Mediterranean hegemon

Chapter 30 The Big Short (17)

Like a majestic general, Livermore gave an order, and the overwhelming short positions surged out instantly, and large orders rushed to the stock market. In 9 minutes, United Trust traded 500 million stocks, not only getting back all the short positions harvested yesterday, but also expanding the short positions to more than 3.5 billion US dollars. The index that had just struggled at 425 points was quickly broken through, 420 points were lost, and 410 points began to be in danger.

At that moment, he seemed to have the world under his control, but he quickly calmed down - this is the president's business, he is just a responsible manager, don't put it in the wrong position, don't look for him Livermore, the president can look for other investors, but without the United Group, he can't get such a favorable position and strong capital. The president's ability to effectively speak to the market is a huge fortune. Not everyone has the capital to hold such a large press conference and bring in so many reporters.

"Buy, buy, buy!"

Seeing the index falling like a flood, the traders of the stabilization fund woke up from their dreams and began to buy in large amounts. The rise at the opening of the market this morning was just the lip service of the stabilization fund. They have not bought a dollar of stock so far - do they really think these bankers can't see that the stock points are at a high level? They are just trying to protect their own interests. They can fool people with their mouths and never invest real money. But now the selling orders are overwhelming, and the posture is more fierce than yesterday. They have to invest.

At 10:46, the stabilization fund has received nearly $500 million in goods - at least 200 million of which are short orders from United Trust. Now the two sides have become counterparties.

At 10:54, the short position of United Trust has reached 3.8 billion US dollars, which is very close to the ideal state of 4 billion. Francisco walked in and asked Livermore: "How is the situation?"

"Someone is absorbing the goods. I guess it is the work of the stabilization fund."

Francisco smiled: "Can this group of rabble work together? The president has authorized that if you think the market is almost ready, you can continue to reduce your holdings of stocks, starting with United Petroleum Algeria Company..."

"How much can you reduce?"

"Allow clearance!"

"Clear?" Livermore's body froze. There are almost 600 million US dollars of stocks here. He asked cautiously: "Does the president not want this oil field?"

"You think too much..." Francisco laughed, "Where is the Algerian oil pipeline? Where is the shipping port? Where is the reserve oil depot built?"

Livermore suddenly realized: These are all in Libya and Tripoli. Even if Contini has no shares, others can't easily get control - the president can prevent you from shipping a drop of oil! Even if United Group lets you export, the rental fees for these necessary facilities will be staggering.

What? You say you don't want it, and you want to start a new business? Sure, you can talk to the French about Algiers and see if they can fix it for you within two years. Two years means that more than 10 million tons of crude oil cannot be mined, and hundreds of millions of dollars will be lost.

After figuring this out, he immediately started to use United Petroleum to smash the market: $20 million of shells were fired instantly, and Algeria Petroleum shares were smashed to below the conversion price, and then a group of oil, energy and exploration stocks dived; the stabilization fund was about to take it, and another 30 million of goods came overwhelmingly. Faced with the energy sector with a market value of nearly 7 billion diving from the high platform, everyone didn't know what to take.

Five minutes later, Francisco told Livermore that he could also reduce his holdings in United Pharmaceuticals.

"Do you want to sell off this stock? This is a genuine blue chip stock..." Livermore shouted, "It's unique in the world."

"The president thinks that the price-earnings ratio of 157 times is too high. It will take 157 years of continuous profit to recover the cost, but this patent is only 5 years... After 5 years, generic drugs will be worthless when they are launched on the market." Francisco smiled, "If you like, I'll give it to you at a price-earnings ratio of 140 times."

"No, no..." Livermore said with a grin, "There is a saying in our industry that you must never fall in love with stocks. No matter how good a stock is, it is just a symbol."

"That's right, charge..."

"Brothers, charge..." A trader shouted out at the climax. With the outflow of 40 million United Pharmaceuticals' sell orders, a bunch of blue chip stocks and technology stocks that are usually called blue chip stocks have retreated across the board - the leading stocks, the most authentic and the most in short supply of United Pharmaceuticals have all been sold off. What reason do these pseudo-tech stocks and concept stocks have not to fall with them?

410 points, 400 points, 390 points, three barriers were broken through in an instant.

