1928: The Rise of Giants

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Roger Babson's speech at the Wall Street Financial Seminar started on time. The audience was packed with speculators who took the time to listen to the teachings of the big man.

Roger Babson, as always, preaches the idea that the U.S. stock market is unstable and will collapse sooner or later.

This is obviously very different from what speculators expected. Yesterday the stock market reached a new high, and today you say that the bull market will no longer exist, which always feels a bit clown.

But unlike the previous times, after experiencing the stock market downturn in the morning, these people gradually remembered the minor incident not long ago, in which the female president of Hongxing United Group took more than 3000 million US dollars and left.

Bull markets often suffer sharp declines, which are "technical adjustments" and are a very common stock market fluctuation. It would be outrageous if the bull market was not mixed with such plummets.

Speculators have come to believe that the stock market will cool down in the near future, and excessive entry at this time is not necessarily a good thing.

Of course, if you want them to believe that the US stock market will collapse, that is impossible.

Today, the Dow Jones Index is still over 370 points. Compared with the dozens of points five or six years ago, it has nothing to do with the crash.

But the original intention of Roger Babson and Yello was not to encourage the collapse of the U.S. stock market and cause panic among speculators, but to get them to accept the current status quo.

Many well-known media participated in this speech, and what he said was quickly printed in newspapers and spread all over the streets of the New York Stock Exchange and various financial districts.

At the New York Stock Exchange, Hui Xin, who had been struggling all night, got up and drove straight to the VIP room.

As soon as they arrived at the New York Stock Exchange, Benjamin and Kardashian hurried over to report.

"Madam, the index has fallen a lot today, and many high-priced stocks are going down." Benjamin, the deputy director of the trading department, relied on Huixin's service and successfully replaced his own leadership. He will be promoted to the director of the New York Stock Exchange's trading department at the end of the month.

Now he is Huixin's loyal partner.

"Oh, anyway, I sold a lot of stocks yesterday, didn't I?" Huixin sat lazily on the sofa, holding a goblet in her hand, as if she didn't care.

Benjamin said anxiously: "Yes, you instructed us to sell a large number of stocks yesterday. Judging from today's market conditions, we have at least avoided a million-dollar loss. However, the vice president sent people over to collect many high-priced stocks. Now these stocks .are all falling.”

"Liu Xuenong?" Huixin's hand shaking the wine glass paused slightly, "Oh~ how much is it."

"All I can count here is 1000 million US dollars." After being with Huixin for too long, Benjamin felt that he was no longer so sensitive to money.

Now that I think about it, that’s $1000 million!

At the beginning of the year, General Motors' total valuation was only US$3000 million. This was still market value, not liquidity.

The sudden rise of Hongxing United Group is always easy to mislead others, making speculators think that making money is easy.

"How much did you lose?" Huixin didn't care.

Benjamin lowered his voice: "My guess is it's close to 200 million. Of course, it may go back up by the close. But I think I should report this to you."

After Ye Luo left, the power of Hongxing United Group was divided into two, with Huixin and Liu Xuenong each controlling half.

But Huixin mainly focused on personnel transfer and management, while Liu Xuenong controlled all business lines.

Benjamin was worried that Liu Xuenong was using funds "abnormally".

"I understand, let him do it, he is the person in charge of the business line, I don't care about this." Huixin shook her head, "By the way, what's going on with Hartree's stock."

"Yesterday, a team was selling a large amount of Hartree's shares on the market, suspected of short selling. But soon, these shares were acquired by others. I checked and found that it was your group company." Benjamin glanced at her.

Does this woman want to do more Hartri?

Huixin nodded: "I didn't buy it, it must have been his handiwork. So what's the price?"

"Since Hongxing United Group took over yesterday, it has fallen by about 1.5 US dollars, with a loss of about 50 US dollars, no more, no less." Benjamin's words were based on the size of Red Star United Group.

If it is an ordinary company or retail investor, a loss of US$50 is almost enough to jump off the building.

"That is to say, my company has lost almost 250 million US dollars since yesterday." Huixin rubbed her temples.

Benjamin nodded: "That's true for now, but you also know the fluctuations of the stock market, and it won't be until the last moment."

"Stop it." Huixin didn't want to eat the cake. In this world, there is only one man who can draw a cake for her.

After the matter was revealed, the words in the VIP room were relaxed, but Liu Xuenong, who was watching on the second floor, was already sweating profusely.

A $250 million shortfall!

The principal he owns is only six to seven million US dollars, which he earned from secretly using the company's public funds to speculate in stocks, and now he has lost all of it.

In addition, the company's funds and the share capital of important military and political figures of the Republic of China were also tumbling inside.

I hope this wave of decline will end soon.

Damn Roger Babson!

The speech in the afternoon indeed affected the stock market.

Today's New York Stock Exchange is obviously not as hot as yesterday. The market is falling and many stocks have begun to cut their prices. Of course, there are still many stocks that are rising, but most of them are mid-price stocks and low-price stocks.

Just like Liu Xuenong's current salary, it is no longer attractive to him.

The only thing that comforted him was that the penny stocks were still moving forward steadily without any impact.

Before closing, Liu Xuenong, whose eyes were red, saw Ye Luo again.

Yello accompanied Roger Babson to the New York Stock Exchange and immediately caused a small sensation.

The two entered the VIP room, not knowing what to do.

"I'm going to add another $100 million to my short position. The short position should be complete." Roger Babson was very satisfied with today's performance of the U.S. stock market. He added another $100 million to his short position and prepared to hold the position overnight.

"It's not a good thing to be high-profile, Mr. Babson." Ye Luo teased him from the side.

Roger Babson chuckled and patted him on the shoulder: "This is what I make. It's you who should pay attention to this, Ye."

"Haha." Ye Luo and him looked at each other and smiled, saying nothing.

Roger Babson's arrogant visit to the New York Stock Exchange to add short positions spread like wildfire.

This is a recent investment star on Wall Street. In the last 100 transactions, only a handful of them have failed. He can be called a victorious general.

As soon as he increased his position, the market immediately went down again, and many stocks were still falling.

It can be seen that because of his short selling, many retail investors fled in a hurry, making the US stock market unstable.

The game between shorts and longs began shortly after the market closed today.

Realizing that these short sellers were not groundless, the most determined bulls in the U.S. stock market, well-known economists Fisher and Keynes, immediately held an emergency press conference and accepted interviews from various media, threatening that the U.S. stock market would not collapse and that rising stock prices were a foreseeable event in the future. .

For this reason, they spared no expense to bribe the media and let them serialize it crazily, so that speculators can see the news everywhere and create the appearance of stable U.S. stocks.

It has to be said that the underdeveloped media information channels in 1929 made these investors feel like a fish in water.

Retail investors, who account for the majority of the base, simply do not understand this simple market operation and game.

In the afternoon, Roger Babson gave a speech, and they just followed the trend. In the evening, economists jointly supported the U.S. stock market, and they felt that the U.S. stock market was OK again!

I don’t know how many people will buy stocks crazily when the market opens tomorrow.

This kind of game seems funny but real to Ye Luo.

It’s like traffic stars competing for popularity!

But it was exactly what he expected.

The water is getting muddier, so the decline in U.S. stocks will not be noticed by many people. (End of chapter)