American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 275 The Huge Gains After Leaving the Stage

Los Angeles, Century City, top-floor office of Singer Law Firm.

Marty Singh was standing in front of his huge floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the dazzling night view of Los Angeles.

But he wasn't looking at the scenery; instead, he was looking at the candlestick chart on his tablet, which was bulging wildly like the spine of a prehistoric behemoth.

He wasn't as restless as Scout, nor as aloof as Brian. He was like a patient vulture waiting for the scent of blood, his eyes gleaming with a terrifying light of excitement and greed.

When his untraceable private phone rang, he almost immediately pressed the answer button.

"Forest?"

"Marty, the party's over," Lin Yu'an's voice came through.

"Roger!" Marty's reply was short and forceful, like pulling a trigger. His voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement and a hint of bloodthirsty pleasure.

"My traders have already started executing the liquidation orders! They're using the ghost trading method we discussed before, selling option contracts in batches and in small amounts through twelve different anonymous accounts, ensuring that no single large transaction record is left in the market!"

He wasn't just carrying out orders; he even used his most professional legal risk avoidance techniques to optimize the execution process.

“Very good, a good trading method, I will also use it, thank you Marty.” Lin Yu’an affirmed his professionalism.

Marty couldn't help but burst into wild laughter, the sound echoing in the empty office, sounding somewhat manic. "Lin, we shoved a shit down the heads of those self-important bastards on Wall Street, and they couldn't even touch our shadow!"

"You know what? I just checked my account, and my nominal earnings have already... oh my God, they've exceeded thirty million!"

"This is only the end of the first act, Marty."

"That's right, that's right... You're right, the first act has ended, and the second act has just begun."

He walked to his desk, pressed the speakerphone button, and reported as he paced back and forth, "Lin, I have made all the preparations."

"My securities litigation team has analyzed over 500 pages of user agreements from major brokerages such as Robinhood and Interactive Brokers in the past 20 days, and found 17 legal loopholes that may contain misleading statements and invalid unilateral disclaimers."

There was a hint of smugness in his voice; he had fully embraced the role of a war legal advisor.

"Calm down, Marty." Lin Yu'an's voice was like a cold wind, calming his frenzied mind a little.

"It's too early to conclude whether our operation was perfect. The cake has only just been cut, and there will always be someone who wants to flip the table because they didn't get enough."

This sentence brought Marty's laughter to an abrupt halt.

“That’s right,” his tone became shrewd and sharp again, “you’re right, it’s time to party now, but the hangover and reckoning will always come.”

“The SEC will not let this go. Those hedge funds that have lost everything will work like mad dogs, hiring the best lawyers in the country to investigate this matter. They will search through all the transaction records, trying to find evidence.”

“So, we need a shield, Marty.” Lin Yu’an’s voice became incredibly serious. “An indestructible shield, the most expensive shield in the world. For me, for Scout, and for Brian.”

Marty understood what he meant; Lin Yu'an was considering their all-around escape route.

“Your team is well prepared.” Lin Yu’an’s voice carried a hint of approval. “The loopholes in the brokerage agreements you found are excellent weapons. But now, I need you to turn the gun around.”

"What do you mean?"

"Don't make us look like vultures eager to divide the spoils; it's too conspicuous. I need your team to start building a defensive matrix immediately."

"What you need to do is simulate the SEC and Wall Street lawyers to conduct a rigorous, hellish internal review of all the transactions between the three of us."

“Identify all the vulnerabilities that could be attacked, and then prepare at least three legal contingency plans for each vulnerability.”

"I need you to be our devil's advocate. Before the enemy can strike, attack ourselves in the most vicious way."

“Once, I mean once,” Lin Yu’an’s tone became extremely serious, “there is any investigation by any regulatory agency that points to any one of the three of us.”

"Your team must act like a pack of prehistoric behemoths armed to the teeth, mobilize immediately, and even rally retail investors to launch a class-action lawsuit! Use the loopholes you've found to launch an unprecedented legal counterattack against brokerages and hedge funds!"

“We need to make them understand,” Lin Yu’an’s voice carried a cold smile, “that investigating us will make them pay ten times more than the money they lost on GME.”

Marty fell completely silent on the other end of the phone.

“I understand… defense is the best offense.” Marty’s voice was hoarse.

"I'm glad we reached an agreement." Lin Yu'an's voice carried a hint of a smile.

He concluded by saying, "Then, my war legal counsel, begin to forge the strongest shield for us."

The call is interrupted.