Contini looked at the numbers on the telex machine and received a report from the trading desk - more than 10 billion US dollars of stock transactions had been made throughout the morning, equivalent to 15% of the total stock market value, which was even larger than yesterday's trading volume. At this rate, it is possible to break through 20 billion US dollars today.

"Add more fuel to the fire, break through yesterday's low, and go up to United Motor and United Bank..."

United Motor dragged down machinery and automobile stocks one after another, and United Bank brought the financial sector to the diving platform. As this fierce selling continued, the entire trading and telex channel was completely blocked, and the overall delay was more than an hour. It was only through the message from the front-line telecommunications department that we knew that the stock index was knocking on the door of the 380-point mark.

After another 6 minutes, United Trust once again traded 700 million. The index is now lower than 380 points, with the lowest reaching 376.25 points. United Trust's short position successfully exceeded 4 billion, and the floating profit on the book has reached 1 billion.

"Get ready to harvest. First collect some shares of United Bank, and then collect some bonds..."

"Dear depositors, our bank has just received news that the stock market has fallen sharply again today and has broken through yesterday's lowest point of 383 points. Due to blockage in the exchange channel, the telex system data is lagging behind by 70 minutes. The current actual points are 376 points. In order to protect everyone's interests as much as possible, the bank has announced it. Please tell each other. If there are depositors who need to sell stocks, please contact your broker as soon as possible..."

As if the situation was not serious enough, the loudspeaker of the United Bank suddenly started broadcasting. Many people fell again as if nothing had happened... and many people looked pale. They fell even more than yesterday? Many people have already added a round of deposits. Should they add another round today?

Crazy!

Mitchell and others quickly gathered together to discuss countermeasures. He roared hysterically in the office: "Why did it fall so easily? Didn't we just announce a bailout?"

"It should be that yesterday's selling momentum has not been fully released, so while the market opened higher this morning, someone started selling again."

"I always feel that something is wrong..." George Baker Jr. said, "It seems that the United stocks fell first. Are there any big investors selling tit-for-tat?"

"Yes, I saw it. Algeria's oil stocks were the first to dive, and then energy, machinery, blue chip and even steel began to fall."

"Ask little Ciano..." Lamont said, "He threatened to sell the stock yesterday, but he won't really sell it today, right?"

Mitchell immediately dialed the phone, but it was Francisco who answered the phone. He cautiously asked about the word selling. Unexpectedly, the other person answered readily: "Yes, we reduced our holdings today, almost more than 300 million." U.S. dollars... Why are you reducing your holdings? ...Isn't this an obvious reason? You have to deal with runs and maturing loan items. You don't know the situation. Yesterday, a total of 120 million US dollars was withdrawn. As of this morning, it is again The US$25 million is gone, which has almost wiped out all our liquidity. Fortunately, we can still cope with the US$500 million we reduced our holdings last time, and we can only rely on these for the rest..."

Mitchell said with a gloomy face: "If you don't have enough money, you can ask us for a loan..."

"Your interest rates are too high, we can't afford it..." Francisco said with a smile, "Besides, the stock market points are too high. Appropriate reduction of some holdings will help suppress the overheated atmosphere, reduce the pressure on the Federal Reserve, and save them every day. Watching us mess around is not good for you and me. Is it good for everyone? You want to give President Hoover some face..."

Contini next to him gave a thumbs up - this is a good job!

"But we just set up a fund today to maintain stability, so you take the lead in selling..."

"You can't say that." Francisco said, "I didn't take the lead. The market volume this morning was more than 10 billion. Someone was selling early in the morning. We only started to follow the trend and reduce our holdings 10 minutes later..."

Contini gave a thumbs up again - Livermore took the lead in reducing holdings!

"You..." Mitchell was told that there was nothing he could do. If the interest rate was too high, he would rather reduce his holdings if he didn't want to borrow. This hit everyone's weakness, but he was unwilling to lend out at low interest rates - why?

"That's fine if you don't participate in maintaining stability, but you can't take the lead in sabotage..." Mitchell finally said helplessly, "Everyone's goals should be the same..."

"I understand, I understand. I'm going to persuade the president to buy some appropriately..."

"That's good, that's good. How about we have a drink together tonight?"

