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

Chapter 122 Plan C, Western Alliance (4k views, please vote)
At 9 p.m., Mr. K arrived at the "Black Knights Bar" on Charles Street in the Back Bay with his two young men.

Pushing open the bar door, two burly Irishmen stood guard at the entrance, their unfriendly eyes scanning each customer as if scrutinizing their intentions.

Mr. K took off his hat and gave them both a faint smile.

The Irishman recognized him and immediately stepped aside to let the three of them into the bar.

Mr. K put his hat back on, beckoned his two young men to follow him, and the three of them walked into the bar together.

The bar was tastefully decorated and had a lively atmosphere. Seven or eight customers sat on high stools by the oak bar, drinking and chatting. The bartender, who was wiping glasses behind the counter, glanced up at the three of them, then looked down and continued with his work.

A tin lampshade hung from the floor gas lamp, and in the dim light, Mr. K could see that the surrounding walls were covered with various yellowed posters.

Mr. K walked to the inner door, then suddenly remembered something. He took out $10 from his pocket and handed it to the two young men, telling them to have a couple of drinks at the bar.

Then, Mr. K walked into the bar alone, took a few steps forward, and came to the door of a private room called "Brandon Mountain". He gently pushed open the door.

Larry was the only one sitting at the table in the private room. He was holding a deck of cards, which he had spread out across the table, as if he were playing a card game he didn't know about...

Mr. K was a little curious and casually asked, "Boss, what game are you playing?"

“FreeCell Solitaire!” Larry said casually, tossing down his deck of cards, smiling at Mr. K, and asking, “Is everything settled?”

Just as Mr. K was about to speak, Larry called out to him, "No rush, sit down and talk..."

Once Mr. K was seated, Larry took a glass and poured him half a glass of whiskey.

Mr. K took a sip of his drink before telling Larry everything that had just happened.

Larry nodded after listening and said, "As expected, it was the Metropolitan Casino that was up to something. I've heard of this tactic before; it's called 'betting bank sabotage'."

Mr. K frowned and asked, "What do you mean by a betting company ambush?"

Larry smiled faintly, picked up his whiskey, took a sip, and said slowly,

"This is an old trick used by big betting companies: they actually buy stocks on the New York Stock Exchange through legitimate securities firms, and then plunder the margin deposits of their clients who place orders with their own betting companies..."

After saying that, Larry saw that Mr. K still looked confused, so he continued to explain.

"For example, what happened this morning was that Henry Williams and I shorted a total of 6000 shares of U.S. Sugar. Well, there might be other people in the brokerage who followed suit and sold shares. Let's say the Metropolitan Securities betting company receives a margin deposit of $1 or $1.5 from a client, then they will place orders with several reputable securities firms to buy U.S. Sugar shares."

They placed an order to drive up U.S. Sugar's stock price on the NYSE to $108, which wiped out our $1 margin. Even when the stock price fell back, it was too late; they had already taken over $10,000 of our margin, while the cost on the NYSE was less than $1000. It was a very profitable deal.

After listening, Mr. K asked with a smile, "Boss, are you really not going to the Metropolitan Casino anymore?"

Larry raised an eyebrow and said, “Of course! There’s no need to go anymore. I’ll tell Senator Kennedy to deal with the Rothschild gang.”

Mr. K nodded, took out a large wad of US dollars from his pocket, placed it on the table, and said, "This is what we've earned recently. Excluding the cost of hiring a young assistant, it's a total of $8500." Then, Mr. K took out a piece of paper and gave Larry a detailed report on how much they had earned and lost in the betting shop over the past week.

Larry nodded after listening, without saying anything more.

After Mr. K finished his report, he pushed $8500 in front of Larry and said with a smile, "Boss, you're really something. In just one week, you've made more money than I made in the previous 38 years. If this keeps up, I'll fall in love with you!"

Larry knew Mr. K was joking, so he smiled, counted out $4250 from the stack of dollars, put it in his pocket, and then pushed the rest of the money in front of Mr. K, saying solemnly, "Mr. K, this is a business deal we did together. You and I each contributed $1000 to hire people and do the work, and the profits are split equally. Take your share!"

Mr. K glanced at Larry, nodded, and held out a hand to cover the remaining dollars.

