National Tide 1980.

"Great! The market is still rebounding. In just ten minutes after the opening, we've already pushed the stock price up to 21,500 yen without much effort. Right now, there are only small buy orders at the top. Let's wait a bit longer. Once the buying pressure weakens and we take a break, we'll go all in and push the price up by 500 yen."

February 22nd, ten minutes before the market opened in the morning.

Seeing that the situation was going well, Iwasawa, having given his orders, was finally in a good mood and went to enjoy the coffee his female subordinate brought him.

However, after a while, he had only taken a few bites when the subordinate who was in charge of placing the order by phone reported bad news.

"Minister, we're in trouble. We placed an order for 50 million yen worth of goods, but the price has actually fallen instead of rising."

"what happened?"

Iwazawa tensed up and immediately checked the market data displayed on the screen.

Another subordinate, who was specifically responsible for monitoring the market, immediately explained the situation to him.

"At the price of 21,300 yen, a large sell order suddenly appeared. Not counting the orders that were cleared, there was still 50,000 shares left."

Iwasawa hesitated for a moment; he now had two choices.

First, we should immediately invest funds to help it recover.

Secondly, we should observe the market sentiment and wait until other buyers have filled this order before making a decision.

The overall market is doing well, even a giant like Mitsubishi Estate is rebounding.

He believed that Lehman Brothers would not do something so foolish as to go against the trend when it was so obvious, as that would obviously be counterproductive.

He also didn't believe that most people holding EIE stock would be willing to sell at a low price at this time.

The key point is that he is unwilling to spend the not-so-abundant funds on the books so early.

Perhaps it's just a large investor seeking stability who's afraid of a short-term correction today and couldn't wait to rush in and exit.

"Let's wait and see. This order will probably be snapped up by retail investors soon. Ignore it. It's only a few tens of thousands of shares, nothing much."

Iwasawa made a decision.

But a moment later, the subordinates gave a follow-up report.

"Minister, the market seems to be digesting information rather slowly. The stock price is trending downwards. If we don't intervene soon, it might trigger panic among retail investors."

The subordinate said with some concern, "While it's good to shake out weak hands, we're in a sensitive, unsettled period right now. If it falls before it even rises, won't that trigger a chain reaction? Wouldn't that be detrimental to our upward push? Even if those who took profits in the last two days liquidate and chase other stocks, it will still drain our capital..."

That makes sense.

The market is currently in a low-volume phase, and many people are observing the market.

I'm not afraid of anything else, but I am afraid that at this moment, while other stocks are rising, EIE is falling. That would be too conspicuous and might really make retail investors who are easily swayed lose confidence in holding the stock.

Iwasawa kept his head down in silence, staring at the board for a while before finally making his decision.

"Then let's just swallow it whole and pull it up in one go. The target is still an increase of 500 yen. The key is to create an upward trend. Within 20 minutes, let's first pull the price up to 21,800 yen. That should be enough to catch up with Mitsubishi Estate's increase."

The overall situation is of utmost importance. When the trend has not yet reassured retail investors, momentum is indeed very important. Yanze also believes that it is safer to wait for the price to rise first.

Fifty thousand shares, just over a billion yen, plus the upward surge, would require another billion yen.

Given the amount of cash they have on hand, if they can really push up the stock price, this price is worth it.

…………

Meanwhile, in the VIP room of Daiwa Securities Central District Branch.

Ning Weimin's trader reported to Ning Weimin, who was enjoying jasmine tea and reading the newspaper.

"Our sell order of 50,000 shares was swallowed up in one go. EIE International's price has now rebounded by 100 yen."

"Wow, they're quite decisive, reacting so quickly? But this also seems to indicate that someone is afraid the stock price will drop..."

Ning Weimin, who was personally overseeing the scene, showed no signs of nervousness or trepidation. He didn't even put down the newspaper in his hand, and soon, while flipping through the newspaper, he casually issued new instructions.

"Let's watch their performance first. Once they stop pulling, we'll dump more shares, this time to exactly 21,000 yen. Then we'll add another 40,000 shares. A little less than last time, just to tease them, don't scare them, we still need to keep them hoping a little bit."

As the saying goes, "With food at home, one has nothing to fear."

Ning Weimin's confidence stems from the trillions of yen he earned by snowballing through the stock market crash, enough to buy the entire EIE.

It was also because some time before he returned from China, he quietly bought nearly six million shares at low prices using his Daiwa Securities account.

If you do the math, his average cost per share is less than 20,000 yen, and the total amount of money he spent is only a little over 100 billion yen.

So no matter how you look at it, he is already in an invincible position.

Besides, his efforts to drive down the stock price were simply to buy it back at a cheaper price.

