Reborn in America, I am a legendary short seller on Wall Street.

Chapter 110 The Biggest Bookmaker (4.4K views, please vote)
After Larry submitted his transaction order, he stood at the counter, calmly staring at the price list.

The cold air that had just enveloped him was slowly dissipating.

The hardest part is always that seemingly endless moment of making a decision. At that moment, Larry is frighteningly cold. His most important goal is not to shock others, but to suppress the chaotic voices within himself.

When making a crucial decision, going all in is one way to play, and withdrawing completely is another – neither is wrong!
Because these are all just choices, and choices themselves are neither right nor wrong.

But the worst thing is to hesitate and be indecisive; such an attitude will never bring good results.

There's a saying on Wall Street: "Bulls who go long can make money, bears who go short can also make money, only pigs driven by greed and fear will lose money," and that's the gist of it.

It was 11:05 a.m. on Saturday, less than an hour before the stock market closed for the week.

Reading's sales office gradually returned to normal, with sales staff going about their business as usual, and customers refocusing their attention on the price list.

Larry submitted his trade order, but the latest quote has not yet arrived.

The portly receptionist of Reading Company approached Larry with a telegram in hand. He hesitated slightly, but cleared his throat and said...

“Mr. Livingston, I just sent a message to headquarters in New York, and the feedback from headquarters is that they haven’t heard anything other than the Colt financing project.”

Larry calmly turned his head, nodded to the fat manager, and said, "Thank you. Oh, by the way, I apologize for my rudeness just now."

The portly manager was taken aback, then quickly smiled and said, "No, no, sir. We understand that clients sometimes rush into making transaction decisions and may act irrationally. You don't need to apologize for your behavior just now."

Just then, the young man guarding the quotation machine pulled out a strip of paper. He knew that some clients in the brokerage were interested in Colt stock, so he deliberately drew out his words and shouted into the trading hall.
"Colt, 108 and three-quarters dollars!"

Larry looked up sharply and saw the price clerk scrambling up the ladder, erasing the previous quote of $106.25 after Colt firearms and filling in $108.

Larry didn't speak or show any particular expression; he simply stood in front of the counter and watched silently.

Occasionally, other customers would come to trade, and Larry would simply take a few steps forward to clear the counter, still looking at the price list without saying a word.

Colt's stock price encountered strong resistance between $115 and $120, with profit-taking accelerating and the price remaining within this range for seven or eight consecutive days, neither rising nor falling...

But Larry remained unmoved, simply looking calmly at the price list.

11点35分的时候，交易员送来了拉里今天第三笔买入6000股柯尔特的成交单，平均成交价为116.5美元，这价格比拉里卖出那1000股的成交价已经提高了10点还要多些。

But it's a little lower than the current price.

Larry silently folded the third sales confirmation slip, put it in his pocket, and placed it together with the previous two slips.

Colt's stock price is undoubtedly still on an upward trend, and Larry remains calm.

Ten minutes later, Colt's stock price dropped 3 points to around $116, which was the average price range of Larry's third order, but he remained unmoved.

Just then, the door of Reading Securities was pushed open, and a man rushed in. He looked around and immediately spotted Larry.

"Larry Livingston!" the man called out loudly, striding in.

Larry turned around sharply and saw that the person who came was Tom, his good friend and colleague at Paine Weber Securities.

"What do you want?" Larry was a little surprised that Tom was here, but judging from his expression, it was more important to ask him what he wanted.

Tom, his face covered in sweat, muttered, "Oh, you really are here. I've been running all this way..."

As he spoke, Tom handed Larry a small note and whispered, "...Mr. Wallace asked me to give this to you. He said it's an emergency and you need to take immediate action after reading it."

Larry frowned, opened the note, and read only a few words.
"Buy back your Colt stock, no matter the price! We'll discuss the details in person. Note: Do not hesitate, buy it back immediately, no matter the price!"

Larry finished reading it, smiled, put the note away in his pocket, and continued to calmly look at the price list.

Tom, seeing that Larry wasn't worried at all, grew anxious. "Larry, shouldn't you do something...? I didn't read the note Mr. Wallace gave you, but he seemed to be in a hurry when he handed it to me..."

Larry turned to him and smiled. "You're 45 minutes late. I've already done what Mr. Wallace asked for..."