"Wait a minute!" Larry suddenly said.

Mr. K was startled, looked up at Larry, and stopped what he was doing.

Larry reached into Mr. K's $4250 profit and took out a $50 bill, raising his eyebrows and saying, "I forgot, I'm the boss. I'll take an extra $50. You don't mind, do you?"

After Larry finished speaking, he looked at Mr. K seriously.

But Mr. K remained calm and immediately smiled, saying, "No problem, boss."

Larry nodded, placed the $50 under his palm, smiled at Mr. K, but what he was thinking was...

The moment Mr. K took the money and asked the questions, there wasn't the slightest hint of displeasure on his face, which was exactly right!

We must make them get used to the fact that they are the boss.

Mr. K pocketed his money, smiled at Larry, and asked, "Boss, I don't understand why you still keep your word to that Henry Williams who will be of no use in the future."

Larry raised an eyebrow and corrected him, “I keep my word to everyone. Oh, didn’t you just say his real name is William Selig…? I feel like I’ve heard that name before?”

"Have you heard of this name?" Mr. K asked, puzzled.

Larry waved his hand. "That's not the point... Mr. K, you still have our principal, that $2000, right?"

"Yes, boss!"

“Okay, get the guys ready on Wednesday, and we’ll move on to the next plan.” Larry smiled, picked up his glass, and took a sip.

Mr. K's face lit up with surprise, and he asked, "Do you have Plan C?"

“Of course!” Larry put down his cup, his eyes gleaming with confidence, and continued with a smile, “The Metropolitan Casino still owes me an apology, and besides, I gave that guy William Selig $2650, so I have to get that money back from them!”

Mr. K smiled and leaned closer to ask, "What do you plan to do?"

"It's simple, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth! Didn't the Metropolitan Gaming Regime use 'gaming regime ambush' to mess with me? Well, we'll do the same to them. We'll be in the shadows, they'll be in the open. They'll pay this price!"
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On Tuesday morning, Larry arrived at Paine Weber Securities Company early and went straight to Mr. Wallace.

“Mr. Wallace, I’d like to open a personal stock account today,” Larry said, getting straight to the point.

Mr. Wallace raised his eyebrows and a smile appeared on his lips.
"Larry, aren't you going to make the deal with Reading Company anymore?"

Mr. Wallace had accompanied Larry to the Reading firm in Hartford and knew he had an account there. That's why, when he learned of Mr. Morgan's acquisition of Winchester, Mr. Wallace sent Tom to the Reading branch in Boston to meet with Larry.

Larry smiled and said, "I'd better prepare an extra account too, just in case!" Mr. Wallace smiled and nodded, then personally led Larry to the brokerage counter to open an account and instructed the teller there to open an account for Larry.

“Lowest amount, lowest commission! Larry is one of us,” Mr. Wallace emphasized to the staff at the brokerage counter.

In the United States, securities firms have never prohibited their employees from trading stocks.

When floor traders act as agents for clients' stocks, they also take the opportunity to place their own orders. This is even more true for ordinary employees of securities companies. If they have some savings, they will open a personal account, buy some stocks, and recommend to clients that the stock will rise sharply in the future.

Therefore, it's not surprising that Larry opened an account.

To the broker's surprise, Larry pulled out a thick wad of green and yellow dollars in one go!

The teller stared at the pile of US dollars, dumbfounded, for a full twenty seconds before turning to Larry and asking a question.

"My God, how...how many dollars do you have in total? Is it really you who opened the account, Larry Livingston?"

Larry gave a faint smile and said, "It's $1.7 in total."

This money was what Larry earned from the Metropolitan Casino over the past two weeks.

Last Monday, Larry had only $465 in cash in his wallet. That day, he made $1850 from $150 by trading Doremington, and by Monday night he had $2165.
From Tuesday to Thursday, Larry got in touch with the betting clerk "Henry Williams" and earned another $4200 from the betting company. After deducting his share of the profits, he netted $2800, which brought his cash balance to $5115.

From Friday to Saturday, the Metropolitan Bank began to suspect that the order book clerks were problematic, as they were only told the stock targets and not whether to go long or short.

