Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

Zhang San invested in HSBC because he valued its earning potential, and there are reasons for that.

As mentioned earlier, there's a saying circulating among Hong Kong people: if you have money but don't know where to invest, just buy Huifeng (a type of stock), keep buying it, and hold it until you retire. With the dividends from previous investments, your life will be secure.

Zhang San first caused the other party's stock price to plummet by spreading a large amount of bad debts and rumors, and then intensified his attack to make those people sell their stocks.

In this way, he received a lot of shares. The overseas financial group held 13.3%, while the account he cultivated held 41.1%, which was more than half of the shares.

HSBC is a fully tradable stock, and even major shareholders do not hold a large number of shares. Back then, when the shipping magnate held 1%, he became a director of Huifeng.

Zhang San managed to acquire 54.4% of the shares through this operation, which is truly astonishing.

A week later, Overseas Financial Group announced that it had acquired a 13.3% stake in HSBC; the announcement sparked heated discussions among Hong Kong residents.

"I feel that the overseas financial institutions are just putting on a show and haven't actually bought any shares. This increase of less than 4% is completely useless."

"They don't have a positive outlook on HSBC either; they're just increasing their holdings as a show."

"Yes, if they were really bullish, they would probably have increased their holdings significantly. With such high trading volume recently, I suspect they are shills, setting up a scheme to cover for others to follow. You saw the stock price drop back down when it reached 3.6; they were covering for others to run away."

The next day, a financial newspaper published the following news: "Shameless overseas financial group. As one of the top five financial groups in Hong Kong, they have acted so despicably, becoming shills for others, participating in insider trading, and creating momentum for others. It can be said that they are utterly shameless..."

Some newspapers have stated that overseas financial groups, which have Wall Street backgrounds, are behaving in this way, and only retail investors would believe them. Investors should be careful not to be deceived.

"This tactic has been used to death, who would still believe it?"

"Perhaps others have a different opinion?"

"How can such a group exist?"

"Hong Kong needs a fair and just financial environment; we cannot allow our free port to be tarnished."

There are so many comments like this that many people have reached a consensus. Various rumors are also circulating among the common people. This is not surprising, as Hong Kong is a very small place, to the point that almost everyone is involved in stock trading. Naturally, stock trading is something that everyone is involved in.

"I've invested all my retirement money in this, and now it's all over," an elderly man with gray hair lamented, his brow furrowed with worry.

"Me too, I never expected it to drop by 90%, it's terrible..."

"Sir, HSBC's performance is not bad. In time, it will break even."

"Thank you for your kind words." That was all the old man could say. The price had fallen so much; what good would it do to sell it?

"Hey, you're still keeping it? Aren't you afraid of dying?"

"If it were me, I'd run fast."

……

Amidst the commotion in the marketplace, Zhang San felt it was about time to raise the price and accumulate shares. He was even planning to bring HSBC back to its peak, haha…

Just when the market was in chaos, HSBC's stock suddenly rallied at the close of trading on Friday, rising 3%, a full 10 points from a 7% drop to a 3% gain.

"A late-day surge indicates that someone is taking the opportunity to flee."

"Hmph, they've done this before. They're just hoping to sell it for a higher price tomorrow."

"This kind of thing should be investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. I'm going to report them."

The conversations of ordinary people were influenced by a rumor circulating online.

"HSBC has taken matters into its own hands. They are preparing to accumulate shares at low prices, which will not only stabilize the share price but also increase their profitability."

The news broke immediately and quickly reached HSBC. Because such a matter shouldn't be publicly announced, people immediately called HSBC demanding an answer. However, the person who answered the phone at HSBC was unaware of what had happened and could only say in a very official tone, "Sir/Madam, please wait for our announcement regarding your question..."

Although they spoke in a very official way, it made those who wanted to know the answer very anxious. Are you serious about replying like this?

As expected, on Sunday, HSBC issued an announcement: "After investigation, we found that we have not increased our holdings. Please refer to our announcements for the final word."

This is really frustrating, leaving many people speechless. Some who hold stocks and want to hold them long-term, and some who bought stocks now hoping to get a bargain; now they are all a bit confused, and they're in trouble.

With such a low share price, HSBC is not even considering increasing its holdings, yet here they say they haven't. This shows that they don't see a future for HSBC, and therefore, they have no intention of increasing their holdings.

Sure enough, when the market opened on Monday, HSBC's stock price plummeted to below HK$2.5.

Such a price naturally caused panic among many people. However, the trading volume that day was increasing, not because of overseas financial institutions, but because of retail investors like Zhang San.

In the afternoon, half an hour before the market closed for the day, HSBC's stock price was suddenly driven up to HK$3.5, and there were 100,000 lots of buy orders placed at HK$3.5.

Hong Kong's stock market operates on a T+0 system, meaning you can buy and sell on the same day. When HSBC's stock price reached HK$3.5, some people had already made a fortune! They could earn more than HK$1 per share.

Many people believe that this is just another late-day rally, and the market will inevitably fall tomorrow. They think that selling now is a good opportunity to do a T+0 trade, and then buying back tomorrow, making a T+0 trade every day, and life will be great.

This surge was enormous, driving many people into a frenzy.

Sure enough, on Tuesday, the next day, HSBC's stock price fluctuated around HK$3 at the opening bell. Many people rushed in to buy, and because there were so many people, the stock price rose to HK$4. As soon as this price appeared, many people knew that it was over and there was no hope of making a quick profit. If they hadn't sold at the end of the day, they could have made a net profit of HK$1.50 at that price.

Some people feel they've lost out if they don't make a profit or gain anything; and there's a group of people who feel this way right now.

"Damn, what are those retail investors doing? They've just driven the stock price up! How are we supposed to compete now? Nobody can compete. Damn it!"

"When there are too many people involved, the stock price can't go down. Why are retail investors called 'leeks' (a metaphor for being exploited)? It's because there's no unified command."