These financial elites couldn't sleep all night, with many staying up past two in the morning searching for relevant information online.
As a result, they actually found something.
Someone in their circle suddenly posted another account on their Weibo, with the caption, "Heard they're already negotiating, it's all over!"
"What on earth does this mean?" The elites were naturally confused. They then curiously clicked on the account, only to find an image attached: a photo of someone hurrying into a building, obscured by the night.
Logically, this photo shouldn't be noteworthy. After all, the photo was blurry in terms of the person, the location, and the story behind it. A normal person would glance at it and dismiss it without any interest.
However, if someone were to meticulously study this photograph, they would discover that it seemed to hide an extraordinary secret.
First, the Black man appearing in the photo looked remarkably like Little Swift. Although it was dark, and the subject was Black, with only a streetlight on the roadside providing illumination, it should have been impossible to identify the person.
But the problem was that Little Swift's appearance was too deeply ingrained in the minds of everyone in the financial circle; they could recognize him at a glance.
If the person entering a building under the cover of night was indeed Little Swift, then the implications were enormous.
Because everyone recognized this building: it was the back door of the Goldman Sachs Club.
The Goldman Sachs Club was a club established by Goldman Sachs Group specifically for its clients, featuring numerous attractions. Goldman Sachs frequently invited elites of all kinds to entertain themselves at the club and discuss various significant matters.
Now, with Little Swift entering the Goldman Sachs Club, the implications were far-reaching.
Although no one knew who Little Swift was meeting or what he was discussing at Goldman Sachs, everyone knew that Goldman Sachs had a stake behind this institution. Previously, when Little Swift sought to extend his short positions, he had gone to see the president of Goldman Sachs, who then went on a trip to Ukraine. Little Swift hadn't even been able to get through Goldman Sachs' door.
Yet now, he was being ushered into the Goldman Sachs Club. This revealed a great deal of hidden dealings, and the possibilities for speculation were endless.
These speculations tormented them, making sleep even more impossible. They began frantically searching for information related to this photograph and discovered various conspiracy theories.
One of these theories suggested that Little Swift was negotiating a peace treaty with Goldman Sachs, intending to exchange some price for Goldman Sachs' agreement to a three-month extension.
This speculation sent shivers down the spines of many elites. If Goldman Sachs truly agreed to a three-month extension, by the time the annual financial reports were released, everyone would be ruined.
Not to mention even more terrifying speculations, the most chilling one being that Little Swift was actually a pawn placed by Goldman Sachs, with the objective of using him to gather everyone's funds, only for Goldman Sachs to then "harvest the leeks" all at once. It wasn't an unlikely possibility, as Goldman Sachs had done such things before.
Speculations like these were rife on the internet. While these theories became increasingly outlandish, the financial elites knew from experience that reality was often more bizarre than their wildest guesses.
Then, the most terrifying thing happened. One hour and thirty-two minutes after the picture was posted, it was deleted.
Two minutes later, the account that posted the picture was also deleted. Subsequently, all reposted images and Weibo posts were removed. Even several accounts that had posted their speculations about the story behind the picture simply disappeared.
One must remember that these were Weibo accounts of influential figures within the circle, yet they were deleted so abruptly.
Most notably, Weibo then issued a public announcement urging everyone not to believe or spread rumors.
"Well, that's a foolish way to try and cover it up!"
In response to this situation, the elites had no doubts, nor did anyone report it. This was because they were acutely aware that such actions were normal for people in the financial industry. After all, major social media platforms were, to varying degrees, influenced by various financial institutions; for them to delete certain messages was a mere matter of a word.
This was undoubtedly the work of the powers behind the scenes, aiming to erase all relevant intelligence and prevent wider influence.
As for complaints, they were completely unnecessary. If you complained to the government, at least they would pretend to hold a court hearing. But if you dared to complain about capital, you yourself would likely be the first one to stand in court. No intelligent person would complain about something that couldn't be changed. Instead, they had to cooperate by keeping silent and not informing others.
After all, the fewer people who knew, the more beneficial it was for them.
However, by the time the next workday arrived, one-tenth of Wall Street's workforce sported dark circles under their eyes, their condition utterly dismal.
