What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 553 Reaction (4k)

Short selling in the Japanese stock market is relatively inactive globally, but in the first quarter of this year, the scale of short selling in the stock market once reached 42.3% of the trading volume, a new high since 2008.

According to data disclosed by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, financial stocks and export-oriented companies, including automakers, are the targets of concentrated short-selling bets.

This is believed to be related to a series of short-selling actions by the company in Japan.

Although Japan has an upward price order system that requires short sellers to offer prices higher than the previous transaction price, which provides a framework for institutional constraints, it mainly addresses technical selling. It aims to prevent short sellers from using funds to create a vicious cycle of "panic selling → price crash → low-price cover-up," thereby reducing market volatility.

However, you can only guard against it for a while, not forever.

The method of short selling through peaks is more about pointing out the fundamental problems of listed companies. It is not a "short squeeze" but a deliberate sell-off by institutional and individual investors after they lose confidence in the stock, which ultimately results in a "long squeeze".

If the root cause is the problem, everything else is trivial. The price that should have fallen to its bottom will eventually return to where it should be. However, the two different falling processes will allow the short sellers to gain different profits.

Meanwhile, the attitude of Japanese regulators appears to be very firm this time: to prevent problems if possible!

Prior to the latest temporary measures, Japan's regulatory threshold for short selling of stocks required internal reporting when short positions reached 0.2% of outstanding shares, and public disclosure when the threshold was raised to 0.5%. Now, the threshold has been changed to require public disclosure at 0.2%, a significant change.

This emergency policy adjustment was undoubtedly very eye-catching. Although the mountain peak appeared late at night, its presence and the Japanese side's reaction still aroused excitement among many media outlets and netizens.

Like Li Song, a short-seller, everyone felt that Japan's reaction to Guo Shanfeng was excessive and practically an admission of guilt.

Even if it's a mountain peak, even if it's the king of short sellers, there's no need to change policies so hastily, right?
New related questions have appeared on Zhihu's trending list, and a group of night owls on Baixiaosheng are also making fun of the situation.

However, unexpectedly, voices of opposition and criticism emerged in the United States during the daytime.

Goldman Sachs' chief macro researcher, Valentine, tweeted that the Japanese Financial Services Agency's policy changes would directly impact market confidence, and that such temporary and hasty changes would damage market mechanisms, requiring a reconsideration of countermeasures.

He then gave a telephone interview to The Wall Street Journal, reiterating his views that Japan's temporary controls were short-sighted and that its arbitrary changes to its own policies would cause more profound damage than shorting at the peak.

Coincidentally, a Morgan Stanley executive also criticized the Japanese Financial Services Agency's temporary policy as flawed, arguing that it would exacerbate market concerns about Toshiba's financial situation.

It was daytime in the United States, but the reappearance of the mountain peak made the other side of the ocean seem even more lively.

The mastermind, still lurking in the dead of night, closely monitored the reactions and felt... something was amiss.

This time, Liu Wanying did not fly to Hong Kong or Singapore as usual, but instead took control directly in Lingang. Yu Xing, who was with her, took on the role of information gathering.

The Japanese stock market is not easy to short, but there is one advantage to shorting Japanese stocks: you don't have to deal with time difference, so you can check the stock situation there as soon as you wake up.

As information from both the Japanese and American sides gradually came together, Liu Wanying's brows furrowed. When she saw Yu Xing, who seemed lost in thought, she said directly, "Don't you think the Financial Services Agency's reaction was a little too swift?"

After the mountain peak released its short-selling report, the Japanese Financial Services Agency completed a meeting and determined and released temporary measures within half an hour. Regardless of the good or bad impact of such measures, the efficiency alone is indeed too high.

Now, there are even rumors from Wall Street that further details of the measures will be announced tomorrow, and the exchange's internal reporting threshold for short positions will be changed from the current 0.2% to 0.1% of the outstanding shares.

Yu Xing nodded slightly: "I also think it seems very certain. Just like the jokes on the forum, Toshiba hasn't confirmed it yet, but the Financial Services Agency seems to have already determined the correctness of our short-selling report, which makes Guo Shanfeng seem too authoritative."

Liu Wanying pressed further, "So, what do you think?"

“I think it’s possible that they already have an internal investigation in place.” Yu Xing directly stated his guess, and then added, “Toshiba released its financial report last month, and its stock price was falling. Some Japanese media also felt that Toshiba’s finances had some problems. If that’s the case, they may have already started the internal investigation process, and may have even reached a conclusion. So, there’s a chance that our short selling was because we stumbled upon what they were already discussing.”

