I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 286 Immediately Take Up Post and Begin Researching HFT
Early the next morning, Fang Qingye drove Wei Xinghua to Shanghai, first arranging for her to stay at the Fortune Hotel, where he had stayed before, and then to the startup base.

Li Li was busy organizing and filing student files for signing tripartite agreements when she was taken aback when her boss suddenly brought in a beautiful woman.

"This is Dr. Wei Xinghua, a graduate of Tsinghua University with a major in financial engineering. She used to work at the People's Bank of China, but she has resigned and joined our company."

"This is Li Li, the company's CFO."

Li Li quickly greeted them, "Dr. Wei, please have a seat. Boss, please have a seat too. I'll pour you some water."

Li Li was busy pouring water for the two of them, and Fang Qingye said to Wei Xinghua, "She is the only one actually working in the company right now, so there is only one office. Come and find a way to rent another one."

"No need." Wei Xinghua, holding a disposable cup, looked around the office and said, "The room is quite big. I'll share an office with Director Li. Anyway, I share an office with someone at the central bank, so I'll have company. Director Li, do you agree?"

“I have no objection,” Li Li quickly replied. “Dr. Wei, you can just call me Li Li.”

Wei Xinghua smiled and then said, "Then it's settled!"

Since Wei Xinghua herself agreed, Fang Qingye naturally had no objections. He then said to Li Li, "Tomorrow, you go and buy office equipment for Dr. Wei: desks and chairs, a computer, a three-in-one copier, and contact the telecommunications bureau to install a telephone. Dr. Wei, what brand of computer do you want?"

"The brand doesn't matter, as long as the performance is good. Ideally, I'd like one desktop and one laptop so I can use them at home. My own is too old," Wei Xinghua said with a smile.

“Okay, Li Li, do as Dr. Wei says. Buy whatever she needs. Also, please help her rent an apartment. The company will cover the rent and the cost of temporary hotel accommodation.”

“Okay, I’ll take care of it right away,” Li Li said immediately.

"Dr. Wei, how about I take you to buy a car?" Fang Qingye turned to look at Wei Xinghua again.

“I don’t have a driver’s license, so I won’t drive,” Wei Xinghua replied with a smile.

“Since you’re not busy right now, why don’t you just enroll in a driving school? The company will cover the tuition.” Fang Qingye then looked at Li Li: “You should enroll too. It’s embarrassing if word gets out that the CFO can’t drive. The company will cover the tuition as well.”

"Okay, boss."

Li Li was overjoyed.

She was growing to like her boss more and more, and she wanted to shout, "Boss, I love you!"

"Mr. Fang, there's something else. I told you on the phone that I'm planning to research mathematical models in high-frequency quantitative trading and I need a few helpers. Aren't you hiring a bunch of master's and doctoral students? Can I use two of them?"

“Okay. Li Li, bring all their resumes over for Dr. Wei to choose from.”

Li Li immediately took out a stack of resumes from the filing cabinet, and Wei Xinghua looked at them carefully.

"Ha, you actually found someone who studies complex geometry and Riemannian geometry? Quantitative trading can't use that," Wei Xinghua laughed.

"You mean Zhou Shengxuan from Shanghai Jiaotong University?" Fang Qingye briefly recounted Zhou Shengxuan's situation at the recruitment presentation that day, and concluded by saying:
"We'll keep these talents on the company's roster for now; they might come in handy in the future."

Wei Xinghua nodded in agreement: "Complex geometry and Riemannian geometry are indeed not used in quantitative trading, but I have heard that deep learning is on the rise in the United States. It involves building multi-layered neural network models to achieve advanced cognitive and decision-making capabilities, and this knowledge will be used."

Oh my god. Really?

Found a treasure?

Fang Qingye was secretly pleased, but said nothing.

“I need this person, someone who studied financial mathematics; that’s exactly what I need,” Wei Xinghua said, pointing to someone’s resume.

Fang Qingye immediately recognized Zhao Chaoyi from Jiaotong University.

“Okay, he’s good friends with Zhou Shengxuan from earlier. He accompanied Zhao Chaoyi to the job interview. I heard he had offers from several investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, but I snatched them away,” Fang Qingye said with a smile.

"And this Su Hua."

As Wei Xinghua reviewed the resumes, she made her selections. In the end, she only confirmed six people, including herself. Apart from her, who studied finance, the other five had two who studied mathematics, two who studied computer science, and one who studied finance.

Fang Qingye frowned slightly when she saw the list.

"What, is something wrong?"

"This person is probably not easy to address," Fang Qingye said, pointing to someone's resume.

Fang Qingye was referring to Cai Wang, the only PhD recruited by Shencai University.

Cai Wang was the only PhD in finance among the more than 20 recent graduates recruited here, and he was given an annual salary of 800,000 yuan, which was also the highest among these graduates.

However, Cai Wang is quite impressive. He received his undergraduate degree from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and then went on to study for a master's degree at Georgetown University in the United States. After returning to Shanghai, he worked at a bank for a year but found it uninteresting, so he went back to Shanghai University of Finance and Economics to pursue his doctorate, specializing in financial analysis. He has published papers in the *Journal of Corporate Finance*.

This time, he said he came to Fang Qingye's company because of the nearly one million annual salary, and he also requested to build his own team in the company in the future.

Fang Qingye agreed at the time.