December 4, 2004. Those with dark circles exchanged glances, offering a grim smile, before returning to their chairs to continue working, nonchalantly glancing at the market at the same time.
Their eyelids immediately twitched. There were already 15 billion dollars in short positions waiting in the trading zone. Someone was preparing to sell 15 billion dollars worth of stock right at the opening. Was this the point where they weren't even pretending anymore?
"But thankfully, I was prepared!" Some of the financial elites with dark circles wore sinister smiles. Their spouses or friends were not at work but sat nervously in front of a computer, awaiting the start of trading hours.
9:30 AM Eastern Standard Time. The new day's market officially opened. Then, everyone watched as, stimulated by the 15 billion dollars in short stock orders, Motorola and Nokia's stock prices began a steep dive. Within three minutes of opening, their stock price plummeted by $20, falling to an average price of around $120.
This barely absorbed the 15 billion dollars in short positions.
[PS: A correction here. Previously, it was mentioned that Samsung's stock was also speculated on, but this time Samsung's stock was actually not involved. This is because Samsung mobile phones were not listed separately; the entire Samsung Group was listed. Compared to the scale of the Samsung Group, Samsung mobile phones were somewhat insignificant.
Therefore, speculating on Samsung mobile phone sales did not have a significant impact on the Samsung Group's stock price. As a result, the mobile stocks operated by the Western Bronco Fund did not include Samsung Group's stock.
The author did not consider this point before, so this mistake was made. Please forgive me.]
Then, the orders from the institutions also came down. They continued to instruct all their subordinates that they had caught the tails of those operating in the dark and would soon send these individuals to meet their maker.
And everyone must unite, maintain the price of mobile stocks, and absolutely not be affected, otherwise, if the stock price collapses, everyone will perish without a burial place.
They must not do something that sacrifices everyone's interests for one person's gain, leading to no one profiting – the worst and most foolish situation.
"Understood!"
"Boss, don't worry, we won't be that stupid!"
"Exactly, we are all of one heart, and we will prosper together!"
The employees in the office responded with loud voices. Their superiors returned to their offices with great satisfaction. Then, some people, while smiling, pulled out their phones and sent text messages to their friends or wives. The content varied, such as "I won't be home for lunch," "Has the child gone to school?"
And "Happy birthday," among other perfectly normal-looking text messages. Upon receiving these messages, the recipients immediately trembled and, without hesitation, clicked on their computers to dump all their stocks.
Then, according to their prior agreement, they replied to their husbands or friends. Only then did these financial elites breathe a sigh of relief, believing they might be able to escape now.
Although this would undoubtedly lead to the collapse of the overall situation, whether the overall situation collapsed or not was irrelevant. As long as their money could escape, they just needed to run faster than others!
The expressions on these people's faces suddenly turned very grim because nearly 20 billion dollars in stocks were suddenly being sold on the market overnight.
"You scoundrels, who told you to sell? Didn't we agree to unite?" Someone who had just sent a text message to his wife stood up angrily and roared at his colleagues in the office.
Among these 20 billion dollars in stocks, there must be the stocks of these scoundrels. If they were trying to escape early, how could he escape?
"Exactly! Which scoundrels are these?"
"Who are these scoundrels? All of you, step forward!" Others also stood up, roaring angrily in the office. Damn it, if everyone was running, then they couldn't escape! They had still been a bit slow to sell.
"Crack!" Suddenly, the sound of items falling echoed from the leader's office. Then, the enraged leader rushed out, saying, "You scoundrels, you promised to unite, you promised not to run, why are you all running? The company's losses will all be attributed to you! Hurry up and withdraw your short positions!"
This leader was furious. After agreeing to the plan, he had rushed back to his office and directly used his authority to sell all the company's related stocks, hoping to salvage some losses during this opportunity and avoid being trapped. But now, with another 20 billion dollars, on top of the previous 15 billion dollars, how could the market digest so much in such a short period? The most terrifying thing was that with an additional 20 billion dollars, which fool would dare to remain in the market?
"Regardless of the strategy, sell it all!" The leader thought about this and rushed back again. He had originally planned to proceed cautiously, using methods that would not alert the market to quickly offload his holdings.
But now, he couldn't afford to think about that. As long as not everyone had reacted, the fastest way to escape was to find someone to take over – that was the real logic!