"Looking at the situation at the press conference, I really can't get away from it." Francisco said apologetically, "I want to say sorry to everyone. In this troubled year, I was really a little neglectful..."

Putting down the microphone, Mitchell's face turned pale: "As expected, United Group reduced its holdings. It reduced its holdings by more than 300 million in the morning. The reason was to prepare funds to cope with the run - this is what Ciano announced publicly last night. of."

The others frowned, suddenly feeling a little troubled.

"Is Union Bank's liquidity at such a critical level?"

"It is indeed not optimistic. I suspect that Standard and Moody's should also know this news. They may further lower their ratings, but of course it may not necessarily be today."

"Then what should we do? Should we still buy it? Or should we just throw it away?"

"You can't sell it. If you sell it, the market will really be over. Let's take a look at the wind direction in the afternoon!"

The wind direction is still bad in the afternoon, but after the large-scale release in the morning, the pressure is not as strong in the afternoon. In fact, most of the selling in the late morning was passive selling that followed the trend - because many accounts were below the warning line, or even reached the liquidation line, and it was impossible not to reduce their holdings, and the more they reduced their holdings, the fewer stock indexes they would have.

By 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the stock index briefly broke through 370 points and reached 368 points. Up to this time, it could barely close at 361 points. This is a very important point for the Dow Jones, not only the 60-day moving average cut-in point. , or the dividing line between bull and bear - if we start from the highest point of the stock market, it will fall by nearly 20% to 361 points. It can no longer be measured by technical adjustments, and it will turn from bull to bear.

However, all parties in the market had a tacit understanding and did not continue to fight down, but began to rise slowly.

The stabilization fund wants to defend its status; the United Group is preparing to withdraw it - the leek cannot be cut too hard all at once, otherwise no one will play if it is too severe. It should be closed up at the end of the day to give people a certain degree of confidence and let people They put in the deposit again, and then continue to work tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, so that they can cut one crop after another. Although uprooting is enjoyable, it is not conducive to long-term shearing. Livermore believes that it is necessary to take another look at the direction of the wind.

At 3:06, the long-awaited buying order finally appeared. At this time, the floating profit on United Trust's books exceeded US$1.3 billion. The traders were working hard to buy back the stocks that had fallen the hardest to close their positions according to Livermore's instructions. , 100 million U.S. dollars were harvested in 15 minutes, and then part of it went into reserve funds, and part of it went to bond accounts to buy long-term bonds. When bonds plummeted today, bonds also fell sharply. It was not that there was any emergency situation with bonds, but that many small and medium-sized enterprises In order to maintain their position in the stock market, institutions had to reduce their bond holdings in order to free up margins - after all, bonds did not fall as fast or as sharply as stocks, so Livermore methodically absorbed 50 million long-term bonds, together with the 40 million it absorbed yesterday, Almost 90 million have been repurchased, and there are only more than 100 million left outside. If this rate continues, it will be absorbed in another 2-3 days.

At 3:38, United Trust closed one-sixth of its position and collected another US$100 million. The US$100 million was then divided into two batches. One part was returned to United Bank so that the latter could repay the money borrowed from other banks. The other part Then repurchase the 300 million shares that were reduced in the morning. Of course, it is impossible to buy back all of them. According to Francisco's request, it only repurchased nearly 80 million symbolically and then stopped moving. And these 80 million US dollars of stocks were sold in the morning. At the peak of the sell-off, it was worth 110 million.

In short, by selling high and buying low, the United Group steadily pocketed a profit of 30 million yuan while reducing its total holdings - which was enough to cope with the run in the afternoon. As for the stability maintenance fund, Head, Francisco also feels that he can explain that we have indeed repurchased it. As for the amount of repurchase, don’t be picky. It would be good to repurchase it. 80 million US dollars is not a lot. Wasn’t the stabilization fund just a mouthful at the beginning? In fact, this is really wrong to blame the stabilization fund. They have taken nearly 600 million positions and went straight to 3 times the leverage.

If he hadn't been worried that the final moment of the general attack had not yet come, and that he still had to deal with these Wall Street tycoons, Francisco would not have wanted to pay attention to them at all - we would have seen through your little idea of ​​taking advantage of the situation!

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