Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 217 *Slap!*
"Ningbo Daredevils"

"In 1997, 100,000 yuan, 30 times."

"Hundreds of millions in five years."

"A net worth of several hundred million"

Discussions about Xu Xiang could be heard from every corner of the venue.

His early rise to wealth was already well-known in the financial world thanks to a CCTV report on the "Ningbo Daredevils".

This is true legend.

Xu Xiang is no saint. He started working in society after junior high school. Over the years, his employees, stock recommenders, and even his fleet partners have all been subjected to his scathing criticism. When have they ever been insulted like this?

He wanted to stand up and yell, but the people next to him pulled him back down to sit.

At this moment, Lu Xiaochun, who was sitting in the first row, also stood up, glanced in Xu Xiang's direction, and quickly spread his hands towards Chen Xuebing on the stage with a confused expression, indicating that he had not invited him.

Chen Xuebing coughed lightly, smiled faintly, and gestured for the audience to sit down.

"Please be quiet, everyone. It seems that Xiao Lin didn't introduce Master Xu just now. I have to criticize him. Does he not consider him an insider? He is a well-known speculative investor. Let me help Xiao Lin with the introduction. Mr. Xu, please don't be angry."

Chen Xuebing's words served both to calm the situation and to point out that Xu Xiang was not an institutional investor, but merely a speculative investor.

Some people with "high standards" like to categorize people in this inexplicable way, and when they hear that it's a quack's method, they immediately become disdainful.

Chen Xuebing's words were polite, but Xu Xiang was caught off guard by a subtle attack and didn't know how to respond. The people next to him were also whispering something, which softened his expression, and the scene quieted down for a moment.

Chen Xuebing had studied Xu Xiang's tactics in his previous life and knew a great deal about his personal experiences, but he didn't think Xu Xiang was someone who would suffer a loss. Xu Xiang was suspicious and irritable, with a typical "someone is always trying to harm me" personality. Yet, he was persuaded by someone.

He paid special attention to the face of the person next to Xu Xiang, and found that he really didn't recognize him, before continuing to talk from the PPT.

The content of a PPT is actually just some formulaic stuff.

Company establishment date, equity structure, assets under management, and trading infrastructure (low latency trading, brokerage rebates).

Next is the team introduction, core investment research direction, and trading strategy.

"Long March Capital's past trading focus has primarily been on non-ferrous metals, defense, real estate, and consumer sectors, employing an ALHP neutral strategy. The newly established TMT Growth Fund will primarily focus on the internet and semiconductor sectors. The core investment research team is led by Mr. Cai Zhijian, former senior manager at PwC and chief strategy officer at Citibank, ensuring high investment professionalism."

This is where the importance of a high-end talent becomes apparent. Long March Capital doesn't have any particularly prominent figures to speak of right now, so they're borrowing Cai Zhijian's past titles here, and the investors below all nodded in agreement.

These days, domestic capital market systems are all copied from others, and highly qualified overseas returnees are highly sought after.

Xu Xiang, however, felt that the phrase "investment professionalism" seemed to be directed at him.

Regarding his level of education.

"Ha, I thought you were going to talk about something amazing, an Alpha neutral strategy?"

Xu Xiang spoke again, but this time he didn't stand up. Instead, he leaned back in his chair with his legs crossed, looking disdainful, and said:

"You dare to call it an Alpha-neutral strategy? What is your hedging model? Have you established positions in the futures market? Where are you hedging your positions against Baosteel Securities' betting positions?"

Alpha neutral strategy, simply put, is a trading model of hedge funds. It is a stable strategy that stabilizes returns by simultaneously building long and short positions. Chen Xuebing frowned when he read it. This kind of thing is difficult to operate in China at present because there is no ETF index and no short selling mechanism. Hedging can only be done through the futures market of the corresponding industry. For example, if you buy steel industry stocks, you have to sell some steel in the futures market.

However, the current futures market does not include steel, and Xu Xiang immediately got to the heart of the matter.

Lu Xiaochun probably thought that saying it made it sound more sophisticated, so he even prepared a PowerPoint presentation for him, and all he could do was read along with it.

Besides, which fund with high returns would actually reveal its trading strategies to everyone?

