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Chapter 596 Another piece of good news

Friday, December 21.

When the electronic clock in the Nasdaq Stock Exchange trading floor precisely struck 9:30, this core venue, which carries the pulse of global technology capital, suddenly fell into a suffocating and eerie atmosphere.

The torrent of numbers on the electronic screen continued to surge forward, but the crisp sound of traders typing on their keyboards suddenly became sparse.

All eyes were drawn to the same code: lc—Dynamic Games.

Before the opening bell had even faded, YueDong Games' bid price jumped from the previous day's closing price of $296 to a high of $340.4 through the opening auction.

This near-vertical price fluctuation directly triggered the Nasdaq Stock Exchange's market volatility suspension mechanism.

Beneath the strange appearance, no one was truly surprised.

Because on the very previous trading day, at the same time and place, the same stock, almost exactly the same scenario played out.

The only difference is that the price point at which the suspension mechanism is triggered on the same day is slightly different.

It was as if time had been precisely replicated in the Nasdaq trading system, with every scene, emotion, and market reaction appearing exactly the same, as if reborn.

"Can't you leave a door open for ordinary investors?" A retail investor in a dark suit, his hair slightly disheveled, muttered to himself as he looked at his trading terminal, his tone filled with helplessness and resentment. On the screen in front of him, the buy order queue of the game was like an endless dragon, and behind the dense numbers was the powerful siege of institutional funds.

"I thought it was a windfall, but it turns out it was locked up. I queued for two whole trading days and didn't even get to touch the doorknob. Were we just there to watch?"

A middle-aged investor wearing wire-rimmed glasses chimed in, pointing to the constantly updating number of buy orders on the screen. He said with a wry smile, "The number of buy orders is more than my total mortgage payments over thirty years. I don't even dare to mention the valuation of my two-bedroom apartment now, for fear that compared to this number of buy orders, I'll look too pathetic."

"Damn it." A low curse came from the crowd. "This isn't stock trading, it's clearly a capital game between institutions. We small investors don't even have the right to participate."

Just as everyone was complaining, a seasoned stock market investor in the crowd suddenly spoke up, his tone tinged with a hint of sarcasm, "But then again, I'm at least certain of one thing."

"What's wrong?" People around them turned around and asked curiously.

The veteran stock investor pointed to the buy order data of the game on the screen, and a meaningful smile appeared on his lips. "That means stock trading really can make you young."

"Look at the purchase orders above, they're all from major Wall Street institutions. Before, these institutions acted like big shots, all haughty and arrogant, but now they're all acting like servants."

These words drew laughter from those around him. A young investor in a casual jacket chimed in, "You know what, those fund managers on Wall Street are having a worse time than getting divorced these days. Not only have they lost their assets, but their wives are still around."

"Only a fool would sell at this point. The stock price has already risen to over $340. Who knows how high it can fly next? I really envy those guys who hold YueDong Games stock. It's like winning without lifting a finger."

"Let's see how long those Wall Street institutions can hold out, and whether they can keep delaying settlements indefinitely?"

Under normal trading mechanisms, Nasdaq operates on a T+3 settlement system, meaning that the settlement of shares and funds must be completed on the third trading day after the transaction is completed. If a short-selling institution is unable to borrow enough shares to complete the settlement within the stipulated time, it must apply to the regulatory authority for an extension.

There are many ways to defer settlement, including chain naked short selling, using market makers' exemption channels, and through temporary matching mechanisms at the clearing level.

"Speaking of which, YueDong Games is really a bad company. They knew these institutions were maliciously shorting the stock, but they just didn't report it."

According to relevant regulations in the U.S. securities market, if a listed company believes that it has been subjected to malicious short selling or other illegal trading activities, it has the right to submit a report to the SEC.

Once a complaint is substantiated, the SEC must conduct a thorough investigation.

