From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 443 Flash Crash
At 08:30 local time in the federal capital, in the securities trading hall of Boqi Heavy Industries, traders and analysts who had already taken their positions were preparing to officially start today's "fight" in the market as usual.

Jack Winston, chief trader of Boqi Heavy Industries, hovered his hands above the virtual keyboard, his fingertips gracefully touching the clusters of volumetric lights, as if a pianist was playing his own repertoire.

Few traders would have the adjective 'elegant' to describe their work, but Jack Winston is one of them.

Being very talented in this area, he became the chief trader of Boqi Heavy Industry at a young age. He does have something to be proud of. The fight in the financial market is like a chess game to him, and he is the 'chess player' who sits firmly on the Diaoyutai.

He stared at the virtual screen in front of him, which displayed the share price of Boqi Heavy Industry and a large amount of data and information he needed. Everything seemed calm and normal.
At least that's the case so far.

Just as he took the refreshing hot drink handed to him by his assistant and was about to check whether several traders who had been newly promoted from below had adapted to the intense pace of the headquarters, a flashing red window suddenly popped up in the lower right corner of the screen.

That is the 'alarm pop-up window' of Boqi Heavy Industry's market early warning system.

The sudden alarm made Jack's heart skip a beat. He quickly switched to the technical analysis interface and saw a huge sell order suddenly appear on the market depth chart, like an inexplicable black hole that was swallowing up the buying power.

Almost as if by reflex, he immediately assessed the size and speed of the sell order, and then calculated in his mind the market chain reaction that such a large sell order might cause.

"Cast it to the main screen and enlarge it!"

Jack spoke through the voice control system, using his training to keep his voice calm. As the chief trader, his emotions and every move would affect other people in the hall, so staying calm in any situation was also an important skill.

However, even he himself did not expect that this forced calmness would not last long.

As Jack Winston's instructions were issued, the details of the sell orders on the technical analysis interface were magnified and soon showed large sell-offs from multiple unknown accounts.

The chief trader of Boqi Heavy Industries noticed that although the sources of these sell orders were scattered, it was still obvious that they were carefully planned sell-offs. In addition, the huge amount was enough to disrupt the trading order of Boqi Heavy Industries' related stocks.

Jack's mind raced as he recalled the crisis management principles that his mentor, the former chief trader who had just retired, had repeatedly emphasized during countless simulation training and actual combat. But even so, he still couldn't suppress the uneasiness that welled up in his heart at this moment.

This uneasiness finally made him press a red button. Suddenly, an alarm sounded in the entire trading hall, and an emergency call appeared on the screen in front of him.

"Contact the group headquarters. Yeah, high-level threat. We may be in big trouble."
-
Boqi Heavy Industries Headquarters, Crisis Response Center.

After receiving the news, the 64-year-old president David Calhoun, the helmsman of this federal heavy industrial giant, went to the encrypted conference room of the crisis response center with other senior executives of the company.

In fact, he had been awakened from a deep sleep four hours ago and received the bad news about "our army's great defeat".

After that, he had been attending an emergency online meeting convened by Mrs. Paris of the NuTao Group. Other corporate executives attending the meeting were as confused as he was. No one had expected that this armed conflict would have such an outcome.

In order to organize this "expedition", the companies under the military-industrial complex not only mobilized their fleets in full force, but also sent most of their main forces - including those precious heavy cruisers and battleships.

But overnight, these fleets, which were the "backbone" of each company, were lost, so when many people heard the news, their first reaction was to doubt whether the news was wrong.

However, as more and more news came back, including the battle reports sent back by the 23rd and 24th Fleets and provided by the Federal Navy, the fact that the Combined Fleet had suffered a major defeat was directly placed before their eyes.

This fact has put many companies in the military-industrial complex, including Nutao Group, Boqi Heavy Industries, and Deep Space Mining, in an extremely dangerous situation.

In this situation, the danger no longer comes only from the Atlas Group.

If these fleets that serve as "muscle" are lost, the federal government may be secretly "sharpening its knives" at this moment, intending to take the opportunity to completely get rid of the interference of the military-industrial complex or even stage a "backlash" drama.

This is also the main reason why Mrs. Paris urgently gathered everyone together. They must stay together and think of a solution as soon as possible.

But no one expected that the Atlas Group's counterattack would come so quickly.