Chen Xuebing was a little annoyed and said with a forced smile, "Mr. Xu only has a junior high school education and is not an institutional person. He trades stocks based on his feelings. I didn't expect that he had studied for a few days and even knows about Alpha. I wonder if you can understand the original English books on the subject? Are you reading the translated version? Otherwise, after I finish speaking, we can discuss it slowly later?"

These words really hit Xu Xiang where it hurt.

He's planning to start a private equity firm and needs to raise funds. Now that word has spread that he only has a junior high school education, how the hell is he going to survive?

Seeing people start laughing, he stood up, pointed at Chen Xuebing, and roared, "Damn it, what qualifications do you have to question me? When I was trading stocks, you were just a nobody! A 30% return is nothing special? Do you know my average annual return? One thousand percent! Ten times!! I do it all the same, in bull and bear markets!"

That's absolutely true.

Others may not know exactly how much money Xu Xiang has now, but many people in later generations have deciphered the secrets, and Chen Xuebing does know.

In 97, he turned 10 into 300 million.

During the 519 boom following the Asian financial crisis, he turned 3 million into over 100 million.

During the previous bear market years, Xu Xiang also made money using the limit-up trading strategy, turning 300 million into 6 million.

This is his current assets, roughly the same.

After the bull market ended in 2007, he made 70 billion.

They have the right to be arrogant.

But if Chen Xuebing dares to confront him, there will be consequences.

"Mr. Xu, your approach is nothing but a haphazard, unorthodox method in our eyes. You create hype to drive up prices, profiting from the blood of those who blindly follow your lead and trust you. Since our inception, Changzheng Capital has consistently managed 50 stocks, always with large capital, holding no fewer than 20 stocks per position. We've always diversified to reduce risk, focusing on promising industries and trends, earning money through our understanding and aligning with the times. You, on the other hand, are stuck with small capital, pumping up this stock today and that stock tomorrow, engaging in fraudulent activities in small-cap stocks, playing the 'who's the fool' game. If one day investors stop trusting you, will you still be able to make money? Do you dare to diversify and value-invest? Do you dare to invest in a market capitalization of tens of billions?"

General Manager Chen spoke with force and authority, posing three questions that effectively silenced Xu Xiang.

After he finished speaking, he turned to look at the whole room and smiled, "Investors can verify what I said with our brokerage firm, CITIC Securities. We make our living by our foresight and are subject to formal regulation. Under these conditions, I dare say that our annualized return of 216% is far ahead of our peers, and I believe it will reach new heights in the coming year."

His powerful speech stunned the entire audience.

Gradually, some applause began to emerge.

However, some eyes were also drawn to the person sitting next to Xu Xiang.

The man chuckled dryly and waved his hand, "I don't know, I don't know, it's hard to verify."

Chen Xuebing deduced what the man was saying from his lip movements and was surprised to find that the man seemed to be from CITIC Securities.

Xu Xiang remained standing, cursing under his breath.

At this moment, a girl in a black dress entered with several security guards. She walked up to Xu Xiang's line and reprimanded him in a cold and stern voice:

"Xu Xiang, your name is not on our invitation list. Please leave." Xin Mengzhen knew about the feud between Chen Xuebing and Xu Xiang from Baosteel Securities. As soon as she heard Chen Xuebing call out Xu Xiang's name, she went out to check the list and then returned with security guards.

Xu Xiang sneered when he saw the group of security guards.

"Do I need your invitation to come here?"

After he finished speaking, he took out his phone and made a call.

Xin Mengzhen had no intention of giving him any chance. She turned to the security guards and said, "We rented this venue. We don't know him. Please ask him to leave."

The security guards hesitated for a moment, but still went inside to pull Xu Xiang away.

Xu Xiang immediately roared, "Don't touch me!"

After a while of arguing, the hall gradually became lively.

Seeing that Xin Mengzhen was standing far away, Chen Xuebing did not go up to intervene.

Let them make a scene, it's already come to this.

Less than two minutes later, the door behind opened.

A man with a mustache and wearing a white stand-up collar Tang suit walked in and shouted, "What are you doing? It's a mess! Let go!"

Upon seeing the newcomers, the security guards immediately withdrew.

Xu Xiang, who had just been somewhat disheveled, now wore a smug smile and shouted, "Old Dai! Where did you run off to?"

