Rebirth 02, the Celestial Being Told Me to Stop Pretending

Thank you aabbccdd147 for the monthly pass.

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The day before Lu Chen was about to enter the market, a letter from Taipei arrived at his office.

The envelope was printed with gold lettering: Golden Horse Awards Executive Committee.

Wang Yan opened the envelope, pulled out a gold-embossed invitation, and paused for three seconds.

"Brother Lu, the Golden Horse Awards! 'Crazy Stone' has been nominated for two awards: Best Original Screenplay and Best Director!"

Lu Chen took the invitation, glanced at it, and placed it on the table.

"When?"

December 13th.

"Let's go. It'll be a good opportunity to meet with the publisher in Taiwan."

Wang Yan thought he would be excited, after all, the Golden Horse Awards are the highest honor for Chinese-language films.

But Lu Chen's face remained completely expressionless.

In his past life, he won a Golden Horse Award. In another timeline, he won Best Feature Film at the age of forty with an art film.

The trophy sat in my house for three years, covered in dust, and then I don't know where it went when we moved.

Moreover, he knew the nature of the Golden Horse Awards; those who know, know. After 18, it degenerated into a worthless award for Taiwanese artists to indulge in their own self-gratification.

Let's make some arrangements.

Wang Yan wrote it down in his notebook, then looked up again.

"Should we notify Liu Yifei?"

Lu Chen thought for a moment. "Notify her. Ask her if she's going."

Wang Yan closed his notebook and was about to leave when Lu Chen stopped him again, "Um, I'll talk to Liu Yifei myself."

Wang Yan's lips twitched, but he suppressed a laugh, turned around, and left.

Lu Chen continued to face the three computer screens.

On the left is an A-share account, Galaxy Securities, with a principal of three million yuan.

In the middle is a Hong Kong stock account, Phillip Securities, with HK$1.5 million.

On the right is a US stock account, Interactive Brokers, with $200,000.

In total, it amounts to 6.37 million RMB, which is his entire net worth.

There was less than 30,000 yuan left in the bank account for living expenses.

Wang Yan stood behind him, staring at the numbers on the three screens, his throat dry: "Are you really going to invest all your money?"

"Otherwise what?" Lu Chen moved his chair forward.

"To keep it and earn interest?"

"I mean... what if we lose money?"

Lu Chen did not answer.

He opened three trading software programs simultaneously and entered three codes.

A-shares: Changan Automobile, stock code 000625.

Hong Kong Stock: Tencent Holdings, stock code 0700.

However, the stock won't be listed until June, so he can't buy it now. Therefore, he's temporarily putting his money in a Hong Kong money market fund, waiting for Tencent's IPO.

US stock: NetEase, ticker symbol NTES.

He glanced at the clock on the wall.

At 10 p.m., the US stock market will open in one hour.

Lu Chen stared at NetEase's betting odds.

The stock price is 12.4 yuan, with a daily trading volume of less than two million shares, indicating poor liquidity.

If he wants to buy 10,000 shares, he has to enter the market in batches, not all at once, otherwise he will push up the stock price.

He placed ten orders, each for 1,000 shares, with prices ranging from 12.4 yuan down.

Twelve dollars and thirty-eight cents, twelve dollars and thirty-six cents, twelve dollars and thirty-four cents... like casting a net, the purchase orders filled the entire selling area.

The first transaction was $12.38. The second was $12.36. He gradually drove the stock price down, and the selling pressure began to ease.

"What are you doing?" Wang Yan couldn't understand.

"Start a position," Lu Chen said.

"Large funds entering the market should not chase high prices, but rather buy on dips. When sellers see people continuously buying at lower prices, they will assume the top has been reached and rush to sell. They sell, I buy."

Wang Yan nodded as if he understood but not quite.

Half an hour later, all 10,000 shares of NetEase were traded.

The average price was 12.31 dollars, and the cost was 123,000 US dollars.

He left the remaining $80,000 untouched for the time being.

NetEase's cost price was set at 12.3 yuan.

What followed was a long wait.

The A-share market opened at 9:30 a.m. on the second day.

Lu Chen woke up at 6:30 and lay in bed staring at the ceiling, going over today's trading plan in his mind countless times.

He decided not to sleep at all, got up and went to his office, brewed a pot of tea, and sat in front of his computer to wait.

At 9:15, the opening auction began.

The price of Changan Automobile fluctuates between 10.4 and 10.6 yuan.

Lu Chen placed his buy order at 10.43 yuan, which was yesterday's closing price and also his target price.

The bidding ended at 9:25.

The opening price was 10.41 yuan.

