The Great Sage Returns from Ten Years of Imprisonment

Ling Yun thought for a moment before giving his answer.

"AIG's problems are far more serious than Lehman Brothers', but because it is so important, it absolutely cannot go bankrupt, so the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have been covering it up."

"With the outbreak of this financial crisis, the lid can no longer be closed; it will explode tonight and next Monday, shaking up the entire international financial market."

Based on my analysis of various information sources, AIG Group faces several problems, primarily a credit rating downgrade and liquidity shortage caused by massive losses in CDS.

"The three major rating agencies, which have a history of incompetence, have issued a warning of a rating downgrade for AIG, which will cause AIG's liquidity gap to rapidly expand to tens of billions of dollars..."

"Hahaha"

Mr. Xie and his colleagues chuckled, then nodded in agreement.

"This assessment is very accurate. The three major rating agencies are indeed doing a terrible job, but at this moment, they somehow seem quite respectable!"

"Wow! A liquidity gap of hundreds of billions of dollars, coinciding with the outbreak of the financial crisis, makes a sharp drop in AIG Group's stock seem inevitable!"

Ling Yun smiled and nodded, continuing his analysis and explanation.

Next, he combined the current situation of the AIG Group with the relevant intelligence he had just received, and analyzed the crisis of the AIG Group from several different perspectives.

First, from the perspective of stock price and valuation, it is asserted that AIG Group will face a precipitous stock price collapse, with the stock price plummeting by 80% or 90% as if it were nothing!

Secondly, from the perspective of credit and liquidity, this is the lifeline of an insurance company.

AIG Group is facing a double crisis: a rating downgrade and a complete breakdown of its financing channels. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say it's being strangled by two forces.

The third analysis is from the perspective of the market and AIG management's response.

Unfortunately, the timing of the AIG Group crisis was arguably the worst in history.

Once a global financial crisis breaks out, the financial markets will inevitably be bloodbathed, and the scene will be extremely tragic.

AIG Group will be the first to be hit, facing an unprecedented and enormous impact.

At the company level, no matter how high-quality the assets they sell in an attempt to save themselves, no one in the market dares to take them on.

At the market level, when a financial crisis first breaks out, systemic panic will surge sharply, and all financial stocks will be abandoned by investors, including AIG Group.

The last angle, and also the most crucial content.

The huge losses in AIG Group's CDS business are the root cause of the stock price crash, and this problem cannot be solved in the short term.

Even if the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve inject hundreds of billions of dollars into AIG, it cannot turn the tide; it can only ensure that AIG does not go bankrupt.

The reason is simple: on paper alone, AIG Group holds $5800 billion in junk bonds that are essentially worthless.

Including the staggering leverage of subprime bonds, this amount reaches trillions of dollars, far exceeding AIG Group's total assets.

The pre-market preparation meeting finally ended more than half an hour later.

Mr. Xie and his team left the office excitedly, taking with them the investment strategy devised by Ling Yun, and went to the trading area to assign tasks.

The two directors from CIC and CICC also need to report the investment strategies to the company, and then CIC and CICC will carry out the deployment and coordinate with the United Securities investment team.

As soon as the office door closed, Ling Yun took out his encrypted phone and started calling Chairman Zhao.

During the phone call, he mentioned adjusting the investment strategy and asked Chairman Zhao to transfer the investment strategy to the Yuanda Hong Kong Island branch.

Upon hearing his sound, accurate, and ruthless investment strategy, Chairman Zhao was naturally delighted.

After saying this, Chairman Zhao suddenly lowered his voice a few decibels.

"I also have something to tell you. First of all, the two Hong Kong branches of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are completely in a state of panic."

"They contacted Yuanda's Hong Kong Island branch again in the afternoon, proactively lowering their offer to $800 million and $1500 million, wanting to sell the company as soon as possible."

I called you around 4 PM, but your phone was off. I was thinking of calling you again tonight to ask for your opinion, but I didn't expect you to call me first.

Ling Yun smiled calmly and then offered a few explanations.

"This afternoon I went to report to several leaders. The occasion was rather special; cell phones had to be switched off and couldn't be brought into the meeting room!"

"The strategy of acquiring Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch's Hong Kong branch remains unchanged; we will acquire the Merrill Lynch branch before 4 pm on Sunday."

"As for Lehman Brothers' Hong Kong branch, we'll discuss that next week when Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt. The acquisition price can only be lower than previously agreed upon, not higher."

Chairman Zhao paused for a moment before responding with envy.

"If I'm not mistaken, you must have gone to the lake to report on your work, right? This kind of exceptional treatment is truly enviable."

"We had the acquisition of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch's subsidiaries firmly under our control. Those damned foreigners had no choice but to sell the subsidiaries to us."

Then, he changed the subject, his voice becoming even lower.

"Those bastards at Goldman Sachs' Shanghai branch have been scheming around lately, and they've finally made contact with the crude oil futures investment team..."

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, it was already around nine o'clock in the evening.

With only half an hour left before the US stock market opens, many traders in the trading area are already eager to get started.

Eagerly awaiting the opening of the US stock market so they can once again rake in wealth.

In fact, from the opening of Asian financial markets in the morning, to the opening of European financial markets in the afternoon, and now to the pre-market trading of US stocks.

The investment team at United Securities never stopped reaping profits, and heaven knows how much wealth they amassed.

The difference is that the investment groups that reaped profits in the Asian financial markets and swept through the European financial markets, and those that were sharpening their knives at night to harvest profits in the US stock market, were three different groups of traders.

The trading volume and enormous profits that can be earned in the US stock market far surpass those of Asian and European financial markets; the US stock market is the main battleground today.

Fifteen minutes passed as they spoke.

Just then, Ling Yun and Secretary Zhou finally came out of the office and walked straight into the trading area.

In just a few steps, Lingyun arrived at his workstation.

Then, picking up the microphone from his workstation, he smiled and said loudly:

"Hello everyone, tonight is going to be an incredibly exciting and sleepless night, guaranteed to get your adrenaline pumping and will be a highlight of your careers!"

"Now I'll talk about tonight's investment strategy. Tonight's goal is to target major European and American financial institutions and let these damned foreigners taste just how sharp our sickle is..."

"Hahaha"

The trading area suddenly erupted in cheers and laughter.

Everyone burst into laughter and was extremely excited.

Before the laughter subsided, everyone exclaimed in surprise again.

"Wow! A full-scale attack on major financial institutions in Europe and America, this guy is ruthless! But this whole thing sounds so exciting!"

"Extraordinary people do extraordinary things! I've been in the finance industry for seven or eight years, and I've never seen anyone this awesome!"

Just as everyone was discussing this, Ling Yun's clear voice rang out again.

"There's only one exception among financial institutions tonight: Merrill Lynch. Once Merrill Lynch's stock price falls to a certain level, we'll completely switch from short to long!"

"Other major European and American financial institutions are also our short-selling targets, with several key targets that I will tell you about later..."

As he said this, everyone became more and more excited.

Time is slipping away quietly, and the opening time of the US stock market is getting closer and closer!