After making three calls, Lin Yu'an casually tossed the encrypted satellite phone aside. Arya and Emily, who had been standing nervously at the study door, not daring to disturb him, then tiptoed in.

Arya looked at Lin Yu'an's calm profile, illuminated by the cold light of the screen, and asked softly, "Darling... how are they? Scout and the others..."

"They've all boarded the ship." Lin Yu'an didn't turn around, but simply reached out and took their hands, pulling them to her side.

“Now,” he took a deep breath, his voice low and powerful, “let’s end this war.”

He moved the mouse to the trading interface of his offshore trust securities account.

Arya and Emily leaned over at the same time, their three heads pressed tightly together, staring at the small screen.

At this point, GME's stock price chart had completely broken free from the constraints of all technical analysis. That green bullish candlestick, like a rocket ignited by the hand of God, shot wildly upwards!

$380... $450... $500! Every jump in the stock price represents tens of millions of dollars in book value growth.

Arya felt her heart pounding in her throat, and she even instinctively covered her mouth with her hand, afraid that she would scream out of nervousness.

She looked at the account value column, where the number had become an astronomical unit that she couldn't comprehend at all, and felt dizzy.

“Darling…it’s still rising! It’s still rising!” Her voice trembled with excitement.

“This is the last madness.” Lin Yu’an’s voice was like a block of ice thrown into boiling oil, instantly calming the atmosphere. “What you see is not value, but greed. And burning greed cannot last long.”

He pointed to the almost continuous stream of buy orders on the screen: "Look, everyone is buying now, no one is selling. This is not normal. It means that liquidity is drying up, and once the tide turns, there will be a stampede, and there won't even be a chance to escape."

He added, "Our stock quantity is too large, close to 600,000 shares. If we were to sell them all at once with a market order, it would not only lower our own average transaction price, but it would also immediately alert the SEC and everyone else."

Arya asked nervously, "Then... what should we do?"

"We must leave like ghosts, silently."

Emily's eyes lit up: "The Ghost Transaction Act?"

"Yes."

Lin Yu'an offered no further explanation; his fingers began to dance across the keyboard and mouse at an astonishing speed. He abandoned the simple trading interface and instead opened an extremely complex algorithmic trading module built into the trading software.

Dozens of parameter setting windows popped up on the screen instantly, filled with all sorts of terms that ordinary people would never understand: VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price), TWAP (Time Weighted Average Price), Iceberg Order...

"The core of Marty's Ghost Transaction Method is splitting and disguising." Lin Yu'an quickly set the parameters while giving a live demonstration to his two lovers beside him.

"First, splitting. I used an algorithm to split our total of 577 shares into 777 independent, random small orders, each ranging from 500 to 3000 shares."

His finger hovered over a dropdown menu called "Execution Logic," where he selected a complex option. "Then, disguise it. We can't act like a panicked retail investor, frantically placing sell orders."

"We want the algorithm to mimic a high-frequency trader. It will automatically place buy and sell orders at the best bid and ask prices simultaneously, and quickly cancel and re-place orders to create the illusion of normal market fluctuations."

"But the real killer move is in the Iceberg Order. This command will hide each of our sub-orders once again." He clicked the final confirmation button.

"For example, if there is a sell order for 2000 shares, only 100 shares will be displayed in the market. Only after these 100 shares are traded will the next 100 shares appear automatically, until all 2000 shares have been traded."

"Like an iceberg floating on the sea, everyone can only see a small part on the surface, but they will never know how much volume is hidden below the surface."

“Through these three layers of disguise,” he set the last parameter and pressed the button to start the algorithm.

"Now, our massive sell order of nearly 600,000 shares will flow silently into the market's frenzied buying river, like countless tiny streams, without causing a ripple, until our position is completely cleared."

As he pressed the button, the data stream on the screen began to scroll wildly at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye. Countless buy, sell, and cancel orders were automatically completed within milliseconds.

Arya and Emily were completely stunned. They felt as if they were witnessing not a stock trade, but a digital war dominated by code and algorithms, filled with sophisticated calculations and the art of deception.

Lin Yu'an leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and calmly watched the decreasing number of shares on the screen, like a general who had just commanded a vast army.

50 shares... 40 shares... 20 shares...

The entire process lasted nearly fifteen minutes. During those fifteen minutes, GME's stock price, fueled by countless retail investors, surged from $480 to a staggering $550.

Finally, when the number of holdings on the screen became a huge "0", the algorithm automatically stopped running.

A deathly silence fell over the study.