"Those SEC officials are a bunch of scum!" an agitated investor next to him couldn't help but curse. "You can find news about YueDong Games being massively shorted in any newspaper. They turn a blind eye to this blatant violation, hiding like rats in the street, not daring to come out and fulfill their regulatory duties."

"Actually, it's fine if they don't investigate." Another investor was quite optimistic. "Let YueDong Games continue to rise. Anyway, those short-selling institutions will have to liquidate their positions sooner or later."

"The more stocks they owe now, the greater the price they will pay later. When they are driven to the brink, someone will naturally come out to deal with them."

Inside the trading hall, retail investors were engaged in heated discussions, with a wide range of opinions.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Wall Street, in the headquarters of the institutions that shorted Leap Games, the atmosphere had already plummeted to freezing point, and everyone was on the verge of collapse.

The atmosphere inside Tiger Fund's headquarters offices was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Julian Robertson sat at the conference table, roaring in despair, "Tell me, where have all the outstanding shares gone? Where are the shares we need?!" His voice was hoarse and furious, veins bulging on his forehead, and his face contorted in rage.

But the large blister around his mouth adds a touch of humor, like an unconventional clown going berserk.

But think about it, isn't Julian Robertson now just like the Joker?

"The institutional investors holding shares in Leap Games have already locked up their positions. Does that mean even the retail investors' shares are locked up?" Julian Robertson's gaze swept across the data on the screen.

For two consecutive trading days, there were not a single sell order, which is unprecedented in the history of Wall Street!

In the history of Wall Street, there have been cases of institutional investors being forced to liquidate their positions and turn the tables, but none have been as bizarre as YueDong Games, where there were absolutely no pending orders.

Because investors are also worried, fearing that they might end up losing more than they gain.

In the case of locked-up shares, it's meaningless to rely on the shares held by individual investors; even if they all sell them, it won't help the institutions liquidate their positions.

Wall Street needs to turn to YueDong Games to get out of its predicament.

Based on past cases, companies that are shorted usually don't demand a price that Wall Street can't accept; they typically settle the matter quickly by offering a 50% discount.

At that time, the soaring stock price will immediately fall back, so many retail investors holding stocks will definitely want to cash out and sell their shares.

This is the first time we've seen a situation with absolutely no sell orders. A tense-looking analyst nearby cautiously explained, "According to our monitoring data, YueDong Games' circulating shares have indeed experienced a rare phenomenon of zero selling. This may be because retail investors have been guided in some way and reached a consensus to lock in their shares."

Julian Robertson whirled around, staring intently at the analyst. "Guidance? Who's guiding? How can a group of retail investors achieve such a high degree of unity?"

Retail investors are the most dispersed and least organized group in the market. They tend to chase rising prices and sell falling ones, making it difficult for them to form a unified trading strategy.

"We discovered a group on Google Talk called Digital Gold Miners, whose members are all shareholders of Jump Games, and the number is constantly increasing."

"Digital gold diggers?" Julian Robertson frowned. "What's this group about?"

"We've already infiltrated this group," the analyst explained. "Based on the information we've gathered, the core objective of this group is to organize retail investors to unite against short sellers."

"It is worth noting that there is a user named Pixel Knight in this group who seems to have a lot of inside information and has a very high level of influence in the group."

As he spoke, the analyst manipulated his computer and then turned his screen toward Julian Robertson.

The screen displays the chat interface of the digital gold miners group, and the latest message was posted by Pixel Knight.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the current situation is very favorable to us. The short-selling institutions on Wall Street are in dire straits. They urgently need a large number of shares in circulation to complete the settlement, but the shares we hold are their Achilles' heel."

"As long as we all hold on to our shares and don't sell, given the current tense relationship between Wall Street and Leap Games, short sellers simply won't be able to get the shares they need for delivery from the company. They will be forced to continue buying at high prices on the secondary market."

"A stock price of over $300 is just the beginning. Our goal is to first get YueDong Games' stock price to a high of $500, and make those short-selling institutions pay a heavy price for their greed and arrogance!" In just a glance, there were already hundreds of agreeing replies below this message.