"Really?" Tom asked, a look of doubt on his face.

At this moment, Colt's latest offer arrived: "Collt firearms, $120.25!"

There are only 10 minutes left before the market closes...
.
Meanwhile, in the southwest corner of the New York Stock Exchange, in front of the arms and manufacturing section.

Elliott, a floor trader at Reading, stood outside the counter, glancing with slight annoyance at the noisy crowd in front of it, a look of helplessness on his face.

That's usually how it is; the closer to the weekend, the more likely there are dramatic market movements that will make you break out in a cold sweat.

Trading in Colt stock was incredibly active today, especially in the second hour. Many speculators who had been long on Colt stock for the previous week chose to close their positions and take profits after the stock price reached a high.

The buyers were mostly retail investors. Elliott watched as numerous floor traders from various securities firms, large and small, placed small buy orders for dozens or hundreds of shares.

Most of the speculators' sell orders were dumped on them.

Of course, because those buy orders were small and numerous, the transactions were too fragmented, and the floor traders on both the buying and selling sides would take a long time to fill out the transaction forms after determining the price.

Elliott also bought and sold a lot of Colt stock today, with orders coming from all over the country, ranging from dozens to hundreds of shares.

Before the record-breaking 6000-share buy order flooded in, Elliott had been busy reducing several sell orders from Hartford, each a large 2000-share order.

But Elliott was still surprised when the order for 6000 shares from the Boston branch came into his hands.

How dare someone buy such a large position at this price?

It's quite obvious that even the big players in Hartford are reducing their holdings...

But this doubt vanished in an instant. Elliott held both a sell order from Hartford and a buy order from Boston. Theoretically, he could hedge the two orders directly!
According to NYSE rules, even if a brokerage firm's floor trader holds both buy and sell orders for the same stock, they cannot hedge them internally; the order must be traded on the floor for it to count.

But this was no problem for Elliott; he was an old hand at it and handling this situation was a piece of cake.

Elliott found a familiar floor trader, placed a sell order for 6000 shares from Hartford with him, and quickly bought them back at the original price with another 6000 shares from Boston. In this way, both the buy and sell orders were executed, and both he and the floor trader who helped him received an extra commission – it couldn't be better.

At this moment, Elliott no longer had any order forms in his hand, but he still subconsciously looked at a man with slightly graying temples in a tailcoat, wearing a bow tie instead of a necktie, a little distance from the counter.

His floor trader nameplate had no name or company information; it only had two stars, which indicated a VIP seat.

This old guy has been standing here for a full week, ever since the Wednesday before last.

Sometimes, this person would buy some stocks; other times, he would simply sit calmly and watch everyone trade.

But starting this Wednesday, the old man instructed his assistants to keep collecting shares in the market.

Elliott and several other floor traders from major brokerages would often hand over their sell orders to the old man, who would accept them all.

Privately, Elliott and several traders agreed that the old man must be a major player, constantly accumulating shares using anonymous accounts.

At this moment, with only ten minutes left before the market closes, Elliott hasn't left because he's certain the old man will make some moves in the final minutes of trading on Saturday...

Just then, Elliott noticed Peter Pan from Paine Weber Securities hurrying over and gesturing to the crowd, "Who has 1500 shares of Colt? I'll buy them."

There was no shortage of sellers in the market at this time. Everyone saw that there were still people buying at the end of the trading day, so two or three traders crowded in front of him and gestured to prepare for the transaction.

In less than a minute, Peter Pan got the 1500 shares he needed, at an average price of less than $120.50, and let out a long sigh of relief.

Elliott greeted him, "Hey Peter, weren't you just selling? Why are you buying again?"

Peter Pan, having completed the commission, relaxed and waved his hand, saying, "Who knew... the client sold 1500 shares during the trading day, only to buy them back at the high point at the close... He's really sick!!"

Elliott smiled but didn't say anything.

Peter Pan was also a bit tired. He glanced at the window and saw that there were only 7 minutes left before the market closed. He didn't want to go back to the Paine Webber counter and cause trouble for himself, so he stood side by side with Elliott and slacked off.

The clock struck 11:55, with only five minutes left before the market closed.