Even if it causes temporary paper losses, it doesn't matter.

As long as he controls the stock price, he can always bring it back up, so he'll still make a profit.

It was his first time being the dealer, and he really enjoyed being a strong dealer, playing dumb to outmaneuver the enemy.

Manipulating the market is so satisfying; it's a sure way to make money.

As for wasting the other party's funds in this struggle for control of the stock price, that's something that has to be done, there's nothing to say about it.

Moreover, based on his understanding of Harunori Takahashi's personality, there was no way that guy wouldn't use high leverage.

In other words, he simply wants to prevent the stock price from rising any further, allowing it to slowly decline without giving the other party any chance to save itself.

As long as he can weather the current market rebound and then the next sharp drop into the abyss begins, he will definitely win, and win big.

The other party will be completely destroyed by their own financial problems and enormous financial pressure.

This was his revenge plan, which could almost be considered a calculated scheme, requiring no special trading skills whatsoever.

Sure enough, in the current market, the more Ning Weimin is doing well, the more uncomfortable his counterparties are.

Iwasawa never expected that after they had swallowed those 50,000 shares and just pushed the stock price to their target of 21,800 yen, he hadn't even had five minutes to relax.

Then another storm of selling ensued.

Moreover, this sell-off not only pushed the stock price down by another 300 yen from its low point, but also brought it down to the psychologically important 21,000 yen mark.

They even put another 40,000 shares on the market, which is absolutely infuriating.

The key issue is that they really can't wait in this situation.

After observing for a few minutes, Iwasawa discovered that the selling pressure from those following the trend was significantly greater than the buying pressure. The 40,000 orders had only been reduced by 2,000 at first, but then began to increase again, and now it had become 43,000, almost 44,000.

If you hesitate any longer, the price might drop again, possibly falling below 21,000 yen.

For such integer thresholds, the cost of attack and defense is higher than for ordinary points.

Once the stock price goes down, it means it's impossible to know how much money it will take to bring it back up.

Iwasawa didn't have the guts to take that risk.

Therefore, in order to give those holding and observing the market confidence, they can only continue to absorb the pending orders and quickly push the price up to get away from the round number level.

"Buy, buy, hurry up and buy them!"

However, before they could push the price up much after these buy orders were absorbed, another large sell order appeared. This time, the price was driven down to 20,500 yen, with 30,000 shares available for sell.

Iwasawa was incredibly frustrated by the opponent's move, and so angry that he wanted to kill someone.

At this point, he was absolutely certain that someone was deliberately working against him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't determine the origins of the person targeting him.

After much thought, I still believe that it was just Lehman Brothers targeting me.

He didn't suspect Ning Weimin at all, which led to his continued misjudgment.

By 10:30, the price battle raged on at this critical price level for over twenty minutes, with both sides seemingly having roughly equal financial strength and neither able to gain the upper hand.

However, the market is still in a rebound phase, and the trend is upward.

After 10:30, the market index, which had been consolidating, continued to accelerate its upward trend, driven by real estate stocks, and the situation began to turn in Iwasawa's favor.

For him, it seemed that he had observed a rather positive phenomenon.

The current price seems to have gained market acceptance, and the long-accumulated, slowly increasing order book has begun to decrease spontaneously and gradually.

50,000... 47,000... 43,000... 40,000... 36,000...

It seems that some retail investors who were following the trend have cancelled their orders, while those who were holding cash and watching from the sidelines have already become restless and started to buy at the bottom.

Then Iwasawa looked at other companies that had also been the subject of short-selling reports by Lehman Brothers.

I noticed that those stocks were mostly down at the start of the morning session, but now they're all in the green, with one even starting a sharp rise.

His emotions finally eased – it seemed that Lehman Brothers' short-selling power had waned.

Although I don't know why, it's a good thing that the other party chose to cash out and leave this morning.

Once they sell, there shouldn't be any large-scale forces that can interfere with them anymore.

Americans are really cunning. Perhaps they are also optimistic about the market outlook, and this may be their last short position to be sold.

Having made his judgment, Iwasawa ordered it to be swallowed up again.

By this time, the morning trading session was almost over and the market was about to close.

When the market reopened in the afternoon, just as Iwasawa had hoped, there was no longer the strong short-selling pressure that had been present in the morning.

Iwasawa successfully raised the stock price to around 22,400 yen within an hour.

Subsequently, despite the market gradually declining, he successfully used the sideways consolidation at this price level to create a platform for adjustment.

This will not only reduce the cost of capital, but also set the stage for further upward movement tomorrow.

Ultimately, he planned to push the price up slightly at the end of the trading day, closing at 22,700 yen, which would save him the most money.