"Support Pixel Knight! I'm determined to hold onto my shares and not sell!"

"Let the short sellers go bankrupt!"

"$500 is just the starting point; I'm optimistic that Jump Games will reach $1000!"

Julian Robertson looked at the comments on the screen and gave a disdainful sneer. "Naive, so incredibly naive."

These retail investors are simply delusional. The fact that YueDong Games' stock price has reached $340 is already the result of market speculation and institutional competition. To think it could reach $1000 is simply wishful thinking.

"Let alone $1000, even $500 wouldn't be a price that Leap Games would dare to sustain for long," Julian Robertson said.

"The valuation of a listed company will eventually have to come back to the fundamentals. YueDong Games' performance and profitability simply cannot support such a high stock price. These retail investors have been blinded by short-term gains, and they will pay the price for their greed sooner or later."

Despite his outward dismissive attitude, Julian Robertson was filled with anxiety.

He slammed his fist on the table next to him, gritting his teeth and cursing under his breath, "I fucking hate the internet."

If it weren't for the widespread use of the internet, these individual investors from all over the country, who were complete strangers, would never have been able to connect so easily.

It is the connectivity of the internet that allows individual investors to transcend geographical limitations and coalesce into a force that dares to challenge Wall Street institutions. "I hate people who play on the internet even more," Julian Robertson added, his tone filled with deep-seated hatred.

Everyone present knew that the "people who play on the Internet" he was referring to were not these Internet users, but were clearly pointing directly at Ernst, the founder of Leap Games.

Julian Robertson slammed his fist in frustration. "There's no point in talking about this now. What we need most right now are stocks, shares that can be used to liquidate our positions. Without stocks, all our short positions are at risk of being liquidated."

"Therefore, we will spare no effort to acquire enough shares of YueDong Games."

This phrase isn't just being used by Julian Robertson; it's practically become the mantra of major Wall Street institutions these past few days.

At 3:38 p.m., just as the Nasdaq Stock Exchange was about to close its trading session for the week, a sudden announcement exploded like a thunderclap in both the financial markets and the gaming industry.

Yuedong Games officially released a major positive announcement. The company has reached a final acquisition agreement with the well-known French game publisher InfoPlextor, and will complete the full acquisition of InfoPlextor for £2000 million, approximately US$3300 million.

Meanwhile, YueDong Games announced that after completing the acquisition, it will invest a huge amount of money to fully promote the development of the second installment of ETGO's fantasy game "TA".

The sequel will use the new 3D game engine independently developed by Leap Games and will introduce a multiplayer online game mode for the first time, bringing a brand new gaming experience to players around the world.

This announcement immediately caused a huge uproar in the gaming industry.

"My God! Is YueDong Games going to dominate the gaming industry?" An editor from a gaming media outlet excitedly posted on the YueDong Games platform after seeing the announcement. "First Call of Duty 2, then The Sims, and now they've acquired InfoPlus and are developing The Sims 2, with an online multiplayer mode! This pace is too fast!"

"Then let's go beat up cops, play around with women, and become gangsters together. Wouldn't that give us company?" "Brother, count me in! Just thinking about it is exciting."

The frenzy and heated discussions in the gaming industry stand in stark contrast to the somber atmosphere in the investment world.

For those institutions that shorted YueDong Games, this acquisition announcement was undoubtedly the last straw that broke the camel's back.

When the announcement appeared on the screens of major financial terminals, the atmosphere in all the trading rooms of short-selling institutions became extremely heavy, and everyone's face was so gloomy it could drip water.

They knew very well that the release of this positive announcement meant that retail investors were now even less likely to sell their shares.

(Only two photos today. The heating is broken. It's -15 degrees Celsius, but the indoor temperature is 10 degrees Celsius. It's so cold that you can't even stretch your hands out.)