prodigy next year.
She took it, her eyes sweeping over the glaring numbers, and a complex and indescribable feeling welled up inside her.
She thought she would feel a sense of satisfaction, after all, he had been so high and mighty...forgotten their beautiful memories of first love...and humiliated her to the extreme...but at this moment, apart from an empty sense of bewilderment, she felt no joy whatsoever.
Yin Mingzhu crumpled the briefing into a ball in frustration and threw it at her feet, her voice carrying a hint of barely perceptible weariness and stubbornness: "Drive! To the next location! What do other people's successes or failures have to do with us? Just do your own thing!"
Instead of hoping your rivals will fall from grace, it's better to be grounded and climb to another peak yourself.
Only then, when we achieve a level gaze, will it truly be something to look forward to.
Just when everyone thought that Microsoft's stock price would continue to plummet under the pressure of Wall Street capital, until the one-year period expired and Lu Yang was completely buried.
New York is striving to become the world's financial capital.
In a luxurious conference room overlooking the Hudson River, with the curtains drawn, the atmosphere was the complete opposite of the bright sunshine outside—oppressive and suffocating.
Representatives from several core institutions that had joined forces to suppress Microsoft's stock price sat around a table, their faces grim, even showing a hint of barely concealed anxiety and... embarrassment.
"...Bill has already sent out an ultimatum through an intermediary."
A white, gray-haired agency representative rubbed his temples, his voice hoarse.
"They cannot tolerate the stock price being maliciously suppressed for more than three months! This has seriously affected Microsoft's market reputation, employee morale, and even disrupted normal financing plans!"
If we don't stop, the Microsoft board will personally intervene, joining forces with its allied funds to violently prop up the market at any cost! At that point…”
"At that point, we will be at odds with Microsoft and its entire ecosystem!"
Sitting in the main seat, Goldman Sachs representative Hun Sen's previous arrogance was gone, and his fat fingers tapped the table impatiently.
"Damn it! How much did we cost? How many resources did we use? How much negative news did we generate?"
It was all to force that Eastern kid to panic and sell at a loss!
But what was the result?
He slammed his hand on the table. "He's like a ghostly rock! Sinking to the bottom of the sea, completely still! He didn't even place a stop-loss order!"
There was dead silence in the conference room.
The profound silence was filled with a heavy sense of frustration and the anxiety of being caught in a dilemma.
"Maybe... we should just forget about it?"
A slightly younger voice tentatively rang out; it belonged to a Wall Street institutional representative, a young white male elite.
"This kid seems determined to be a martyr for 'value investing'."
"Maybe we should just forget about it?"
"We can't afford to waste time, and Microsoft can't afford to waste time either."
“If we keep suppressing it, it might not be him who collapses first, but our network of relationships with Microsoft. I don’t think it’s worth it…”
"Withdraw?" Another voice was filled with resentment. "Just like that, slink away?"
"What about the costs we invested upfront? Have we wasted the last few months of work and gotten ourselves into all this trouble!"
"What else can we do?"
"That kid didn't fall for it, all our shells hit cotton!" someone said angrily.
Suddenly, several pairs of eyes turned to the Goldman Sachs representative.
“You Goldman Sachs…” a white shrew said in an unfriendly tone, “Don’t forget, you are also shareholders of the prodigy! In this bet, regardless of whether Lu Yang wins or loses, you all get a share! Could it be you…?”
The unfinished words were full of doubt.
This is normal, because they suspect someone has leaked their cards.
Otherwise, according to common sense, that Eastern boy should have been so scared that he would have rushed over to cut off his own flesh.
Why would they stubbornly resist like that?
"Bullshit!" The Goldman Sachs representative jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his face flushed. "Impossible! Goldman Sachs operates with integrity and honesty. How could our superiors leak information to that kid? This is an insult to our professional reputation!"
"Hmph, that's not necessarily true. After all, only you guys are truly 'hedging your bets'." The doubts did not subside.