Upon seeing this person, Lu Xiaochun immediately stood up and went to greet him: "President Dai, what brings you here?"

"I'm just upstairs having tea," the man said, though it was unclear who he was referring to.

"What are you doing? Mr. Xu is my honored guest. What kind of behavior is this, pulling and shoving like this?" the man scolded the security guards.

Xin Mengzhen, who was standing next to her, frowned.

"Are you General Manager Dai? Chairman Dai Zhikang? Shouldn't your distinguished guest be invited upstairs to have tea with you? He's your distinguished guest, not ours. It's not right for him to come here and cause trouble."

Xin Mengzhen clearly knew who the person was, but she still spoke very rudely.

Upon hearing the address, Chen Xuebing already knew who this person was.

Dai Zhikang, chairman of Zendai Group and owner of this building.

Xu Xiang dared to act so wildly today, which shows he came with confidence.

Dai Zhikang turned and looked Xin Mengzhen up and down with a strange look in his eyes: "Are you from Bosera Funds? This conference hall is being used by the public for the first time. I only lent it to you because of my relationship with your Chairman Wu. If you are not satisfied, you can get your money back."

Xin Mengzhen was at a disadvantage, but she didn't back down an inch: "Is it enough to just refund the money? There has to be some sense of contractual obligation, right? We hired people to perform and set up the venue. President Dai, are you going to refund the money? Are you going to refund all the losses as well? It's 50 yuan in expenses, how many times are you going to refund?"

The series of questions he asked were no less imposing than Chen Xuebing's earlier.

500,000 is indeed a bit exaggerated. She personally arranged and set up the venue, and the cost of hiring celebrities was over 200,000. But if the other party dares to ask for a refund, she is willing to make a receipt for 500,000.

At this moment, Chen Xuebing had already walked up behind Xin Mengzhen.

Lu Xiaochun quickly went to Xin Mengzhen's side and smiled as she tried to smooth things over: "President Dai, this is the granddaughter of our investor, President Xin. Please don't take offense."

This means you shouldn't ask us to pressure her; I can't do it either. There's a reason why she doesn't care about you.

"Oh, someone with connections."

When Dai Zhikang said that, Chen Xuebing knew he was screwed.

Xin Mengzhen, that little tiger, is definitely about to lose her temper.

“Mr. Dai, I think Ms. Xin was right about something. Since the venue has been rented, there should be a sense of contractual obligation. As a listed company in the commercial real estate industry, Zendai cannot disregard its reputation. If this building is not rented, does that mean other businesses are also closed to the public? Can you just break the contract at any time?”

Chen Xuebing picked up the conversation and pulled Xin Mengzhen behind him.

Dai Zhikang was being watched by a group of people in the hall, and this was a difficult question to answer.

While hesitating, seeing Xu Xiang's tone change, she yelled at Xin Mengzhen, who had just had security remove her, "What are you going back on your word for? This little bitch is pretty fierce! Let me tell you, 500,000 is nothing! I'll pay you double the penalty! One million! I'll book this entire conference hall for today!"

After these words were spoken, the atmosphere fell silent.

Chen Xuebing's expression instantly turned fierce: "What the hell are you cursing about?"

Xu Xiang was stunned for a moment.

He just said "little sissy," which isn't actually an insult in Ningbo dialect.

It's a term used to refer to unmarried young girls, carrying a slightly derogatory connotation, but not much.

It's far less insulting than the phrase "Niang Xi Pi" (a vulgar expression).

But to outsiders, the word "B" sounds incredibly dirty.

Chen Xuebing's offhand retort, "You motherfucker," is universally recognized and accepted across the country.

“You motherfucker! What’s wrong with you, you little bitch?” Xu Xiang retorted, repeating it over and over.

Snapped! !

A slap that resounded throughout the entire venue.

The moment General Manager Chen transformed into a soldier, Xin Mengzhen instinctively tried to pull him back, but couldn't hold on at all.

The soldier had a passion for slapping people.

Moreover, his strike was extremely precise; he slapped Xu Xiang's glasses off with a loud, crisp sound, without leaving any external injuries that would qualify as minor injuries.

It's not very harmful, it's very insulting.

"Damn it, someone with only a junior high school education is trying to act all refined, and what the hell is with those glasses?"

(End of this chapter)