One-third of his orders were completed.

At 9:30, continuous bidding began.

The stock price instantly surged to 10.6 yuan, and his remaining two-thirds of buy orders were all executed.

With three million yuan, invest in 300,000 shares of Changan Automobile at an average price of 10.45 yuan.

Less than half an hour after the purchase, the Shanghai Composite Index began to plummet.

Changan Automobile's stock price dropped from 10.6 yuan to 10.3 yuan, a decrease of nearly three percentage points.

Lu Chen's account has a floating loss of over 40,000.

Wang Yan stood behind him, his face as white as paper.

"What... what's going on?"

"Normal callback." Lu Chen's voice was calm, but his hand holding the mouse turned slightly white.

He remembered the market trend in his previous life. The pullback in early April was a way for major players to shake out weak hands by taking advantage of the market downturn.

Three days later, the stock price will reach a new high.

But every second felt like being choked.

Every time the green numbers on the screen jumped, it meant tens of thousands of yuan of his money had evaporated.

Ten yuan and two jiao, ten yuan and one jiao, nine yuan and nine jiao.

Wang Yan finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Brother Lu, why don't we come out first? We can go back in once things have stabilized."

Lu Chen didn't speak.

He zoomed out of the candlestick chart and saw the weekly trend line, with the support level at 9.8 yuan, which was only 10 cents away from where it was now.

As long as the price doesn't fall below 9.8 yuan, the upward trend remains intact.

Nine dollars and eighty-five cents, nine dollars and eighty-two cents.

The stock price slowly crumbled before his eyes, like a dull knife cutting into his flesh.

Nine dollars and eighty cents.

Lu Chen moved the mouse to the trading interface, preparing to stop the loss.

Just then.

A huge order of 20,000 lots suddenly appeared and hit the price at 9.9 yuan.

The sell orders were snapped up almost instantly.

Then the second stroke, and then the third stroke.

The stock price seemed to be supported by an invisible hand, bouncing from 9.8 yuan back to 10 yuan, and then back to 10.2 yuan.

In the last minute before the market closed, the stock price was fixed at 10.41 yuan.

No profit, no loss.

Lu Chen slid his hand off the mouse, his palms were covered in sweat.

The next two weeks were the most difficult days Lu Chong had ever endured since the beginning of his life.

Changan Automobile's stock price fluctuated between 10 and 11 yuan, unable to go up or down.

His three million yuan was locked up inside, with daily account fluctuations of tens of thousands of yuan, like riding a roller coaster.

NetEase is also trading sideways around 12 yuan.

In terms of news, NetEase is in talks with China Telecom about SP (Service Provider) cooperation, and the market is waiting for the results.

He knew it would eventually work, but the waiting process was longer than expected.

What worries him most is the $80,000 in cash in his US stock account.

He must put this money to use in order to make enough profit before Tencent goes public in June.

He set his sights on another stock.

Netflix, code NFLX.

This company went public last October with an offering price of $15.

His memories from his past life told him.

On April 21, 2003, Netflix released its first-quarter financial report, with the number of subscribers exceeding expectations, and its stock price surged by 4 percent in a single day.

It is April 15th.

There are six days left until the earnings report is released.

Lu Chen bought Netflix call options for $80,000.

One hundred lots, expiring in April, strike price $17.50.

The royalty is $0.80 per share, with a total cost of $8,000.

With the remaining $70,000, he bought 2,000 shares of Netflix stock at an average price of $15.80.

Options mean he is betting that the stock price must rise to more than $18.30 within the next six days.

Otherwise, the eight thousand dollars will be worthless.

Wang Yan was drinking water when he learned about this and almost choked to death.

"You...you're betting $80,000 on an earnings report? What if the data falls short of expectations? What if?"

"There's no 'what if'," Lu Chen said.

"How do you know there won't be any 'what ifs'? Can you predict the future?"

Lu Chen did not answer.

He could certainly predict the future, but from the moment Zhang Guorong survived, the gears of history began to shift.

Will Netflix's financial data change accordingly? He doesn't know, and he can't be sure.

But he dared to gamble.

On April 16, Netflix's stock price fell by 2%.

The option price dropped from 0.8 to 0.6, and he lost 25%.

On April 17th, it dropped another 1%.

The option price is 0.55.

The first thing Wang Yan asks every day when he comes to the company is, "Has Netflix gone up?" The answer is always no.

On April 18, Netflix rebounded by 2%.

The options price returned to 0.68. At least they caught their breath.

But then it's the weekend.

With the US stock market closed for two days, Lu Chen couldn't do anything.