Chapter 1 Coming to First Fidelity Securities

Accompanied by Nong Qingying, Su Yehao arrived at First Fidelity Securities.

The customer manager he had contacted in advance was a local from Hong Kong, in his forties. After receiving the call, he came to the lobby on the first floor specifically to wait for Su Yehao.

Recently, business in the securities industry hadn't been easy.

Some major clients were stuck with losses, cursing up a storm. Others, having used margin and owing huge debts, had simply vanished, as if evaporated from the face of the earth. Only a very few had actually made money.

In the past, when contacting clients and mentioning a good project, people would be interested in learning more.

But now, recommending investments was like holding a knife to their throats. If they hung up the phone directly, that was considered polite; some would even curse their ancestors for eight generations.

The stock and foreign exchange markets were full of strange winds. Needless to say, those who went long suffered, but even many short sellers lost heavily.

Every so often, after a plunge, there would be a positive news story and a massive rebound.

Too many times like that, and it was enough to kill a person.

Behind all this was a multi-party game, and because Hong Kong had a solid foundation, it often fought back and forth with the aggressive international hot money.

A few months ago, the hot money led by Soros failed to take down the Hong Kong dollar, and this time it also hit a snag.

At least for now, the Hong Kong dollar remained strong. Although the stock market had fallen sharply, it was more like squeezing out a bubble, and the foundation was still there.

Investors were choosing to hold cash and wait and see.

First Fidelity Securities was of average size in Hong Kong, and the major clients it had managed to attract had almost all run away.

Seeing that the fourth-quarter performance wouldn't be met, this manager, surnamed Chu, placed his hopes for a turnaround on Su Yehao, who played the U.S. stock market.

As soon as they met, Manager Chu smiled and said, "I heard that Young Master Su made a fortune this time? Congratulations, congratulations. It's said that dragons beget dragons, and phoenixes beget phoenixes; your whole family is amazing! As far as I know, your father cashed out several properties before the big drop. I have relatives who bought your family's apartment in Kowloon."

He started with a round of flattery.

Su Yehao had become accustomed to being flattered recently and had developed a resistance to it. He smiled and said, "Not really, I just barely escaped a disaster. Have you taken care of my matter? The money is already in your bank account. I'm here this time because I want to use the credit line the bank gave me to borrow a sum of money in my name for my friend, about thirty million."

Glancing at his watch, Manager Chu said, "First Fidelity Bank and First Fidelity Securities are under the same parent company, but our businesses are independent. I've already asked the bank president to bring people over to expedite the process for you. It's probably the contract that's taking time to prepare. Would you like to wait a moment in the VIP room with a cup of tea?"

Su Yehao nodded and asked, "It's already past ten o'clock, won't it delay you from getting off work?"

"In the securities business, we might rest, but the Americans and British don't. There are people on duty every day, so we're used to living on New York time in Hong Kong..."

In the short twenty-odd minutes it took to pick up Nong Qingying and drive to First Fidelity Securities, Yahoo's stock price had fallen again, dropping to thirty-eight U.S. dollars.

That left only about six U.S. dollars of upside from Su Yehao's average purchase price.

In other words, in the past hour or so, Su Yehao had lost more than fifty million Hong Kong dollars.

Seeing the stock price movement looking so dire, he began to waver, wondering if it would fall below his purchase price, turning a profit of over one hundred million at its peak into a loss?

Nong Qingying wasn't as confident as Su Yehao. After seeing the numbers in her account, her vision suddenly went dark.

Fortunately, she had her man to rely on, so she didn't complain. She pinned her hopes on Su Yehao's so-called bargain hunting.

As for Su Yehao, even though she didn't know why, Nong Qingying found that he always had a mysterious kind of confidence.

Since Su Yehao was relatively calm, Nong Qingying naturally relaxed as well. After all, the capital was still there, and there were still several million in profits left, so she didn't completely panic.

...

Based on this flash-crash rate of decline, there must be market panic behind it.

Therefore, it also meant that the market movement wasn't rational.

Su Yehao only knew about the Southeast Asian financial crisis and didn't know anything about this big drop in the U.S. stock market, so he hadn't made any preparations beforehand.

Luckily, the money was still in the account.