Guo Shanfeng earned the title of "King of Short Sellers" due to his short selling of car companies.

Yu Xing certainly found the nickname interesting, but he still had "Lingang Dual Carbon Silicon" in hand and was not indulging in the influence of "King of Short Sellers." On the contrary, he didn't usually need it, so he would examine it more rigorously at this moment.

After all, it is a country's financial department, responsible for a huge market. Would they have confronted the mountain peak so quickly and solemnly?
Based on the combined reactions from various parties and the information from short sellers, he came to a bold guess—Toshiba's fraud may have become a semi-public secret within Japan.

Liu Wanying did not immediately agree. She nodded after reviewing the information compiled on the screen again: "It is indeed possible. The Financial Services Agency has become more stringent in its investigation and control of short-selling funds in the stock market. Fortunately, most of the funds this time were invested in Nikkei and ETFs."

This isn't the first time Guoshanfeng has tried shorting in Japan. He's had previous experiences being bogged down by the country's policies, and some of his funds are still frozen.

There wasn't 100% certainty about this shorting of Toshiba. According to Liu Wanying, this shorting attempt wasn't quite as high as expected, but it was still top-notch among her peers.

They were still confident that Toshiba had indeed committed fraud, so they used Nikkei 225 futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade and Nikkei 225 futures contracts on the Singapore Exchange as short-selling tools, because Toshiba is a weighted stock in the Nikkei 225 index.

If Toshiba's stock price collapses, it will inevitably lead to a decline in the Nikkei index.

At the same time, because Toshiba is also in the electronics and semiconductor industry, it also bets on the chain reaction it brings through electronics industry ETFs.

The temporary controls imposed by Japan's Financial Services Agency were indeed targeted, but only a small portion of the funds used by Guoshanfeng were used to directly short Toshiba. The majority of the funds were deployed in overseas derivatives markets, and the company also intended to spend more time monitoring the collapse of Toshiba's stock price.

Regulators are still tracking down the mountain, while the mountain is also considering how to more effectively avoid it and obtain the profits it deserves.

Liu Wanying spends her free time researching this, and also uses her status as the boss of Red Falcon to intentionally or unintentionally communicate with people in the same field, as well as simultaneously seek opinions from institutions in various markets.

Yu Xing sometimes felt that Xiao Ying wasn't seeking to expand her funds, but was simply addicted to short selling.

At 1 a.m., domestic forums gradually quieted down, Wall Street was still discussing the emergence of the peak, European media were looking forward to the emergence of more Japanese companies involved in fraud, and relevant personnel in Japan had to get up and work overtime.

"I can go to sleep now. Let's see what Toshiba's response is tomorrow," Yu Xing yawned.

Liu Wanying hooked her arm around Yu Xing's neck, still full of energy: "I'll watch for a while longer, you go to sleep first, I don't have a meeting tomorrow."

Yu Xing felt sleepy, and since he did have things to do the next day, he decided to go to bed first. However, he had only taken a few steps when he suddenly heard a light, airy voice behind him.

Liu Wanying looked at the screen and said, "I've been researching the Indian market a lot lately. Perhaps we could try shorting the Indian currency."

Yu Xing was instantly wide awake. The first thing that came to mind wasn't the content of that sentence. He turned around and exclaimed in surprise, "You want to be Soros?"

He thought of the infamous Southeast Asian financial crisis.

“If Soros can do it, why can’t the king of short selling do it?” Liu Wanying said with a smile. “It doesn’t matter who it is, it’s all about whether there’s an opportunity. Even if there is an opportunity, it’s not like Soros can amass a large amount of funds. I just think there are some policy loopholes in India that can be exploited, but it’s not necessarily going to be aimed at the rupee.”

Yu Xing pondered the matter, not seeing any problem with this discovery; it was normal for the Indian market to be imperfect.

But he still thought of George Soros, who later apparently shorted India but with little success, and also of the well-known issues of frozen foreign capital in India.

Yu Xing pondered for a moment and said carefully, "You think the rules are immature and want to take advantage of this immaturity, which is understandable. However, have you considered that this immaturity is in the hands of the other party, just like the Japanese Financial Services Agency this time, which imposed temporary controls as it pleased?"

Liu Wanying said earnestly, "That makes sense."

Yu Xing waited a while but received no further response: "Hmm? And then?"