Lin Yu stared quietly at the final number for a long time before letting out a long sigh of relief. She leaned back in her chair, finally relaxing her tense nerves completely.

Arya stared blankly at the screen, repeatedly counting the string of zeros, feeling as if her brain had completely shut down.

Emily leaned down and gently kissed his forehead before turning her gaze to the screen that had created the miracle, and softly read aloud:

"Initial principal: US$12,999,982.50."

"Final total sales amount: $303,332,925."

"Based on algorithmic trading within the $480-$550 range, the average selling price is approximately $525."

Gross profit: 290 million US dollars...

"Oh my god..." Arya finally found her voice and murmured to herself, "We...we're billionaires?"

“It’s not that simple, darling.” Lin Yu’an, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. He pointed to the numbers on the screen with a smile on his face. “Don’t forget, Uncle Sam hasn’t come to collect taxes yet.”

Emily immediately realized what was going on. She frowned, displaying her calm wisdom: "Yes, this profit is a short-term capital gain because our holding period is far less than a year."

"Under federal tax law, it will be considered ordinary income and subject to the highest level of personal income tax."

She quickly did the mental calculations: "At the current highest federal tax rate of 37%, plus state taxes... we might have to pay more than $100 million in taxes!"

One hundred million dollars! This figure made Arya, who was just immersed in joy, gasp in shock.

Lin Yu'an looked at Emily with approval in his eyes, "So, that's why we chose to use an offshore trust account registered in the British Virgin Islands for the transactions from the very beginning."

Emily immediately grasped the key point: "It's a world-renowned tax haven! For overseas income earned by non-residents, the capital gains tax is... zero!"

“Absolutely correct.” Lin Yu’an snapped his fingers. “Of course, when we need to transfer this money back to the United States in a legal manner in the future, there will still be some tax issues involved.”

"But this gives us a lot of room to maneuver. We can control the final tax rate to a very low level, or even negligible level, by setting up family foundations, making long-term value investments, or taking advantage of various tax credit policies."

"So..." Arya was completely confused. She only cared about the final result, "After deducting all possible fees and taxes, how much will we ultimately get... approximately?"

Lin Yu'an looked at her, slowly raised two fingers, and then made an eight gesture.

“Two hundred and eighty million US dollars.” He gave a figure that was still incredibly shocking even after deducting all miscellaneous expenses, “a clean, freely disposable amount of… two hundred and eighty million.”

Two hundred and eighty million US dollars!
This figure is no longer just a gross profit subject to huge tax payments. It's a real net worth that can be used to buy farms, airplanes, and realize all your dreams!

It's equivalent to a private jet fleet of four or five top-of-the-line Gulfstream G650s, or buying the entire top floor of several legendary buildings on Central Park West in Manhattan, or... enough to buy dozens of small towns like Wiesman, where they now live, off the map.

Arya completely gave up thinking and threw herself into Lin Yu'an's arms, as happy as a child.

Just then, the opal-like glimmer of light outside the window seemed to have gathered enough strength to finally break free from the horizon.

A ray of pale golden sunlight pierced through the clouds, crossed the boundless snowfield and coniferous forest, and for the first time shone into the study that had been shrouded in darkness for so long, casting a warm and bright spot of light on the three people embracing each other.

The polar night is over.

“Look…” Arya pointed out the window with delight, her voice tinged with excitement, “The sun… the sun is back.”

Lin Yu'an slowly stood up. He did not let go of his two lovers in his arms. Instead, he held one in each arm and hugged them tightly as they walked together to the huge French windows.

He pushed open the heavy window.

A refreshing breeze carrying the scent of snow and pine immediately rushed in, invigorating everyone.

“So beautiful…” Aria leaned on Lin Yu’an’s shoulder.

“Yes,” Emily sighed softly, pressing her cheek against Lin Yu’an’s other chest, where she could clearly hear his steady and powerful heartbeat.

At this moment, the cold and enormous number on the screen seemed to have become unimportant.

The $280 million fortune seemed to pale in comparison to the real sunlight before him, and the warmth and heartbeat of his beloved in his arms.

Wealth is for protecting this beauty, not for beauty itself.

"I love you all." Lin Yu'an lowered her head and placed a deep kiss on each of their foreheads.

"We love you too." The two responded in unison, then looked at each other and smiled, overflowing with happiness.

Lin Yu'an held them in his arms, gazing at the magnificent sunrise in the distance, his heart filled with an unprecedented sense of peace and boundless anticipation for the future.

(End of this chapter)