2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 438 Crazy Little Liu

Just as Cheng Linfeng thought, even if Tan Jincheng lost all 4000 million yuan, it wouldn't have a significant impact on the company, given his personal assets.

The 4000 million yuan was of course borrowed. With the current influence of Flash Group and Tan Jincheng, you might think it would take some time to raise 4 million yuan, but raising 4000 million yuan was really easy.

It's not impossible to get more, but just like buying lottery tickets two years ago, you can't do too much of this. Doing too much will not only cause a big commotion, but it can also easily lead to a qualitative change due to quantitative change.

There are plenty of manipulative stocks in the A-share market these days. If you follow them, you can easily make a profit.

But if you try to take the meat out of the pot, they really will smash the pot. If you buy too much, you'll really be stuck with it. This thing can be a bigger scam than the lottery.

With 4000 million yuan, spread across multiple stocks, making a small profit wouldn't be bad. The 50% return target is just a goal; if they don't reach it, Tan Jincheng won't punish them.

Having been a "leek" (a term for someone who is easily taken advantage of) before, Tan Jincheng knows that there is no such thing as a sure thing in stock trading. His goal was simply to create an incentive mechanism.

If the trend remains unchanged, the index can rise by more than 2000 points. Knowing that this will happen, how could the performance appraisal be set too low? Being good to employees doesn't mean being taken advantage of.

Furthermore, regarding the income of financial professionals, in this bull market environment, they earn far more than ordinary workers in a year, so there is absolutely no need to deliberately increase their income level.

Even in a bear market, their income is still at a level that ordinary workers cannot reach.

Tan Jincheng gave Cheng Linfeng instructions to allocate funds before his trip in July. At that time, the stock market had been adjusting for a month and a half. On July 5, the stock index fell by 5.25%, closing with a large bearish candlestick with no upper or lower shadow, and was close to breaking below 3600 points.

The trading volume that day was 737 billion yuan. Although it fell sharply, it was the second consecutive day that the trading volume had shrunk. The trading volume was only one-third of the highest trading volume in this bull market.

Yes, the highest trading volume in this bull market so far is just over 2500 billion yuan, which is incomparable to the trillion-yuan trading volume that will be commonplace more than a decade later. Therefore, the 4000 million yuan that Tan Jincheng put out is not a small amount.

In a bull market, 4000 million yuan is relatively easy to absorb. In the bear market of the past two years, this amount of money might not be enough to manipulate the market, but it would be more than enough to make a big player.

A skilled trader can use a few million to drive a small-cap stock to a relatively good level.

"How about this, we'll allocate a quarter of the budget for short-term limit-up trading, and you, Xiao Liu, will handle the operations."

Xiao Liu is a trader in the trading team who is good at short-term trading. He usually does some short-term trading on his own and is quite proficient in the operation methods of speculative funds. He often fantasizes that his account can appear on the list of top traders.

It's not uncommon for traders to buy stocks privately. With the market so good, it's impossible for them to resist doing so. Cheng Linfeng turns a blind eye to it.

He would have done it himself if his income wasn't high enough.

Manager Cheng was a bit troubled by the extremely high return target of 50%. Although the boss said that any losses would be his personal responsibility, since a 50% return target had been set, he had to try his best even if he couldn't achieve it.

Although the goals set by the boss are outrageous, we can't ignore what the boss says, after all, the boss isn't a real investor.

For legitimate investment institutions like ByteDance, short-term trading isn't something they completely avoid. Rather, they primarily engage in short-term trading, such as selecting stocks like SAIC Motor, buying a few, and then selling them once a certain profit target is reached.

The investment period for stocks is long enough that the daily task is to arrange for traders to do some day trading. If the fluctuations are not significant, the positions are held without any changes, unlike speculative funds that frequently switch stocks.

Legitimate investment institutions generally disdain getting involved as speculative capital, as it wastes their energy and does not align with their investment principles. This is especially true for investment companies like ByteDance, where buying stocks is often not solely for paper profits.

The boss had previously instructed me to look for shell companies in the A-share market that were suffering significant losses in their main business and had limited share capital and market value. I was to find several such target companies and buy them when the time was right, in preparation for Flash Technology's backdoor listing.

From an investment perspective, legitimate institutions would obviously not buy such junk stocks, but if they want to achieve a backdoor listing, then such stocks are just right.

Ultimately, although ByteDance's advertising platform has now become independent, its investments, whether in the primary or secondary markets, must still adhere to the principle of serving the entire group.

Investment returns include investments that remain focused on lithium batteries and the automotive industry, which are still related to the Flash Group's business.

The group's plan to manufacture cars in the future has not been announced to the outside world or lower-level employees, but it is already an open secret among the senior management of its various subsidiaries.

