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

Chapter 134 Gunshots in Washington
On Monday evening, February 22, Senator Patrick Kennedy of Massachusetts arrived in Washington, D.C. with his wife and son and checked into his private luxury apartment near Capitol Hill.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Senator Kennedy, along with his wife and children, visited the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Washington Monument, and had a great time.

On Wednesday evening, Kennedy returned to his luxury apartment and met with visiting Democratic senators.

During the meeting, the visiting Democratic senator conveyed a verbal message from the Senate Minority Leader:

The first formal meeting on Thursday will focus on reviewing the Republican bill to revoke tariff exemptions for sugar, coffee, and other commodities. This bill is a core issue for the Republicans this year and a necessary one for winning the election. Currently, the Democrats plan to block the Republican bill with all their might, but due to the relatively balanced power dynamics, every dissenting voice is valuable.

The minority leader demanded that Senator Kennedy not only be present, but also, because of his location in Boston, one of America's most important ports, be required to deliver a speech in the Senate on the enormous negative impact of high tariffs on the lives of the American people.

Only in this way can the bill to exempt sugar from tariffs be barely prevented from passing.

Senator Kennedy readily agreed.

On Thursday, February 25, at 8 a.m., Senator Kennedy traveled to Capitol Hill by horse-drawn carriage.

As the carriage approached the intersection of Constitution Avenue and First Street, the senator's carriage collided with a black carriage traveling in the opposite direction. The senator's coachman got out to check, only to find someone in the black carriage suddenly pointing a gun and firing at Senator Kennedy's carriage.

Senator Kennedy immediately lay down, and his brave bodyguards protected him, exchanging fire with the assassin.

After succeeding in his mission, the assassin did not linger, quickly driving the carriage away through the streets of Washington. Because the incident happened so suddenly, no one could stop the carriage from leaving.

Senator Kennedy was rushed to a nearby hospital. After initial examination, the senator was found to have escaped the shooting but was shaken by the attack and needed to rest.

As a result, Senator Kennedy was unable to attend the Senate's first spring session of the year, which began at 9:30 a.m.

Lacking firsthand testimony from a Boston senator, the Democrats were initially at a disadvantage in blocking the Republican proposal to remove tariff exemptions for goods such as sugar.

Meanwhile, in Boston, at exactly 10 a.m.

Inside the largest betting agency in the metropolis, a portly gentleman with an air of wealth and a kind face entered. He walked in with two of his men, took off his hat, and asked the receptionist, "I just came from Chicago and am looking to do some business here. Can I buy stocks here?"

The receptionist, seeing the visitor's wealthy appearance, put on an impeccable professional smile, descended the steps to the old gentleman's side, and said with a smile,

"MetLife, the most professional brokerage firm you can find in Boston, where you can buy and sell any stock!"

"Do you restrict stock trading positions here?" the fat man asked again.

The front office manager shook his head and said solemnly, "I've said it before, this is the largest brokerage firm in all of Boston, and we will never restrict stock positions."

Mr. Fat nodded and beckoned to his subordinates.

The subordinate took out $2000, walked to the counter, and said to the person behind the counter, "Buy 2000 shares of U.S. Sugar, go long!"

The front desk manager hesitated slightly, but judging from Mr. Pang's appearance, he must have mistaken this place for a legitimate securities company branch.

Seeing the questioning look from the teller, the front desk manager nodded to the counter.

The grumpy teller started filling out the transaction forms, but since the stock market had just opened and the price quotes for American sugar hadn't been released yet, the grumpy teller only filled out four transaction forms for 500 shares each, took the money handed over by the other party, and explained casually.

"Please wait a moment. After the opening price of the US sugar market is released, I will fill in the price, and then you can take the transaction order!"

Mr. Fat sat down on a bench in the trading hall, crossed his legs, and stared at the price quote board.

His two men stood guard at the counter, waiting for the sugar company to make the first offer...

At 10:2, the young man guarding the price quotation machine pulled out a strip of paper and shouted to the crowd, "American Sugar, $103.5!"

This offer drew gasps of undisguised surprise from the customers throughout the trading hall. After the last drop in sugar prices, the stock had returned to its $85-$92 trading range, seemingly poised for another long period of consolidation…

No one could have predicted that the stock price would jump by more than $10 at the opening bell today!

Has something happened to the American sugar industry?

The Metropolitan Casino teller frowned, but seeing the two fierce-looking men guarding the counter, he could only fill in "buy at $103.5" on the transaction slip and hand the four transaction slips to the two men.

When one of Mr. Fat's men put the receipt into his pocket, the grumpy clerk immediately noticed the handgun that was inadvertently peeking out from the man's pocket.

The two men, holding the form, walked up to the fat man, whispered something to him, and then stood behind him without saying a word.