At 8:45 local time in the federal capital, everyone attending this emergency meeting learned the news about the stock market through their own channels at almost the same time.

Then everyone looked at David Calhoun, whose face turned pale after receiving the news. While maintaining his facial expression, he apologized to Mrs. Paris and hurriedly left the online meeting.

Although the news received by David Calhoun and others all stated that there were "unknown forces" shorting Boqi Heavy Industries.

But even if everyone used their appendix to think, they could tell that this was a counterattack from Atlas.

In the meeting room of the crisis response center of Boqi Heavy Industries, the atmosphere was extremely tense, and even the air seemed to have solidified into a heavy piece of lead.

The data flashing on several virtual screens were like an invisible storm. A large number of sell orders from unknown sources were like dark clouds looming, and the stock price curve of Boqi Heavy Industries was declining at a speed visible to the naked eye.

On other screens, there were news about the Combined Fleet's disastrous defeat, the quality scandal of Bochi Heavy Industries, the death of the whistleblower, and related real-time public opinion monitoring.

Of course, the live broadcast of the "Eye of Truth" that just started suddenly was indispensable. With the help of the broadcast footage of this "mouthpiece" of the Atlas Group, the senior executives of Boqi Heavy Industries even saw the wreckage of the warship with the company's logo printed on it before the relevant news was transmitted back through their own channels.

After seeing this scene, everyone present quickly realized that the 'Eye of Truth' or the Atlas Group had deliberately released this image in order to cooperate with the attack being launched on the stock exchange market.

"Everyone, we have no time to waste. I can conclude that this is a counterattack from Atlas!"

David Calhoun, who was sitting on the main seat, said this in a decisive tone. Although his mental state was not very good after hearing a series of bad news, his voice was still steady and powerful.

After hearing his words, the chief financial officer of Boqi Heavy Industries also spoke up:
"And they obviously made preparations long in advance. Not to mention the exposed 'dirty information', the large amount of stocks they hold is not something they can handle overnight. But we don't even know how many 'chips' they still have in hand."

The CFO's words echoed what the other executives present were thinking. No one had expected Atlas' counterattack to come so quickly. Or rather, they had never thought that Atlas could fight back.

After all, in their previous expectations, this isolated company would only be completely defeated by the military-industrial complex that was "clenched into a fist". But now, the Atlas Group not only attacked them in the capital market, but also dealt them a fatal blow in the field of public opinion.

“So we must respond immediately!”

David Calhoun said in a deep voice: "Let the External Propaganda Department cooperate with the Public Relations Department to issue an official statement denying these accusations and stating that we will take action to hold these opinion makers accountable through the law."

law
To be honest, many executives almost laughed when they heard David Calhoun say the word "law".

Because for them, the various laws issued by the federal government are basically not binding, and these executives have long forgotten how many years ago it was that they last had awe for the "law".
David Calhoun obviously knew what these executives were thinking, but he was not angry. Instead, he explained calmly, "This is to ensure that our shareholders, investors, and brokers in the market continue to have confidence in us. Do you understand?"

After hearing the tone of David Calhoun's voice, the executives who were familiar with him quickly realized that the big boss was a little angry, so they didn't dare to say anything more and nodded in agreement.

"Activate the emergency fund and grant authorization to traders. Tell them to find a way to stabilize the stock price! At the same time, inform our allies of the situation and tell them that if they still stand aside at this time, Boqi Heavy Industry's today will be their tomorrow!"

Soon, Boqi Heavy Industries and its most steadfast allies in the military-industrial complex took action. These allies obviously understood the principle of "the lips and teeth are cold".

Moreover, the military-industrial complex had previously thought of crushing the Atlas Group directly, which would allow the other party to recover and launch a counterattack. No one thought that this was just a small fight, and it was even very likely that they were aiming for a fight to the death with the military-industrial complex.

After many companies took action one after another, a large amount of off-market reserve funds flowed into the market through various open and secret channels, and under the operation of traders, they were thrown into this battle without gunpowder.
-
In the securities trading hall of Boqi Heavy Industry, the atmosphere at this moment is completely different from that before the market opened. Everyone is working nervously, constantly buying their own company's stocks in an attempt to stabilize the stock price.

On the screen nearby, a press conference urgently held by Boqi Heavy Industries was being broadcast live. Thanks to the efforts of the public relations team, a large number of securities trading centers, brokerage forums, financial news channels and various media within the Federation were also broadcasting the event.