The old man with white hair at his temples glanced at the huge clock on the wall, then turned to give his three assistants a wink before standing in front of the manufacturing and arms trading counter.

Elliott had been watching the old man's movements, and when he saw him make a move, he immediately widened his eyes and stared intently at him.

Elliott even nudged Peter Pan with his elbow, signaling him to pay attention to this old man whose clothes were so different from the rest of the group.

"Gentlemen!! Does anyone have a Colt? I need some, please make an offer!"

The veteran trader spoke calmly to the crowd, his tone low, but his voice was clearly heard by every trader in front of the counter.

Everyone was taken aback and turned to look at him.

There are still many floor traders holding Colt sell orders. When they see the old trader standing in front of the counter, and he says something like "buy some" Colt stock, they immediately understand what he means: he will pick some not-too-expensive sell orders to execute!
Floor traders holding Colts immediately signaled to sell and offered their own prices.

The veteran trader's face remained impassive; only after everyone had submitted their bids did he nod slightly.

In the latest round of bidding, the lowest price was $120 and the highest price was $127.25, totaling approximately 4.9 orders.

"I'll take them all!" The old man waved his hand, and his three assistants quickly ran to the floor trader who had just made the offer to complete the transaction...

Elliott was so shocked he could hardly close his mouth—nearly 50,000 shares! If the average price per share was $125, then the old man had bought up $625 million worth of Colt stock in those last five minutes!
This is absolutely outrageous!
He glanced at Peter Pan, noticing no excessive surprise on his face, and asked in bewilderment, "My God, aren't you surprised? This old man bought 5 shares of Colt in one go!"

Peter Panchao smiled mysteriously, leaned close to Elliott's ear and whispered, "...He's one of J.P. Morgan's men..."

Elliott's gaze froze instantly. He looked at the old man, then at Peter Pan, and nodded heavily, understanding everything in his heart.
The market closed, and Colt's last offer was $127 and a quarter.

Larry glanced at the price list one last time before turning to the front desk manager and asking, "Sir, do you have any updates on Colt?"

The portly manager shook his head and shrugged, indicating that there was no news.

Larry smiled faintly, then beckoned to Henry Ford and Tom, who was waiting nearby, and prepared to return to Paine Weber Securities Company.

At this moment, the chubby manager approached and subtly reminded Larry about the commission rebate.

Larry waved his hand dismissively and said, "Next time, there's no rush."

The three left Reading and returned together to Paine Weber Securities.

At this moment, the securities company employees who were leaving get off work and the bored onlookers on the street were constantly watching and talking around Mr. Henry Ford's new car. Mr. Ford's assistant was guarding the front of the car vigilantly, fearing that the crowd might damage it.

Larry saw William Boeing Jr. standing at the front of the car, looking at the new invention with excitement.

Henry Ford rushed over to help his assistant maintain order.

Larry ignored them and went straight to Mr. Wallace's office.

Mr. Wallace's office door was open, and he was pacing back and forth inside. Seeing Larry arrive, Mr. Wallace gave a complicated smile, quickly beckoned Larry to come closer, and whispered in his ear...

"Just received a message from Mr. Andrew, General Manager of Colt... Mr. Morgan has acquired Winchester Firearms Company and bought half of Remington's outstanding shares... He plans to inject these assets into Colt Company!!"

Larry knew there must be something behind Colt's stock price surge, but he never expected it to be this kind of news, and his face immediately showed a look of astonishment.

However, Larry didn't think about how much profit his stock would generate; instead, he immediately thought of two more crucial things:
First, the timeline has indeed changed. Although Larry didn't know much about American companies in his previous life, it is certain that Colt never merged with Winchester Firearms Company.

It seems that after his analysis in his private library, Mr. Morgan changed his mind and went further to establish an arms trust based on Colt. This would make the U.S. military's firearms orders more concentrated on Colt, and would also bring unpredictable changes to the timeline of this world...

Secondly, it turns out that Mr. Morgan was the biggest manipulator in the entire Colt financing saga! Once the news is released over the weekend, Colt's stock price will soar again.

I was saying that I had overlooked something in Colt's scheme... It turns out that I had overlooked the biggest, and most easily overlooked, Mr. Morgan.

Mr. Morgan always makes big moves; he's the real behind-the-scenes tycoon!
(End of this chapter)