Larry then implemented Plan B in response to the new changes at the betting company. The young man Mr. K bet on made $1820, but he deliberately played it poorly and lost $120.

By Monday morning, Larry had a total of $4960 in his pocket.

As a result, he shorted 3500 shares of U.S. sugar and made a profit of $11375. After deducting the $2650 that Mr. K gave to William Selig, he was left with $13535.

On Monday evening, I received another dividend from Mr. K, totaling $4300.

The total is $17835.

Larry wasn't used to having too much money on him, so he only kept $835 for himself and then deposited the entire $1.7 into his own account at Paine Weber Securities.

Although Larry had $5000 in the safe and $1.79 in his bank account, he didn't want to touch it because the $1.7 was enough for him to carry out Plan C.

Behind the counter, the teller swallowed hard and carefully counted the $1.7 margin that Larry had bid on. After counting it twice to confirm that it was correct, the teller deposited the money into the vault.

The teller looked at Larry with a hint of awe, having worked with him for less than a year, but said nothing and proceeded with the account opening for him according to procedure.

Larry nodded, thinking to himself that this was one of the good things about Americans; once you made money, they wouldn't ask any questions or inquire where the money came from.

After 40 minutes of fumbling, Larry finally opened his own account at Paine Weber Securities.

Paine Weber Securities offers its clients a 5x leverage margin account, meaning Larry only needs 20% margin to buy stocks.

This credit multiplier is higher than Reading's, where Larry's margin only had a four-fold leverage.

However, Reading's leverage was only for small clients. Larry figured that once he sold off his Colts, his leverage with Reading would be 10 times.

Of course, Paine Weber Securities' 5x leverage is still more cost-effective right now, but unfortunately there are no temporary credit accounts available here.

In addition, Larry now knows that Paine Weber Securities also offers commission rebates, but they deduct 0.4% of the client's commission and taxes, which is 0.5% more than Reading Securities.

As an industry insider, Larry felt ashamed that he only knew how to make money and had no understanding of the company's business.
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On Wednesday, February 17th, Larry arrived at Paine Weber Securities Company around 10 a.m.

Larry wasn't late because he was trading at the brokerage firm as a client today.

Larry entered the company and plopped down in the customer chair in the center of the sales hall, which not only caused whispers among his colleagues but also surprised several customers who knew him.

“Hey Larry. What brings you here today?” a customer asked.

Larry flashed his signature warm smile and lied without batting an eye, saying, "I took on a client's request... to help them make a deal."

Several clients around him nodded in sudden realization, their curiosity satisfied, and then turned to look at their own stocks.

Standing in front of the price list, William Boeing frowned slightly as he stared at Larry in the customer's seat, a look of envy on his face.

However, once the clock on the wall pointed to 10, he quickly adjusted his mindset and threw himself into his work.

Larry watched as William Boeing scurried up and down, quickly copying down stock quotes next to each stock name without the slightest hesitation, and couldn't help but nod in approval.

Five minutes after the market opened, Tom drawled out the name of a stock.

"Western League, 32 and a quarter dollars."

Larry raised an eyebrow, took out his small notebook from his pocket, and flipped to the latest few pages.

There was a record of the Western Conference's performance over the past two months; it was a stock that Larry had specifically found a few days ago to prepare for Plan C.

Western Union is the abbreviation for Western Union Telecommunication.

Western Union was founded in 1851, and its main business was telegraph transmission. Western Union built a telegraph network covering the entire United States and monopolized 90% of the telegraph business in the United States.

The company's main business is telegram services charged by the number of words, and it has also begun to venture into telegram remittances.

Western Union telegraph offices can be found in cities and towns of all sizes across the United States, much like the Chinese post and telecommunications bureau in Larry's previous life.

Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange's nationwide network of kiosks utilized Western Union's telegraph technology.

However, the stock is very inactive. On the one hand, telegraph communication is being replaced by telephone for short distances, and Western Union has become a relatively backward "tech stock" because it lacks relevant technological reserves. On the other hand, because the stock has stable performance but lacks a story to hype, it is regarded by investors as a "bond substitute" and its daily stock price volatility is very low.

But what Larry liked about it was its low volatility; these semi-active stocks were the best fit for executing Plan C.

(End of this chapter)