Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 103 Traveling the World... Short-Term Real-Money Trading Competition
Finally, six phones with relatively complete functions were selected.

The phone that imitated the Tianyu TY600 had relatively few functions: a color display, 40-chord polyphonic ringtones, internet access, no camera, and no MP3 player. Its main features were its portability and compact size, weighing only 70 or 80 grams. After much deliberation, Chen Xuebing decided to keep it.

The fact that this product sells well means there is a demand for it.

Although Chen Xuebing thought it was low-class no matter how he looked at it, he still decided to respect the market.

Moreover, the price is indeed quite cheap. Tianyu sells it for 999 yuan at the counter. This unlicensed phone looks almost exactly the same, and its built-in system is even more advanced than the original. It sells for 520 yuan, which is quite a premium.

Chen Xuebing instructed Huo Xiaowen to bring in two or three thousand units, which could then be sold on Taobao for 699 yuan.

Apart from that, all the selected devices are large-screen phones equipped with MediaTek's high-end multimedia chips.

The meeting was going on for a while when the light suddenly dimmed to the point where we had to turn on the lights, and everyone realized it was almost 7:30.

It was past eight o'clock, and the whole office smelled of instant noodles.

Chen Xuebing held a bowl of Uni-President braised beef noodles, looking down at the bustling traffic below, stirring the noodles while laughing.

I've come to Shenzhen and started working overtime.

No, when did we ever not work overtime while selling goods? Sometimes we even worked through the night!
“Starting today, overtime pay will be given! It will be calculated as half a day’s wages. Ren Ying, help me draft a set of company management regulations. There are more and more people, so we need a management system in the future,” he suddenly said.

"Oh! Okay!" Ren Ying was a little excited. She had long felt that there should be a standard system. "According to the standard working hours, 7:30 in the morning and 6 in the evening."

Chen Xuebing discovered that Ren Ying was quite ruthless.

Starting work at 7:30? What kind of standard working time is that?
Senior year of high school?

"Arrive at 8:15. Supervisors and deputy supervisors who directly manage more than ten people can arrive half an hour late. Supervisors can arrive late in special circumstances, but they need to explain the situation to their superiors. We finish get off work at 5:30 pm and have a one-and-a-half-hour break at 12 pm."

Ren Ying was a little confused: "If the supervisors aren't here, who's responsible for ensuring the employees are on duty?"

Chen Xuebing chuckled.

"Hehe, if you don't even have a way to manage employees' arrival time, then you don't deserve to be called an efficient department. This kind of thing doesn't need to be detailed in the rules and regulations; let the supervisor figure it out himself."

In fact, according to Chen Xuebing's thinking, it would be good if the whole company could get into a working state between 8:30 and 9 o'clock.

The supervisor and deputy supervisor have the right to arrive half an hour late. When everyone arrives, the supervisor will not be there, so there is some time to relax, clear your head, and prepare. You won't have to face a bunch of things sent by your superiors as soon as you arrive at the company. You can stay calm and get into work.

He is creating a buffer time for lower-level employees, and different department heads can use this flexible half hour to choose to let employees rest or assign work in advance, giving management more "reward and punishment" authority.

In addition, the privileges of supervisors can also serve as a certain incentive for subordinates.

Huo Xiaowen also brought over a bowl of spicy beef noodles.

"Mr. Chen! Do we use this time system at our counter as well?"

Chen Xuebing glanced at him, thinking that Huo Xiaowen was not good at managing his brothers, and after thinking for a moment, said: "You can decide on the counter yourself for now."

Huo Xiaowen leaned back strategically: "No way! We're all from the company. If you don't set rules for us, are you treating us like outsiders?"

Chen Xuebing laughed: "When the offline sales network grows bigger, I'll hire professionals to manage it. You can be a vice president to assist in management and keep an eye on things for me. Why are you in such a hurry to get yourself into a trap?"