The head-on confrontation in the market, the hedging in the public opinion field, and the help from allies seem to have gradually stabilized the stock price of Boqi Heavy Industries.

Just when many traders were secretly speculating whether this meant that the crisis would be turned around with the company's response, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse again.

A series of red numbers flashed quickly on the main screen. It was a waterfall-like drop in stock prices. The entire market seemed to have lost its mind at this moment.

In the trading hall, the shrill alarm sounded again. This round of alarms sounded even more creepy than the previous alarm issued by chief trader Jack Winston.

Every trader's face turned pale. They felt a little helpless and didn't know what they should do.

“Flash crash.”

Jack weakly uttered a specific noun, and this noun referred to the situation that all traders were most reluctant to face.

This refers to the phenomenon of extreme price fluctuations in the financial market in a very short period of time, usually manifested as the market price of a certain security, commodity or index suddenly falling sharply within a few minutes or seconds.

It may rebound quickly after that, but it may also continue to be sluggish, or even collapse to the bottom and eventually trigger the circuit breaker mechanism.

However, it is "unfortunate" that Federal Securities cancelled the "circuit breaker mechanism" twelve years ago. At that time, there was a popular conspiracy theory that the military-industrial complex was behind this major rule change.

Because soon after the circuit breaker mechanism was cancelled, many companies that did not join the military-industrial complex were crushed one by one in the securities market.
But no matter what the historical truth is, or what would happen if there was no circuit breaker mechanism to protect the bottom line, Jack Winston, the chief trader of Boqi Heavy Industries, can no longer care so much.

He quickly calmed himself down and promptly initiated the Securities and Exchange Department's highest-level crisis response procedures.

A series of instructions flowed out of his mouth like water and were quickly executed by the trading team. The algorithmic trading system of Boqi Heavy Industry was also activated to the highest level, and the server array equipped with the algorithmic trading system also entered an overclocked operation state under the settings of the technicians.

After obtaining further improvement in computing power, the trading system began to try to stabilize the market again and absorb panic selling in the market by calculating the optimal buying and selling points.

High-frequency trading strategies are also enabled without restriction at this moment, with the trading system capturing market opportunities within milliseconds. However, facing the new generation of trading systems developed by Lilith, this is an almost impossible battle to win.

At this moment, regardless of position or camp, the trading department of Boqi Heavy Industries, led by Jack Winston, demonstrated their professionalism and tenacity. Everyone was racing against time and trying their best to save the situation that was about to fall into the abyss.

However, this battle in the capital market has openly shown its cruel and bloody side.

The battle that started from the opening, coupled with the fermentation of negative news, has caused the panic in the market to reach its peak. Any effort seems insignificant, and the power of the flash crash is beyond the imagination of all of them.

The share price of Boqi Heavy Industries fell like a free fall, market liquidity almost disappeared, and all attempts to save it seemed pale and powerless.

When it came to 16:00 in the afternoon, the first trading day of the week finally came to a close.

After a day of fighting and multiple large-scale "counterattacks", the closing stock price of Boqi Heavy Industry still fell to its lowest point in history. The company's market value evaporated by more than half in one day, and an unprecedented financial crisis appeared before them without any warning.
In the meeting room of the crisis response center of Boqi Heavy Industries, there was only silence after the closing bell slowly fell. David Calhoun clenched his fists, and his eyes flashed with unwillingness and fatigue.

After seeing the company's stock price and market value at closing, many other executives in the conference room wondered if they were in a nightmare. However, the 'estimated dividends for this year' that were cut in half on their personal terminals told them that it was all true.

It took David Calhoun a long time to come back to his senses. Looking at the frightened executives in front of him, he couldn't help but shook his head slightly.

However, he did not say anything sarcastic, but instead intended to get these executives to come back to their senses and discuss the self-rescue plan that urgently needed to be implemented.

Originally, he also planned to warn Mrs. Paris and other key members of the military-industrial complex, because the target of the aggressive Atlas Group's counterattack this time was definitely not just Bochi Heavy Industries.

But in the end he did not do so, and temporarily ignored the messages from other corporate executives. After all, in his opinion, with such a big commotion now happening, even if he did not say anything, others would probably feel a sense of crisis.

What about those companies that have no sense of crisis and even need to remind themselves?

Humph. It’s just right for me to come down and sit at the same table with Boqi Heavy Industry.

(End of this chapter)