After all, today's expenses have already exceeded expectations.

With only a 5% increase, it has already consumed about 30 billion yuan of funds. And this is just the beginning. If it continues like this every day, its funds will be exhausted in a week at most.

Forget about raising the stock price by 80%, even raising it by 30% would be good, or the president would be in for a world of hurt.
Therefore, he had to be careful with his money and find clever ways to use it wisely.

But then again, everything is difficult at the beginning, and confidence is more valuable than funds.

It's worthwhile as long as the stock price maintains its upward trend.

Once more followers join the trend, the stock price will rise accordingly, and he will have more and more funds and means at his disposal, and then everything will be activated.

Moreover, although the president has a bad temper, he is genuinely generous. I believe that once this matter is settled, I will receive a considerable reward. It shouldn't be too difficult to ask the president for an idol or singer signed with Jiaochuan Entertainment Company to play with.

When the executive director retires, the future executive director position in the group might just be his. If that happens, he'll truly be a top executive in the group...

However, just as he was envisioning the future, finding it increasingly beautiful and relaxing, the situation suddenly changed.

In the last twenty minutes before the market closed, EIE International's stock price suddenly and unexpectedly began to plummet.

With a near-straight downward trajectory, the stock price once fell below the 20,000 yen mark, approaching 19,500 yen.

The 5% increase turned into a 7% decrease.

Trading volume also increased rapidly in tandem.

Even with Iwasawa's emergency bailout and the massive spending of over 10 billion yen, the stock price was only barely pulled back to 20,000 yen, closing down 5%.

However, seeing the large order of over 1.7 million shares hanging above the 20,000 yen mark, Iwasawa was not only completely dumbfounded, but also utterly terrified.

He simply didn't have the courage to have his subordinates throw in another 40 billion yen to bring the stock price back up.

To make matters worse, at this very moment, Harunori Takahashi also took time out of his busy schedule to come here to check on the closing of the market.

Needless to say, when he saw the stock price displayed on the screen, Harunori Takahashi was also stunned into silence.

Then came an angry question: "What exactly happened? Iwasawa, you've kept me anxious all day, and this is the result you want to show me?"

"No, no, President, things were going very well today. We had already raised the stock price by 5%, but then we were attacked a few minutes ago. It was a momentary lapse in judgment that..."

Harunori Takahashi immediately delivered a powerful slap.

"Damn it, I'm not listening to these useless explanations. I'm just asking you, what should we do now? Can you even bring the stock price back up?"

“I…I…I…” Iwasawa could almost see the stars in the sky.

Fortunately, just as Iwasawa was covering his face and stammering, his subordinates came to report the latest situation.

"Minister, it seems that all the sell orders from the other party have been withdrawn. The trading volume is not large, only a little over 500,000 shares."

"Raise the price! Raise it quickly! Bring the stock price back up!"

Iwasawa immediately grasped at a straw and turned to report to Takahashi Harunori.

"President, it's alright, it's really alright. This must be a deliberate illusion created by the other party, because these sell orders are not intended to be completed at all."

"What do you mean?"

"This is usually a tactic used by funds with insufficient strength to grab cheap shares. At the very last moment before the market closes each day, they deliberately place large sell orders at safe price levels—depending on their purpose, using fake sell or buy orders to create the illusion of a continued 'sharp drop' or 'hot' market. This allows them to buy low or sell high for profit. The large sell order just now was probably meant to lure retail investors into buying, but as soon as the trading volume increased and they couldn't control it, they withdrew. They were afraid their sell orders would be absorbed, which shows that the other party lacks strength; they're just a rat in the gutter. They can't truly fight against the market trend..."

Listening to Iwasawa's explanation, and seeing the stock price begin to rise smoothly and head back toward the opening price, although it was unlikely to rise significantly due to time constraints, it was very likely to close in the green.

Takahashi Harunori's anger was finally brought under control by reason. "Iwasawa, you piece of trash. I'll trust you one last time. If you disappoint me again tomorrow, you can prepare to resign..."

Faced with Takahashi Harunori's warning, Iwasawa bowed respectfully, his face pale. He knew this was practically an ultimatum, and his life was in grave danger.

"Yes, President, I will definitely not make the same mistake again."

However, at the same time, Ning Weimin's side was in a completely different situation.

In the VIP room of Daiwa Securities, the accounting staff had almost finished calculating today's trading accounts.

"Chairman, today we sold 730,000 shares at an average price of around 21,000 yen, resulting in a profit increase of 1.195 billion yen..."

Ning Weimin immediately called Nomura Securities to inquire about Kenichi Sagawa's trading results. "Chairman, we bought 596,800 shares today, at an average price of 20,300 yen." (End of Chapter)