Huo Xiaowen felt both disappointed and relieved upon hearing this:
"Sigh, I'm really not cut out for management. When things get busy, I get a headache. And with so many cell phones in the warehouse, I'm scared to be at the counter. Every day, when the people at the counter are out running errands for a while, I have to check if I have all the warehouse keys. I'm afraid they'll do something sneaky behind my back and mess with me. The guys I brought with me all have some criminal records, you know? But they're all brothers, so I can't say anything outright. Also, you asked me to train them, but I don't know what to train them on. I can only make sure they all speak Mandarin. Look, I speak Mandarin now."

Everyone laughed.

"Mr. Huo, your Mandarin is so standard!"

"What kind of Mandarin expression is 'to mess with me'?!"

Chen Xuebing smiled and patted Huo Xiaowen on the back: "You've been here for more than half a year, you've worked hard. In the future, if there are any things that are difficult to manage, just hand them over and let Lu Yiwen and Gou Hongyi help you arrange them."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yiwen and Gou Hongyi straightened their backs.

Huo Xiaowen sighed, then smiled and said, "Things have been much better since Director Qi and Director Gao came. I can still discuss things with them. Now that you're here too, I feel even more at ease."

Chen Xuebing silently gave him a point in his heart.

In the past six months, the person who has changed the most is Huo Xiaowen. He runs a business on his own and has to take responsibility for himself. He is being tempered by life every day.

He has the drive of a pioneer, and his sense of responsibility is beyond question. After all, he used to be the "big brother," and he also has a broad perspective on money.

Originally, Chen Xuebing thought that Huo Xiaowen would be like Lu Yiwen and the others, serving as his "guards." Now, he thought that perhaps there would be some important things he could entrust to Huo Xiaowen alone in the future.

He thought of something, but that was a long time later.

Chen Xuebing thought for a moment and glanced at Huo Xiaowen.

"You seem to have gained weight in the last six months. Get up early tomorrow morning and go for a run with me. I'll teach you boxing."

Huo Xiaowen was startled. Seeing Chen Xuebing's strange smile, she felt a sense of foreboding. Holding the instant noodles, she took half a step back, and her Chongqing dialect came out again.

"Boxing?...Why would I learn to box? What the hell...Are you going to call me to collect debts again?"

"You're overthinking it. I just wanted you to exercise."

"I'm perfectly healthy! Why would I need to exercise!"

"Oh, don't overthink it. I was just thinking that when I have money in the future, I'll treat you to a trip around the world. You need to travel...you need to stay healthy to travel everywhere."

Huo Xiaowen: ? ? ?

……

The following day, Tuesday.

Chen Xuebing made himself a cup of coffee early in the morning, trying to feel like a professional financier. He turned on his computer at 8:30 a.m., ready to get started on the stock market.

In half an hour, he scanned the market again and found a super stock that he hadn't noticed before.

000046, Guangcai Construction.

He wasn't familiar with Guangcai Construction, but it belonged to the real estate sector. After checking its fundamentals, he discovered that the major shareholder behind this company was actually Oceanwide Construction.

He was very familiar with that name.

In 2015, it was the most dazzling star during the peak of the real estate market, with a market value of over 100 billion.

Behind it is the Oceanwide Group, an even larger conglomerate with businesses spanning finance, insurance, securities, trust banking, capital investment, power, and real estate, controlling dozens of listed companies.

Founder Lu Zhiqiang is a veteran of the Taishan Club and a key figure in helping Liu Chuanzhi acquire Lenovo's shares.

Taishan Club is well-known to most people; it's the largest capital group in China, so I won't go into details.

These days, it should be in a period of explosive growth.

Chen Xuebing immediately added the stock to his watchlist and prepared to make a quick profit in the morning session.

The stock market opens at 9:30 a.m., has a lunch break from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., resumes afternoon trading at 1 p.m., and closes at 3 p.m.