Earlier, the accounting firm had said they wanted to help plan the accounts, so he shouldn't use the profits earned by Zheng Yongwen and the forty million-plus given by his grandfather for the time being.

Otherwise, Su Yehao might have been itching to continue chasing the high and adding to his Yahoo stock holdings.

If that were the case, he would have lost a fortune today, and the losses would have been two or three times greater.

It could be considered good luck that he had escaped a disaster.

Thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity to see if he could turn misfortune into blessing, Su Yehao signed the fund custody agreement after it was drafted and reviewed.

Then, he helped Nong Qingying apply for a loan of thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

A more accurate description than a loan would be "margin financing." The collateral was the stock that Su Yehao had deposited in his First Fidelity Securities account, so the process was relatively convenient.

Su Yehao used margin in his own name and then lent it to Nong Qingying for use. Just as he finished these procedures, the thirty million wouldn't arrive until tomorrow morning. When he checked Yahoo's stock price again, it had fallen to only thirty-six U.S. dollars.

Staring at the plummeting Yahoo stock price on the computer screen for a long while, Su Yehao gritted his teeth and told Manager Chu, "Buy me one hundred million Hong Kong dollars worth first. If it falls to thirty-five and a half, then buy another one hundred million. There are three hundred million that were just transferred in, you must buy all of it for me into Yahoo. Anyway, as long as it's below this price, you guys take care of it for me!"

Previously, Zheng Yongwen had used a significant amount of leverage when investing for him, involving even larger sums of money.

But Su Yehao hadn't personally intervened in that transaction, so he didn't feel any psychological burden.

It was different now.

There were three hundred million in cash, and it was all his own money. Su Yehao, who had never gambled so heavily before, felt his heart pounding.

In his opinion, the odds of winning this bottom-fishing venture were particularly high, but there was still a hint of risk.

Any decision could involve gains or losses of millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars, so it was inevitable that he would feel some pressure.

With three hundred million on the line, Manager Chu didn't dare to interfere recklessly. Even though he felt that bottom-fishing today was a bit risky, he still chose to follow Su Yehao's instructions obediently.

After the order was handed over to several traders, they immediately began buying large quantities of Yahoo stock.

In this era of internet development, trading was already very convenient. Although there was still some delay, it could almost be ignored.

Yahoo's float was a bit small. One hundred million Hong Kong dollars was only a little over ten million U.S. dollars.

The traders worked for more than ten minutes before reporting, "It's done. The average purchase price was thirty-five U.S. dollars and seventy-two cents. What's next?"

Su Yehao was a bit impulsive at the moment. Seeing that the real-time stock price was still slowly declining, he gritted his teeth and said, "Keep buying. Place a large order at thirty-five dollars and sixty cents, and eat up as much as you can."

"...Yahoo shareholders must thank you. This is like propping up the bottom, the risk is very high," Manager Chu tentatively reminded.

At this point, Su Yehao didn't want to think so much and just ignored it.

When other institutions noticed the activity here, the second one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was converted into Yahoo stock in just eight minutes. The average purchase price was thirty-five U.S. dollars and sixty-six cents, so the decline stopped and began to rebound slightly.

Realizing that the overall market was still falling, Su Yehao patiently began to observe, building a large buy order at thirty-five U.S. dollars and fifty cents, eating up as much as he could.

Until 11:20 p.m. local time, all three hundred million of his Hong Kong dollars had been spent.

However, Yahoo's stock price was still falling, first dropping to thirty-five U.S. dollars, and then another sixty cents.

Since he had already invested, Su Yehao stopped worrying about it.

He couldn't go hungry just because he was losing money, so he took Nong Qingying to the night market for a late-night snack.

He didn't have a chance to accompany Nong Qingying tonight, as Nangong Tian was still waiting for him at home. After arriving home after 1:00 a.m., he called to inquire about the situation. Yahoo's stock price was only thirty-three U.S. dollars and seventy-five cents.

It hadn't stabilized, but rather the U.S. stock market had fallen by more than 7% in a single day, triggering a circuit breaker and halting trading.

Since the introduction of the circuit breaker mechanism in the U.S. stock market in 1988, this was the first time it had been used...