Chapter 1801: Good People Don't Play the Stock Market

No one dislikes flattery, not even Zhao Fusheng.

Especially when a professional sings his praises, the feeling is quite pleasant.

At the very least, Zhao Fusheng now found William much more agreeable. Originally, he had always believed that those not of his kind were of a different mind, and he generally looked down on foreigners.

But now, looking at this William, he felt the man wasn't bad—at least he had good judgment.

"Boss, Chairman Zhao, please come in. I've already made the arrangements."

William, as the manager of Tan Kaixuan's Hong Kong office, was, according to Tan Kaixuan, soon to become the general manager of the Hong Kong branch.

The main purpose of their visit today was to open a VIP trading room; nothing else mattered.

Tan Kaixuan and Zhao Fusheng nodded and followed him inside.

The account opening process was simple and not complicated, mainly just a formality.

"That's it? Done?"

Zhao Fusheng sat in the VIP room, sipping tea, and asked William and Tan Kaixuan.

"Yes."

Tan Kaixuan nodded: "That's it."

Zhao Fusheng smiled, feeling a bit unsatisfied.

The so-called VIP room is the VIP section of a stock exchange. Simply put, it offers a faster trading system, and one can enter once they reach a certain trading volume.

Generally, it depends on your capital and trading volume. Once your capital or trading volume reaches a certain threshold, you can enter the VIP room. But the specific thresholds may vary by brokerage.

According to Merrill Lynch's standards, the threshold for a Chinese VIP client is eight million RMB, or one million USD (excluding real estate assets, so including account and stock holdings).

The VIP rooms in Hong Kong are essentially the same as in mainland China, requiring similar amounts and trading volumes for entry.

Of course, in the internet age, not many people use VIP rooms anymore. After all, with the internet, who wants to stay in a VIP room?

In this era, people prefer to trade stocks on computers.

Years later, mobile phones would become a tool for many to trade stocks, even giving rise to numerous trading apps, which would eventually be listed on the ChiNext board.

"Alright, let's go then."

Zhao Fusheng stood up and said to Tan Kaixuan with a smile.

He really had no intention of staying; it was not only uninteresting but also utterly boring.

In Zhao Fusheng's understanding, the concept of the stock market was just a bunch of numbers and data. He wasn't good at it and naturally wasn't interested.

"Don't go."

Tan Kaixuan laughed: "Do you want to see how William and his team manipulate the stock price of Wireless?"

"Manipulate the stock?"

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then nodded: "Alright, I'll take a look."

So, over the course of that afternoon, Zhao Fusheng witnessed how a real stock market trader operates a stock.

Two hours later.

"How about it? Impressive, right?"

Tan Kaixuan asked Zhao Fusheng with a smile.

Before them, William had just directed his subordinates to sell the last lot of Wireless stock they held, and all this had no impact on Wireless's stock price.

"Impressive, really impressive." Zhao Fusheng nodded sincerely: "Truly professional."

That was the truth. After all, they were professionals in this field; if they weren't skilled, Tan Kaixuan wouldn't have recruited them.

Zhao Fusheng always had great respect for professionals.

Even for the useless Chinese men's football team, Zhao Fusheng firmly believed that when it came to playing football, he couldn't compare to them.

Never challenge a professional's expertise with your amateur hobby—that was one of Zhao Fusheng's principles.

Even if those professionals seemed terrible in others' eyes, it still depended on who they were compared to.

For example, the Chinese men's football team might not beat a professional foreign team, but against an amateur Chinese team, they would win easily.

The idea that 'I could do it too, it's just 3-0' is actually quite ridiculous.

They go up and lose 3-0; you go up and might lose 30-0.

"But in that case, didn't Wireless notice anything?" Zhao Fusheng looked at William and asked curiously.

William chuckled: "Of course they noticed, but they won't think it's us."

"What do you mean?"

Zhao Fusheng asked, puzzled.

"Our entire selling process was extremely slow and orderly. From Wireless's perspective, it looks like some profit-taking retail investors are selling, so they don't mind. On the contrary, they welcome it because our selling lowers the stock price, and they can buy at a lower price."