From 9:15 to 9:25, it is called the call auction period, during which everyone can quote prices for stocks to buy and sell, and the exchange will facilitate the transactions according to the rules.

At 9:25, the price with the highest trading volume will be used as the opening price, and all buy orders at or above this price and all sell orders at or below this price will be executed.

Moreover, back then it was a closed-end auction, so you couldn't see the opening price fluctuations and you had to enter the market in the dark. It wasn't until after 06 that it was changed to an open auction, so you could see the fluctuations in the stock price.

During a pre-market auction in the dark, when the stock price is not visible to the public, it is the best time for major investors to secretly buy at the bottom. If they enter the market at other times, a large number of buy orders will cause the stock price to rise sharply. If retail investors discover that major investors are entering the market, they will follow suit, which will increase the major investors' cost of accumulating shares.

Chen Xuebing also wants to try bidding, and today's target is Guangcai Construction.

At 9:15, Chen Xuebing, in the dark, tested the waters by buying 200,000 shares at a price one point lower than yesterday's closing price.

At 9:24, just before the auction ended, he felt that such a good stock might not be affordable at 1%, so he bought another 20 yuan worth at 0.5%. A second before the auction ended, he realized something was wrong; he seemed to have rushed in, and buying at a lower price was the key.

However, orders placed during the call auction can be cancelled within the first five minutes, but not within the last five minutes.

So he placed another order for 20, which was 2% lower than the closing price.

As soon as the market opened, Chen Xuebing felt like the sky had fallen.

Three deals, 600,000 yuan, all gone to jail.

The stock opened significantly lower by 4 points, and all bids exceeding 4.00% were filled.

The first order resulted in a loss of 6000, the second 7000, and the third 4000.

Upon inspection, the market opened lower, down 1.15%.

Chen Xuebing took a deep breath and waited patiently.

At 10 o'clock, the market was like someone who couldn't poop, constantly fluctuating slightly.

The slight fluctuations don't mean there's no demand; on the contrary, trading volume was very high this morning, with buyers and sellers vying for dominance, and the situation is currently evenly matched.

Chen Xuebing realized that this might be a point of divergence where prices would fall from a high level, so he decisively sold all his shares.

His selected stocks generally outperformed the market, so he sold off his entire 92 yuan position yesterday, losing less than 7000 yuan.

The key issue is that he heavily invested 600,000 yuan in Oceanwide Holdings, which lost 17,000 yuan at the start of the game. He won't be able to break even until tomorrow.

At the close of trading, Oceanwide Construction recovered to 2.46%, and Chen Xuebing's loss on a single stock was less than 10,000 yuan, which relieved him.

The next day when the market opened, it was another 4%!

Chen Xuebing was stunned.

The market was also down, confirming Chen Xuebing's idea from the previous day that there might be a correction in the index.

It's time to remain on the sidelines and observe from the sidelines.

But he lost more than 20,000 of the 600,000 yuan, and the loss on a single stock reached more than 30,000 yuan, which gave him a headache.

With gritted teeth, he added another 30 units to his position at a low price, lowering his cost basis.

On the third day, the market remained in the red, and Guangcai Construction suffered another drop of 1.7%, resulting in a loss of 14,000 yuan.

Chen Xuebing added another 30 yuan to his position.

Hong Yongqiang finally called.

"What's going on? Why are you trading a single stock? Are you going after Guangcai Construction? And you've lost so much money?"

Chen Xuebing felt a little uneasy, but still said firmly, "Take it. This stock is definitely going to rise, and it will rise sharply."

He has studied a lot of information these past few days. The Oceanwide Group and Liu Yonghao's Hope Group are vying for control of Minsheng Bank and are locked in a fierce battle.

The battle for control of China Minsheng Bank involved many big names in China and lasted for more than a decade, with one side rising and another falling. He roughly knew the process.