Manufacturing cars requires the cooperation of the entire group. During meetings, Tan Jincheng would assign tasks to each subsidiary. For example, Jinpeng Industry, while doing well in its GXG and foreign trade apparel businesses, should try to hand over as many profits as possible to the head office without affecting its own development. Jinyi Industry was in the same boat. It was a purely foreign trade subsidiary, which could be considered a large shell company. Its task was to make money, to make money from foreigners, to make money in US dollars, and then hand over the profits to the group's head office.

As for expansion and investment? That's out of the question. The sole purpose of a shell company is to make money. If foreign trade fails, it's not impossible for them to be dissolved.

Several years later, it will be difficult for pure foreign trade companies to survive. Starting next year, the first batch of foreign trade companies will go bankrupt on a large scale, which can be regarded as the first major reshuffle of the industry.

That's how it is in industries that make quick money; once the money stops coming in fast enough, many businesses can't survive.

The two companies with the character "Jin" in their names are responsible for making money, while the goal of Flash Technology, which is the core business of the group at present, is to go public, increase its own sales and achieve listing as soon as possible.

Tan Jincheng's decision to have Cheng Linfeng look for shell companies was based on this premise.

His task at Hangxin Technology, which is in charge of the battery business and its subsidiaries, is to solve the most critical cost issue for electric vehicles.

As for ByteDance's investment arm, Ocean Engine has the heaviest task. The automotive industry is a large industrial chain, and in addition to considering investment returns, Ocean Engine is also responsible for the investment of the entire automotive industry chain.

Making money while also considering the future and long-term planning put a lot of pressure on Cheng Linfeng, the former fund manager. He is more or less a professional in secondary market investment.

He can also tell the truth from the financial reports of some listed companies, and he knows which companies are worth investing in and which are not.

Don't doubt the professional knowledge of fund managers. The fact that the funds they manage often suffer significant losses is not because they lack professional knowledge, nor because their teams are not capable enough.

Fund investors often criticize them for being bad, but they're not really bad. Take "Cai Gou" for example; just look at his resume to see how amazing he is. He's been smart since he was a child.

While Cheng Linfeng may not be a star manager like Cai Gou, his abilities are certainly not weak. ByteDance did conduct research before recruiting him, noting that his tenure coincided with a major bear market, and the returns of the funds he managed were indeed not very good.

Overall, the losses were within a controllable range, and the portfolio adjustments were relatively reasonable. There were very few instances of significant increases in holdings at high prices. Based on Tan Jincheng's limited knowledge of funds, it can be said that the company has been somewhat conscientious towards fund investors.

The financial market is cold and ruthless, and the mechanisms of the A-share market are designed to exploit retail investors. Legitimate professionals naturally understand this, but that doesn't mean you have to do anything unethical. You still need to retain some semblance of goodness.

Manager Cheng, who has a conscience, has been forced by our boss Tan to engage in short-term trading and become a speculative investor. The happiest person is Xiao Liu.

His own lousy account only had a little over 10 yuan in funds. Although he caught the bull market and made it this far, the increase was not small, but due to the limited time, the total amount of funds was less than 50 yuan, which made it very unsatisfying.

It's even more impossible for them to appear on the Dragon and Tiger List.

The boss approved 1000 million yuan for him to do short-term trading, which made him extremely excited: "Don't worry, boss, I'll make sure you complete the task. It's just a 50% return, you guys watch closely. I'll use this 1000 million yuan to complete it for you all. You can all follow me and enjoy the fruits of my labor."

In a booming market, skilled speculative investors can easily multiply their capital several times over in a short period. A 50% return on a 4000 million yuan investment would translate to a profit of 2000 million yuan.

He has 1000 million yuan in capital. If he doubles it within a month, he will have completed half of the task. It is indeed not an impossible task.

"Bragging is useless. Show us your skills. Also, stop messing around with that crappy account. Focus your energy on the company. The boss won't treat you unfairly if you make money."

"Okay, okay, we won't do it anytime soon. Who would care about a few hundred thousand when we have 1000 million?"

Full of confidence, Xiao Liu started reviewing the market overnight after the sharp drop on July 5th, looking for short-term targets.

On July 6, the Shanghai Composite Index opened slightly lower, breaking below 3600 points, reaching a low of 3563.54 points. It then rebounded quickly, with the index surging 4.58% to close at 3781.35 points. Trading volume increased by 20 billion yuan compared to the previous trading day.

On that day, more than 90% of stocks in the two markets rose. Under Cheng Linfeng's authorization, the aggressive Xiao Liu went all in on a stock that had fallen sharply the day before but rebounded significantly the day before. The account Xiao Liu was in charge of rose by 6.52% that day.

Xiao Liu was very excited after winning his first battle.

"Unfortunately, we still don't have enough funds. Just wait, I'll definitely be on the list of top earners."

(End of this chapter)