William patiently explained to Zhao Fusheng: "Think about it: if we had hung all our sell orders at once, would they have taken them? Not necessarily. If they didn't take them and retail investors did, it would create the illusion that the stock is about to crash. That would be unacceptable for Wireless."

"But isn't our goal to directly drive down the stock price?" Zhao Fusheng was even more confused.

He truly didn't understand the mechanics.

Zhao Fusheng knew how to invest, but not how to manipulate a stock's price through buying and selling like this.

"Our goal is to make them lose money."

Tan Kaixuan then spoke with a smile, saying to Zhao Fusheng: "We make money, they lose money—that's our goal. As for the stock price, high or low doesn't really matter."

He paused and laughed: "And don't you think it's more advantageous for us to have their funds tied up in the stock market?"

Zhao Fusheng was stunned but had to admit there was truth in that.

"Let's go."

Seeing that Zhao Fusheng had no interest in continuing, Tan Kaixuan patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile.

Zhao Fusheng nodded, and the two left together.

But William did not leave.

He still had to continue leading his team to manipulate the stock price of Cathay Pacific Airways.

That was their real target!

...

...

"Didn't expect there was so much depth to it, did you?" Tan Kaixuan asked Zhao Fusheng with a smile as they sat in the car.

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Yeah, I really didn't."

That was the truth. Before this, he and Tan Kaixuan had bought stocks, but like most investors, they were just trading.

Only after truly engaging with the industry did he realize how much knowledge lay behind the fluctuations in stock prices.

The rise or fall of a stock, the games behind it, and the movement of capital were not simple.

More importantly, to put it bluntly, retail investors are just leeks to the market makers. Whenever they want to harvest, they just pull out the knife.

As for the impact it might cause, they simply don't care.

"This thing really does a lot of harm."

Zhao Fusheng sighed and said to Tan Kaixuan.

Tan Kaixuan thought for a moment, then nodded, having to admit that Zhao Fusheng was right.

In the stock market, the rich go in and the poor come out. The smart go in and the fools come out.

Most importantly, it harvests the hard-earned money of ordinary people. As for the truly wealthy, they never lose money.

"Alright, stop lamenting."

Seeing that Zhao Fusheng wanted to say more, Tan Kaixuan shook his head and said with a smile: "Come on, stop lamenting. Everyone has their own life. Those who dare to enter the stock market to make money aren't really fools; they're greedy people, aren't they?"

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, and upon reflection, realized it was true.

No matter which country's stock market, there are no truly innocent parties.

Because truly poor people don't have money to trade stocks.

Even those who borrow money to trade stocks are those who have the ability to do so.

For example, if you have no savings at home and a monthly income of less than three thousand, how could you have the mood to trade stocks?

In essence, it's because they have spare money that they think about making money in the stock market, because it's easy money there.

Everyone dreams of getting rich overnight.

And things like the stock market and lotteries are undoubtedly the best ways to achieve that goal, which is why they attract so many people to rush in like moths to a flame.

But as Tan Kaixuan said, there are no fools here, only those who are insatiably greedy.

"I know."

Zhao Fusheng nodded, then smiled: "Let's stop comforting each other. When will you have the US company officially release the news?"

According to the plan, the next step was for Tan Kaixuan's hedge fund to officially announce that it had no interest in Wireless and to heavily criticize Wireless's performance.

In other words, start driving down Wireless's stock price.

Tan Kaixuan smiled: "No need to rush. At least let them enjoy one more day."

"Huh?"

Zhao Fusheng was startled, then shook his head helplessly. This guy was really despicable!

To think of dealing with Wireless in such a way.

But he had to admit that after Tan Kaixuan did this, it would indeed have a significant impact on Wireless's stock price.

After all, in the past couple of days, many believed that the rise in Wireless's stock price was due to American consortiums optimistic about Wireless's future development, hence the massive acquisition.

Those retail investors also chose to buy large amounts of Wireless stock for this reason.

Then suddenly, news breaks that the American consortium has no interest in Wireless and even heavily criticizes it—what would be the result?

The answer was obvious.

Zhao Fusheng and Tan Kaixuan exchanged a smile, suddenly looking forward to seeing the expressions of those Wireless executives when they learned the news tomorrow.