The grumpy teller's heart pounded; he sensed something was amiss. So, he pulled a colleague aside to take his place while he quickly went to the front desk manager and whispered...
"Manager, I think something's fishy. That gentleman just bought 2000 shares of sugar stock, which isn't unusual, but the key point is that sugar stock also opened with a 10-point gap up today! It's too much of a coincidence. Could there be something wrong here?" The front desk manager, busy attending to other customers, overheard the grumpy teller's mutterings and quickly looked up at the price chart. When he saw sugar stock priced at a whopping $103.5, he was startled...

However, the front desk manager changed his mind and smiled at the teller, saying...

"With such a high opening price, it's bound to fall back. No matter how much he buys, it's only a $1 margin deposit. The price drop will easily shake them out... Don't worry! High opening prices always fall back..."

The grumpy teller still frowned, but after hearing what her manager had said, she reluctantly returned to her counter.
The front desk manager and the grumpy teller had no idea that, at that very moment, the same scenario was playing out simultaneously in 42 other metropolitan gambling bank branches across New England…
.
Meanwhile, Paine Weber Securities.

Logan stared dumbfounded at the first quote from American Sugar Corporation that William Boeing had filled out, his face showing a look of astonishment and shock...

Yesterday afternoon at 3 PM, Logan followed Larry's instructions and used his entire $3860 investment to buy shares of U.S. Sugar. At the time, Larry was not at the brokerage office and also entrusted Logan to use $10,000 from his account to buy shares of U.S. Sugar...

At that time, the price of sugar in the United States was $93.25, which was the absolute high of the week's trading range.

Logan was reluctant to buy stocks when the price was hitting new highs, and with only $3860, even with 5x leverage, he could only buy 210 shares of U.S. Sugar...

If Larry hadn't also bought 530 shares, Logan wouldn't have wanted to buy so many!

However, Logan now has unconditional faith in Larry, firmly believing that he will definitely make money after buying in, even though he only bought 210 shares, which is too few...

Fifteen minutes before the market opened this morning, Logan, following Larry's instructions, placed a pre-market order to buy American Sugar at market price with all of Larry's remaining funds.

Larry had $7500 left in his Paine Weber Securities account.

After buying the shares, Logan waited for the price quote from U.S. Sugar, but to his surprise, the first opening price jumped by nearly $10, reaching $103.5!

Logan's first thought was that his 210 shares of American Sugar had made money, at least $2000!

But Logan's second thought was of Larry's concern—would his pre-market order go too high?!
What should I do if the sugar company's stock price falls? Should I sell it?

Will Larry lose money on his pre-market trades today?
All these questions came rushing at me at once, and Logan's mind was in turmoil...

At the same time, Larry was waiting for the trade confirmation at the Reading Securities Boston branch.

Since Colt hasn't resuming operations yet, Larry's margin here is completely unusable.

But this didn't stump Larry.

On Wednesday morning, Larry deposited $1.79 from his account at First National Bank in Boston into Reading's own account. He then deposited $5000 from his safe and the "only" $2000 in cash he had left in his wallet into Reading's account as well.

The account currently has a total of $2.49 in available principal, and Reading leverages it four times.

Larry used $1.5 of his own money on Wednesday afternoon to buy 650 shares of U.S. Sugar as his base position.

This morning, Larry took out the remaining $10,000 and filled out two pre-market orders, submitting them to the exchange five minutes apart.

As Larry watched the telegraph office clerk send out the two telegrams one after the other, he nodded, looked out the window, and thought to himself that Senator Kennedy should have acted as agreed by now.

Today is a crucial window for the sugar tariff exemption bill. If Senator Kennedy is unable to attend on time, the Republican proposal to raise sugar tariffs is very likely to pass.

If tariffs on imported sugar are increased, U.S. sugar suppliers will inevitably take the opportunity to raise prices.

The old money who had been holding onto this stock for a long time would inevitably take advantage of the situation to drive up the stock price of American sugar companies...

After all, the stock price of the US sugar industry had already increased sixfold due to tariffs and sugar price increases. Although the sugar price is currently high, it wouldn't be an exaggeration for it to double again, right?

Even if the bill ultimately fails to pass, Larry is not afraid.

Larry had long been familiar with the stock price trends of the American sugar company, whose head, Hafmeyer, was most skilled at manipulating his own stock to profit from it.

The slightest change in the bill discussion in Congress is enough to give insiders with ulterior motives ample room to stir things up!

Larry's confidence in the American sugar industry did not come from his own calculations, but from the greed of human nature!

Now that the opening price has been revealed, everything is proceeding according to plan.

Larry looked at the price chart, guessing that his pre-market order probably hadn't even been filled yet...

(End of this chapter)