Chapter 275 - 210: Black Thursday

Chapter 275: Chapter 210: Black Thursday

Thursday, November 27th.

Across the ocean, in the Beautiful Country—New York.

At 4:00 AM, the night had yet to fade, but Wall Street was already ablaze with lights.

Fred Mills sat in his office at the Sibia Investment Bank headquarters. Before him were three computer monitors, their screens crammed with flickering numbers and candlestick charts.

He held a cup of long-cold coffee, his eyes glued to the screen, waiting for the historic moment that was about to arrive.

Five and a half minutes remained until the US stock market opened.

The office door was pushed open, and David, Sibia’s chief trader, walked in, his face alight with an excitement he couldn’t hide.

"Fred, our positions are all set."

David sat down next to Fred and lowered his voice. "CloseAI isn’t public, but most institutions have lowered its valuation by more than 50% in the last few days. Starting last week, we’ve been gradually building short positions in Palantir, META, and a few AI concept companies."

"The leverage is controlled at five times. Total capital..."

David paused, his voice trembling slightly. "Two hundred million US Dollars."

Fred drew a sharp breath when he heard the number.

Two hundred million US Dollars with five-times leverage—that was equivalent to a one-billion-dollar short position!

For an investment bank of Sibia’s size, this was an all-or-nothing gamble!

If they judged wrong, catastrophic disaster awaited them.

But if they were right...

A thrill of a smile touched the corners of Fred’s mouth.

"David, remember what I told you?"

He turned his head to look at his chief trader.

"Sometimes, betting on the right direction just once can change a company’s destiny."

"And today..."

Fred looked at the countdown on the screen, his eyes glinting with a fanatical light.

"...is that destiny-changing moment."

The countdown hit zero.

The US stock market opened!

Almost at the very instant of the opening bell, the entire tech sector’s stock prices, like a skyscraper that had lost its support, began to plummet wildly!

Palantir’s stock price dropped 8% right at the open!

Stocks related to XAI plunged by more than 10%!

And the startups providing pure AI technical services fared even worse—it was a bloodbath. Some even dropped 15% at the open!

"My God..."

David stared at the madly plunging candlestick charts on the screen, completely stunned.

Although they had anticipated this drop, the shock of actually witnessing it was still beyond words.

Fred, however, was strangely calm.

He stared at the screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he constantly adjusted their short positions.

"David, keep an eye on the movements of the quant trades."

His voice was calm, but his tone betrayed a hint of tension.

"If I’m not mistaken, the quant funds are about to start a stampede."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the data on the screen began to fluctuate violently.

A flood of sell orders poured in like a tidal wave!

The quantitative trading algorithms detected the abnormal price drop, immediately triggering their stop-loss mechanisms and beginning a frantic sell-off!

And these sales further depressed the stock prices, causing more quant algorithms to trigger their stop-losses...

A vicious cycle!

The stampede had begun!

In just ten minutes, Palantir’s stock went from being down 8% at the open to being down 15%!

As for the AI startup stocks, they were cut in half!

"This is insane..."

David muttered to himself, his hands trembling slightly.

"Truly insane..."

However, things were about to get even crazier.

The stampede effect from the quant trades quickly spread from the AI sector to the entire tech sector!

Pineapple, Giant Hard, Doggie, META, Amazon, NVDA, Tesla...

The stock prices of these super-companies, known as the "Magnificent Seven of Tech," also began to nosedive!

Although their drops weren’t as exaggerated as the pure AI companies, they were all down by more than 5% on average!

And the Magnificent Seven of Tech accounted for over 30% of the weight of the entire US stock market index!

What did this mean?

It meant the entire US stock market index was about to get dragged down with them!

Sure enough, the Nasdaq index began to plummet!

The S&P 500 index began to plummet!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average also began to nosedive!

The entire stock market of the Beautiful Country seemed to have lost all reason in that moment, descending into a frantic, panic-driven sell-off!

Fred sat in his office, watching the shocking numbers on the screen, his whole body trembling with excitement.

He glanced at his portfolio’s profit and loss.

A principal of two hundred million US Dollars, five-times leverage, shorting the AI sector.

And now, the AI sector was down by an average of over 12%.

This meant...

Fred’s account was showing a floating profit of 120 million US Dollars!

He had made 120 million US Dollars in just half an hour!

"Oh my God..."

Fred slumped back in his chair, a feeling of unreality washing over him.

In all his years of investing, he had never had a day like this—making money so easily, so crazily!

And it was all thanks to that secret meeting.

Thanks to Arthur and Elena for the advance heads-up.

Thanks to the shrewd judgment of those Wall Street titans.

Fred took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

It wasn’t time to celebrate yet.

He glanced at the time. An hour had passed since the market opened.

The downward trend of the stocks showed no signs of stopping.

Fred hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to close out half of his position to lock in the profits.

After all, there was an old saying on Wall Street—

"The only real money is the money in your pocket."

He quickly issued the orders.

A few minutes later, the trade was complete.

An extra 60 million US Dollars in hard cash appeared in Fred’s account.

He held the other half of the position, continuing to short the market.

Fred leaned back in his chair, a weary smile touching his lips as he watched the sky gradually brighten outside.

...

Meanwhile, similar scenes were playing out at all the major investment banks on Wall Street.

The titans who had attended Arthur’s secret meeting had almost all set up short positions in advance.

In this financial tsunami, not only did they avoid any losses, they made out like bandits!

GS, Morgan STL, BLD, Vanguard...

On this day, these top Wall Street giants joined forces to harvest the wealth of countless small and medium-sized investors.

As for the small and medium-sized investment institutions and retail investors who hadn’t attended the secret meeting and didn’t have the inside information, they suffered catastrophic losses in the crash.

Some people lost their entire life savings overnight.

Some fund managers, wiped out by margin calls, jumped from buildings to their deaths.

On this day, the whole of Wall Street turned into a giant meat grinder.

Devouring the wealth and dreams of countless people.

...

「A few hours later, across the ocean in Jinmen, Huaxia.」

In the open-plan office of Yanhai Company, Chen Lin was sitting at his desk, a pen in his hand. Before him was a stack of A4 paper covered in mathematical formulas.

He was completely absorbed in his research, oblivious to everything happening in the outside world.

Just then, Yunqing walked in with a cup of coffee, smiling brightly.

"Take a break. Have some coffee."