I'm not afraid of your arrogance, I just want you to produce results and bring benefits to the company!
So when he saw Wei Xinghua call his name, he voiced his concerns. Wei Xinghua replied, "It's alright, you can try."

Since that's the case, Fang Qingye called Cai Wang to explain the reason, hoping to contribute to the company in her spare time, and of course, she wouldn't forget to offer compensation, with a monthly subsidy of 10,000 yuan for participating in the project.

Whether it was for the money or not, the other party readily agreed: "Sure, I'll come and see just how capable a Tsinghua PhD really is."

Holy crap, that sounds a bit provocative?
interesting.

Fang Qingye understood that Wei Xinghua had already begun to build her own team.

That's good. A team needs not only unity but also a competitive spirit.

Let's see if Wei Xinghua has any real skills to keep Cai Wang in check.
He then explained the situation to the other four people. One of them, a computer science student, was too busy with his supervisor's research project to find time. The remaining three all agreed, and Wei Xinghua found another master's student.

Fang Qingye didn't have to worry about buying office equipment or renting a place. Li Li took Wei Xinghua to the specialty store to buy them. Moreover, Wei Xinghua grew up in the countryside and was not spoiled. She was happy to do these things with Li Li.

Because of this, Fang Qing stayed in Shanghai for almost a week, and finally gathered the five people at the company for a meeting so that they could meet and get to know each other, and also to encourage them.

Although the company has not been officially established, operations have already begun.

As a result, the usually quiet office was suddenly packed with people.

"Let's make do for now. Next spring, the new company, including Tuofang Technology itself, will be looking for a new office building. We plan to locate it in the Lujiazui area, which is the financial center and also close to where you will live in the future," Fang Qingye said with a smile.

Upon hearing the word "house," everyone present smiled knowingly.

Owning a house in Shanghai is a lifelong goal for many people, and I never thought I would achieve it right after graduation!

"Alright, let's get down to business. Everyone knows why I called you all here, so I won't go into details. Now, please welcome Dr. Wei to speak!"

"Clap clap clap!" Li Li clapped enthusiastically first, followed by sparse applause.

"Hello everyone, my name is Wei Xinghua. I'm sorry that you haven't graduated yet, and some of you are even preparing for your thesis defense. I called you all here mainly because..."

Wei Xinghua had barely begun speaking when she was interrupted: "Dr. Wei, let's get down to business. Everyone's busy."

The speaker was Cai Wang.

Wei Xinghua smiled, not angry at all, and continued, "Alright, I'm researching high-frequency quantitative trading mathematical models. Those who work in finance know that high-frequency quantitative trading (HFT) is a new trend in quantitative trading abroad. It combines the characteristics of high-frequency trading and quantitative trading, and mainly has the following features."

Unexpectedly, Wei Xinghua's words were interrupted by Cai Wang once again.

"Alright, Dr. Wei, everyone knows all this. Just tell me your mathematical model." Cai Wang said impatiently.

This time, Wei Xinghua got angry and looked at him coldly: "What's your hurry?!"

“Everyone is busy, let’s not waste everyone’s work, okay?” Cai Wang argued.

The others remained silent as they watched the two argue.

Li Li was a little anxious. Why were they arguing before the meeting even started?

But since both of them were PhDs, she, a college graduate from a third-tier university, seemed rather inferior. She anxiously turned to look at Fang Qingye, and seeing that he didn't seem to care, she stopped talking.

Wei Xinghua sneered, immediately opened her newly bought laptop, and pulled up a document: "Here, this is our modeling approach. Take a look."

The first to approach was Zhao Chaoyi, who studies financial mathematics, which is closely related to finance. He was also curious to know what Wei Xinghua was researching.
"Non-Gaussianity?" Zhao Chaoyi was surprised when he saw these keywords.

"Quantum Bohmian mechanics and quantum potential energy methods can be used to analyze and simulate non-Gaussian behavior and rare events in financial markets."

"By using the MRW method and the calculation of quantum potential energy, we can better understand and predict time series dynamics in financial markets."

“Dr. Wei, this is the latest research direction in HFT. I mentioned it in the annual reports of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup,” Zhao Chaoyi said at the end.

“Yes, major investment banks abroad are all researching and hoping to build more efficient and reliable trading models, which is also the direction our team is working towards.” At this point, Wei Xinghua looked at Cai Wang: “Are you going to participate or not? If not, then forget it!”

Cai Wang, no longer as arrogant as before, paused for a moment before saying, "I'll participate."

The meeting lasted for nearly three hours, starting with Wei Xinghua's presentation and ending with a lively discussion.

Fang Qingye did not participate in the discussion, but listened quietly.

He certainly knew about HFT, but he wasn't very clear about the mathematical modeling direction proposed by Wei Xinghua. Before his rebirth, he was just a trader, mainly focused on applications. He was good at building simple mathematical models, but he couldn't compare with these people in terms of in-depth theory.

After the meeting ended, Fang Qingye said with a smile, "Everyone has worked hard today, I'll treat you all to hot pot!"

Fang Qingye had originally planned to stay in Shanghai for a couple more days. He was also very interested in the mathematical model that Wei Xinghua had established using quantum mechanics and quantum potential energy methods. Unfortunately, he received a call from Nanxin and had to go back.
Miao Hongbin was promoted to executive deputy county head and was going to have a banquet.

(End of this chapter)