Hong Kong variety show: The tycoon who emerged from Portland Street

In fact, Merrill Lynch executives had already analyzed the underlying causes of next week's stock market crash at the meeting.

However, they all overlooked the most important point.

During this period, individual trading in the stock market still relied on manual labor.

Ordinary investors transmit their trading instructions to the trading floor through stockbrokers or exchange order runners, where professional traders manually match and execute trades.

Even a wealthy person like Chen Mo uses the same method.

All his instructions were executed by Henry and Pete, the two traders, through a dedicated telephone line in the trading room, contacting the order runners within the exchange.

Institutions, however, are different.

They have already started using computer programs to trade stocks.

Larger institutions will use their internal mainframe systems to automatically generate trading orders based on market conditions and send them directly to the exchange.

Because computer programs can execute complex strategies, institutions have begun to engage in index arbitrage and portfolio insurance.

So-called portfolio insurance is a dynamic hedging strategy that automatically sells futures to protect the value of a stock portfolio when the market falls.

Therefore, when the market falls to a certain threshold, a large number of institutional programs simultaneously trigger sell orders.

At the same time, the computer program's index arbitrage program is triggered. It detects that shorting the index will be profitable, and then automatically starts shorting.

It can be said that "Black Monday" was entirely a market chain reaction caused by automated trading.

This can also be considered a bug that appeared in the early system transactions.

All the institutions and securities firms had only recently started using this trading system and were completely unaware of the problems involved.

Therefore, Merrill Lynch's Gao Ce analyzed many reasons, but none of them included this factor.

However, just to be on the safe side, they chose to quietly follow suit and establish their own short positions on a small scale.

In fact, if Chen Mo wanted to, he could sell off a large number of his contracts now, deliberately causing a market downturn, and the stock market crash might break out sooner than expected.

But Chen Mo did not do that.

Planning ahead and waiting for a stock market crash is the key to maximizing profits.

After leaving the Merrill Lynch building, Chen Mo, along with Gang Sheng, Qiu Di, and A Hua, began their sightseeing in New York.

Chen Mo was playing with two beautiful women in front of him, while Ahua was taking pictures with a camera.

The first stop for the four was the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Shopping is a woman's nature, especially in a world-renowned commercial building like the World Trade Center.

Gang Sheng and Qiu Di had a blast inside.

The two women were so happy that they didn't want to leave. They could not only go shopping, but also chat with the sales staff and practice their English.

It has to be said that women have no limit to their stamina when shopping.

After a whole day, even Chen Mo felt the fatigue in his legs, and Ahua felt like his legs were made of lead, exhausted like a dead dog, while Gangsheng and Qiudi were still in high spirits.

In the end, it was only through Ahua's sob story that the two women stopped.

After having dinner at the "Window of the World" restaurant, the group finally returned to their hotel.

Of course, I took quite a few photos that day.

I took a lot of photos, including individual photos, couple photos, three-person photos, and group photos, especially panoramic photos of the Petronas Twin Towers from various outdoor angles.

According to Chen Mo, this is a rare opportunity to film; if we don't film it now, we might never have the chance again.

Although Ahua didn't know why Chen Mo said that, he took as many pictures as Chen Mo asked him to.

It's just a matter of a few rolls of film.

The next day, the group went to another place and spent the rest of the day there.

That evening, Jimmy brought Henry and Pete to report to Chen Mo.

"Boss, all 37500 contracts have been sold. Prices have dropped slightly over the past two days, with the final average transaction price at 315 points."

Merrill Lynch charged you a commission of $590 million, plus exchange and clearinghouse fees of about $5 per contract, totaling approximately $18.75. This amount has already been deducted from your account.

"Boss, the 1000 million out-of-the-money IBM put options you requested have all been purchased. Transaction fees..."

Chen Mo raised his hand to interrupt their report: "Alright, you don't need to tell me that. It's just a small amount of money, around ten thousand yuan."

"You've done a good job these past two days. I have no plans for the next few days. Just stay in the trading room and keep an eye on things. If there are any big fluctuations, then have someone notify me."

Alright, go and rest!

"Okay, Boss. Goodnight, Boss."

After the two left, Jimmy couldn't help but ask, "Brother Mo, is the US really going to experience a stock market crash?"

While on Hong Kong Island, Jimmy learned a lot about stocks from Robinson Crusoe, and he's learned quite a bit more these past two days watching Henry and Pete.

He now understands exactly what Chen Mo's actions meant.

Chen Mo looked at Jimmy and laughed, "You're right, a stock market crash is indeed imminent. When that happens, we'll really be rich."

"But I see experts on TV programs and in financial magazines saying that the US stock market is about to enter a bull market, and that it's just undergoing a technical correction right now?"

"Damn! Can you trust experts? According to my analysis, a stock market crash is coming around next week. Just wait and see."

At this point, Chen Mo remembered something else: "Also, if a stock market crash occurs in the US, it will definitely affect the Hong Kong stock market."

It's daytime in Hong Kong right now, so hurry up and tell your brothers to sell all the stocks they still have.

Especially that old man Robinson Crusoe, I've reminded him so many times, go and remind him again.

Upon hearing Chen Mo's words, Jimmy became a little anxious: "I'll go right now!"

Just kidding, he also has some money he bought stocks that he hasn't sold yet, and he doesn't want to be stuck with them.

Shortly after Jimmy left, Shen Guodong called Chen Mo's room.

"Brother Mo, this is Guodong."

"What's wrong? What happened?"

The moment Chen Mo received Shen Guodong's call, he began to suspect that something had happened.

"There is something, but it's nothing serious. It's something related to the film company."

"What's going on at the film company?" Chen Mo frowned. What could be so important that Shen Guodong would call him?

"Firstly, there have been many negative reviews of our film in Hong Kong newspapers recently..."

"Don't worry about that, I arranged it." Chen Mo interrupted Shen Guodong directly.

Shen Guodong quickly explained, "No, Brother Mo, you've misunderstood. A-Jie has already told me about the people you arranged; those weren't done by your people."

"Huh? Others are publishing articles criticizing it? Will that affect the movie's box office?"

"It seems not. The box office dropped a few days ago, but after the newspaper feud you arranged started, the box office actually increased instead of dropping."

Although there were more people criticizing it in today's newspapers, it didn't seem to have much effect; I saw quite a few people buying tickets outside the theater.

Upon hearing this, Chen Mo felt a surge of pride; his method of self-promotion was truly impressive.

"Since someone has arranged for a movie to criticize us, let our people praise it instead. Anyway, it's going to be a fight, and a real fight is definitely more effective than a fake one."

While I'm at it, I'll also find out who arranged this, and then I'll go thank them.