"That's all. It still needs further research. What you said makes sense. We can talk about this again when there's a more suitable opportunity and a greater chance of success," Liu Wanying said with a smile. "I'm not going to do it now. I just mentioned it. You should go to sleep first."

Yu Xing blinked, then couldn't help but yawn: "Okay, Liu Luosi, don't stay out too late."

Liu Wanying waved her hand, signaling Yu Xing to go back to his room.

She refreshed the Japanese side's response, but didn't get any more information. She then searched for the Indian rupee NDF market and fell into deep thought.

The next day, Yu Xing woke up very early and turned his head to see Xiao Ying fast asleep.

He patted Xiaoying gently, then quickly finished washing up, ate a simple breakfast, and went to the company.

Liu Chiping joining MUS is a major event in the industry, and there are some internal adjustments to be made within Silicon Carbon Data as well. However, MUS is registered in Singapore and targets overseas markets. The industry's reaction is due to his status as the former president of Tencent, but they are not aware of the competition that MUS will bring.

Yu Xing attended several carbon silicon data meetings because of Liu Chiping's decision, and this morning he supplemented the discussions at the carbon silicon group.

Carbon Silicon Kyushu is about to participate in the Shanghai Auto Show, which will be its first auto show. The company is confident that Kyushu's popularity will continue, at least in Shanghai and the East China market.

By late April, all 10 newly established direct-sale stores of Silicon Carbon Group in East China had opened quickly, adopting the standard store model to absorb the traffic from the previous flagship stores.

Meanwhile, the carbon silicon weekly rankings continued, and the industry gradually got used to it. This was mainly because the rankings for the three consecutive weeks in April were in the same position. Under the description of "starting from 200,000", Kyushu was always ranked third. It was still a long way to go before it could break through the rankings of Buick and Audi.

Yu Xingchen discussed the auto show arrangements, and as the meeting drew to a close, he asked a small question.

"I saw our ad yesterday. Who was in charge of that ad that showcases space? They had six big men sitting inside it."

Upon hearing the boss's tone, Yue Jingyi, the deputy marketing director, nervously raised his hand.

“The Kyushu six-seater is a family-oriented car. I’m not trying to criticize, but what kind of family car is used by six grown men? If you want to emphasize the family positioning, even if you want to highlight the space, it’s for men, women, young and old. You need to always pay attention to how our competitive positioning is reflected.” Yu Xing pointed out the problem. “The establishment and communication of a brand are intangible. I think you need to think about this idea carefully.”

Yue Jingyi immediately admitted his mistake, admitting that he had only considered space and had not taken into account the overall character of the vehicle.

Yu Xing glanced at the time and laughed, "The advertisement isn't very well made either. Let's leave it as it is. I still want to see how Guo Shanfeng shorts Toshiba."

Laughter filled the meeting room.

Vice President Cui Zhiyu then added, "Toshiba's stock price is about to drop by 2%. This 'peak' must be from an informant within Toshiba."

There is a time difference between Tokyo and Beijing. Yu Xing saw the Tokyo stock market open at 8 o'clock, and Toshiba's market value plummeted by 5 points as soon as it opened, instantly wiping out $13 billion in market value. Then, within an hour, it dropped by 20%.

Compared to the swift response from Japan's Financial Services Agency, Toshiba's delayed response appears remarkably slow, but the market has already voted with its votes.

If Guo Shanfeng says you've fabricated something, then you've probably done so.

If you don't even refute it, then you're definitely faking it!
Yu Xing did not discuss it in front of everyone, but simply announced the adjournment of the meeting and chatted with Cui Zhiyu for a few words.

Just as he was about to return to his office to study the matter carefully, he heard Cui Zhiyu's astonished voice from behind.

"A Toshiba employee committed seppuku in front of the company gate!"

Yu Xing stopped in his tracks and turned to see Cui Zhiyu looking at his phone.

Cui Zhiyu muttered the latest news: "Toshiba's internal auditor, Shimaoka Sei, committed seppuku at the company gate... He has been sent to the hospital. Good heavens, was this a voluntary or involuntary seppuku... Has the informant from Guoshanfeng been found yet?"

Yu Xing frowned, shook his head and sighed, "He died because of crossing the mountain peak, even if we don't kill him."

Cui Zhiyu disagreed: "President Yu, you're wrong. Toshiba didn't kill him, but he died because of Toshiba."

He paused, then chuckled, "Tsk, Toshiba's stock price has rebounded a bit, it's even risen!"

(End of this chapter)