Seeing the internal argument about to escalate, Morgan, the representative chairing the meeting, tapped the table, a ruthless glint in his eyes: "Enough! Now is not the time for finger-pointing! Since that kid isn't taking the bait, and we can't crack this tough nut, then..."
He looked around at everyone and said, word by word, "...One last game! Recoup the losses elsewhere! Target now—retail investors! Before leaving, create the illusion of a 'technical rebound' to lure in more buyers! And then..."
He made a downward cutting gesture, "...harvest fiercely! Use the blood of the leeks to make up for our losses on this rock! We must make a profit, not just break even, but make a profit! We must be quick and ruthless!"
A harsh resolution has been reached.
Capital never sleeps, and it never leaves empty-handed.
When the stubborn rock cannot be moved, the sickle will not hesitate to swing at the more tender wheat field.
The eye of the storm seems to be shifting, but the real outcome is already predetermined: retail investors will always suffer losses. Capital may not be able to do anything to stubborn "die-hards" like Lu Yang, but it is adept at scaring retail investors and sucking blood from them. It wields its sickle with great pleasure.
Lu Yang, at the center of the storm, seemed completely unaware of all this, or rather, utterly indifferent.
Because Microsoft is great!
As one of the greatest technology companies of the 90s and late 20th century, Microsoft almost single-handedly promoted the popularization of personal desktop computers. In the DOS era, operating a computer required memorizing complex command-line instructions.
However, since the advent of the graphical operating system Windows 95, users have been able to easily use computers, even for non-technical personnel, including the elderly and children, by clicking on the "desktop," "windows," "icons," and "mouse."
In the early days of the internet, Windows was the main gateway for hundreds of millions of users to access the internet world. Its built-in Internet Explorer browser and network functions allowed ordinary people to easily "surf the internet," obtain information, and communicate, thus accelerating the arrival of the information age worldwide.
All of the above is enough to demonstrate that Microsoft's Windows system is not just software, but also the cornerstone of an era.
It laid the foundation for the modern personal computer operating model, built a globally standardized software and hardware ecosystem, and served as a key tool that propelled global society from the industrial age to the information age. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the greatest tool in human history in the 20th century.
So, can Microsoft, as its parent company, keep its stock price suppressed indefinitely?
Lu Yang didn't believe it.
That's why he dared to take this gamble.
The future was transparent to him. As an ordinary person with a low level of education, the most memorable thing about his past life was the popularization of computers. After all, he had learned a lot online. As an ordinary person, his understanding of foreign companies was probably limited to Microsoft, a world-class behemoth.
That day, Lu Yang accompanied Qian Youyou for a walk in the small garden downstairs from her villa.
The two of them were also pushing a stroller together, inside which was a sleeping baby with a pacifier in his mouth. This was Lu Yang's third child, surnamed Qian, nicknamed Hao Hao, and formally named Qian Xiao Hao, taking his mother's surname.
Just then, the child's uncle burst in, shouting.
"It's gone up."
"It's gone up! It's really gone up this time! It's all come back! The stock price has fully recovered."
"Brother-in-law, you're awesome."
"That's awesome, holy crap..."
"Teach me, how do you predict things so perfectly? Wait a minute, you haven't been abroad much, and you probably haven't read as many books as me, so how could you have known that this company called Microsoft was so amazing..."
The sound stopped abruptly.
Lu Yang and Qian Youyou turned around almost simultaneously, hand in hand, staring expressionlessly at Xiao Jun at the gate.
Xiao Jun swallowed hard, then pretended to check the weather and looked up. "Um...you guys continue, I went to the wrong place."
He said, then turned and tried to slip away.
"return."
Qian Youyou stopped him: "Your little nephew is crying. I'm going upstairs with Brother Lu Yang to rest for a while. You're in charge of comforting your little nephew. If you can't comfort him, hmph."
Xiao Jun's long face immediately stretched out as if he had eaten a bitter pill... (End of Chapter)