In addition, Guangcai Construction's current share price is only a little over two yuan, with a net asset value per share of three yuan, both below book value, meaning its net assets are higher than its market capitalization. Despite this low price, the interim report shows that the major shareholder actually pledged new shares to Lu Zhiqiang personally in the second quarter.

This taste was all too familiar to Chen Xuebing.

Backdoor listing.

Backdoor listings are not a common practice these days because there are not many privately owned listed companies, and everyone cherishes them and doesn't sell them easily.

However, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a document last year stating that, in principle, real estate companies are no longer allowed to list on the A-share market. To circumvent the restrictions, Oceanwide Construction can only find a way through existing shell companies.

If Oceanwide Holdings were to inject its assets and go public through a reverse merger, its stock price would skyrocket.

It just takes time to get through it.

"You mean you're not going to do short-term trading anymore?" Hong Yongqiang asked.

Chen Xuebing hesitated for a moment.

"The market situation is unstable, let's wait and see."

……

The market is indeed far from stable.

After two weeks of continuous decline, with only one day of gains in between, the market opened sharply lower on July 11, dropping to 1009.84.

Guangcai Construction, the stock that was the first to plummet, actually stopped falling and even bounced up a little, bringing Chen Xuebing's losses back to 30,000.

In the past two weeks, Chen Xuebing has had almost no opportunity to operate his own business, as he has been busy with Taobao sales and product updates.

In addition, I am also collecting some financial news and newspapers.

On July 11th, Chen Xuebing smiled as he browsed two financial news articles on his computer.

The A-share index may break the 998 low again in the near future.

Registration for the "Short-Term Real-Money Trading Competition" organized by the Guangzhou New Express Daily is about to begin, with generous rewards.

Chen Xuebing noted down the contact information from the second news article, closed the webpage, opened his stock trading software, sold half of his still-loss-making Guangcai Construction stock, and then selected most of the stocks in his watchlist and invested all his funds.

Then I called Lao Hong.

"Uncle Hong, it's time to increase our holdings."

Hong Yongqiang was surprised: "Don't be so hasty! The financial newspapers are all predicting a downturn today, why don't you take another look?"

Chen Xuebing smiled and shook his head. Since re-entering the stock market, he had never been as confident as he was today.

"Have you forgotten what I said? The stock market can't possibly fall below 1,000 points again. It's only 9 points away from the bottom now. I'll bet you, it will definitely gap up tomorrow."

Hong Yongqiang is now completely in awe of Chen Xuebing. Chen Xuebing avoided the two weeks of losses, and the only stock he bought during that period was also unaffected.

He tends to be a conservative operator. He didn't admire Chen Xuebing this much when Chen Xuebing was making a profit, but his ability to avoid disasters in several waves really impressed him.

You'll only make money and never lose; your profits will double sooner or later!
At this moment, Chen Xuebing suggested that he increase his holdings. Even though he was not optimistic, he pondered deeply for a moment.

"I'll add another two million, it'll be in my account tomorrow! The stop-loss line is still 10%!"

"Uncle Hong, this is a golden opportunity. Come in today with whatever you have. You don't need a 10% stop-loss. Today's price is the stop-loss. If you lose one dollar tomorrow, leave immediately."

I was like, "Holy crap!"

"So confident?"

Chen Xuebing sighed, seemingly unrelated to the question, "I'm so tired of stock trading lately that it's making it hard for me to do my regular job. I don't want to trade myself anymore. I'm planning to go to Guangzhou and hire an expert. You have to let me earn some money so I can pay him a salary."

A long silence followed.

"I deposited 4 million into the account before 2 p.m.."

"The price has hit rock bottom, the sooner the better."

Chen Xuebing hung up the phone, feeling a sense of anticipation at the prospect of making a fortune. However, looking at Guangcai Construction, the stock in his portfolio that had been losing money and which he had to sell at a loss due to the market rally, he moved his lips and typed out a few asterisk words.

"I'll get my revenge on your father sooner or later!"

(End of this chapter)