Chapter 650: Noon has Arrived
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Whether it was the foreign exchange market of Jiangnan City or the numerous banks of Huaxia, no one had a good night's sleep that night.
The next day when the banks opened, they directly announced an interest rate hike to 7.9%, which immediately triggered infinite panic. That damn thing is inflation, a harbinger of economic collapse!
In various supermarkets and stores, there was already a frenzy of panic buying of daily necessities. If people didn't buy now, perhaps it wouldn't be long before the price of pork could soar to a few hundred or even thousands per pound, and by then, they wouldn't even be able to afford a meal.
In some places, even riots had started to break out.
As for the Jiangnan City trading market, the entire hall was filled with a somber and heavy atmosphere.
Today, everyone had chosen to come to work early without prior agreement, looking at each other before they exchanged helpless wry smiles. This time, they had truly encountered a massive problem.
Wang Chendong had dark circles under both eyes. Although anyone in his position would have been the same, he was the one operating some of the funds after all, and he had put a tremendous amount of pressure on himself. He even cried several times in the middle of the night, for he felt that it was all his own doing.
If nothing unexpected happened, once the market opened today, the opposition would continue to hammer in sell orders to drop the exchange rate. With an additional investment of around 5 trillion US dollars, they would be facing the risk of a margin call!
Although they had pooled some funds from a few friendly nations, even Pakistan mobilized their entire country's effort but could only scrape together 20 billion US dollars.
Brother, that's truly all we have, we really can't pull out even a bit more!
But after scraping everything together, they had only managed to gather 1.5 trillion US dollars. Even if they wanted, 1.5 trillion could be dumped without making as much as a splash—much like how Huaxia's diving team could make the tiniest splash, so insignificant would be the impact of that money when thrown into the market!
"It's started!" Along with that familiar sound of the starting bell for work, it also became the Grim Reaper's scythe, harvesting not only wealth but also the happiness of the people of Huaxia.
"200 sell orders, with a capital scale of 1 trillion US dollars! The exchange rate continues to decline, devaluing further and has now broken through the 8-yuan mark!"
This voice made everyone feel utterly powerless.
"Use the foreign exchange reserves from aid, throw it in!"
At this point, what other choice was there?
"We've come back to within 8 yuan, at 7.98 now!"
"150 sell orders, amounting to 800 billion US dollars! It's breached 8 yuan again!"
"Keep throwing in!"
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"180 sell orders, with a capital of 1.2 trillion US dollars! The current exchange rate is 1:8.06, and it's still rising!"
"Push back!"
"Team leader, we've exhausted all external aid!"
"What?"
"Team leader, it's at 8.12 now!"
"Team leader, it's now 8.15!"
"Team leader, they have harvested a round, and we have lost close to 320 billion US dollars!"
"Team leader, let's pull out, our losses are already huge. If we continue like this, we're going to face a margin call."
"We can't withdraw the funds, if we do, all these losses would be in vain. Plus, our exchange rate would directly exceed 1:10, the economic system would collapse!"
"But if we don't pull out..."
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"Ha ha ha, only 1.5 trillion US dollars of external aid, they don't know that this time we have prepared a whopping 50 trillion, what's 15 trillion to us? They still cannot compare with us!"
"They've run out of ammunition, and now, even if they want to borrow more, no one is willing to lend to them."
"We've barely flexed our muscles and already reaped close to 1.5 trillion US dollars. Today, let's go all out and directly devour Huaxia's 5 trillion US dollars and that 1.5 trillion!"
"Keep hammering the sell orders, smash the exchange rate to above 13 yuan. They definitely won't be able to cover more margin, and we'll just force them into a margin call!"
"I refuse to believe that at this stage, Zhang Menglong won't take action!"
In the European division, the traders had joyful smiles of victory on their faces. They had never operated such a massive amount of capital in one go; with such funds, even a pig could easily reap the rewards, let alone them, the finance elites.
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"Team leader, the exchange rate has exceeded 12 yuan, and our remaining funds are not enough to pay the margin!"
"Team leader, my 12 accounts have been liquidated!"
"Team leader, half of my 27 accounts have also been blown out!"
"Team leader..."
This operation had nearly liquidated a third of their accounts, and there were still more accounts being blown out continuously.
Liquidation meant that they couldn't even recover their principal. The losses had directly exceeded 1 trillion US dollars!
"Damn it!" Wang Chendong gritted his teeth. If he had to take the blame, so be it. He couldn't just watch the foreign exchange reserves that had taken years to accumulate scatter away in just two days!
"Cancel the orders!"
"Wait, team leader! New funds are coming in, and they've started going long."
"What's the use," Wang Chendong shook his head, "Even if the retail investors band together, we can't stand up to such vast sums of money."
"That's not right, team leader. This is a very large sum of money, 500 positions going long, with total funds exceeding 2 trillion US dollars!"
"What did you say?" Wang Chendong felt as if he had heard the most wonderful sound in the world.
"The exchange rate is warming up again, it's already back to 11 yuan!"
"This batch of accounts has started dumping money again, this time 3 trillion US dollars! Now the exchange rate is 1:9.8!"
"This is insane, 5 trillion US dollars dumped in two minutes. Who on earth has this much money?"
"Did the top brass get foreign aid?"
"With operations this fast, there must be at least a thousand people, right?"
"The Huaxia currency is still appreciating, it's back to the original exchange rate, my god, they're incredible!"
"Who exactly is it?" Wang Chendong looked out the window. Although he had no idea what was happening, it seemed like they might have hope again!
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Two hundred kilometers away in Jiangnan City, Zhang Menglong was staring at the market exchange rate in a studio that looked like an internet café, having summoned a group of people to Jiangnan City so he could see all the developments firsthand.
"Boss, we have pushed the exchange rate back up, it's now back to the level at the opening day of trading!" A twenty-something young man was rapidly managing his accounts as he reported the situation to Zhang Menglong in a calm voice.
"I see."
Zhang Menglong leisurely stood up and downed the bottle of AD calcium milk in his hand. "You guys have had a blast for more than a day, that should be enough, right? It's noon now, have you guys prepared your wallets?"
"Boss, should we just blow them out?" the young man asked. "Give me another 3 trillion US dollars, and I can blow all their accounts in five minutes."
"What's the rush?" Zhang Menglong smacked him on the head. "How much money have they thrown in? Just over 10 trillion, less than a quarter of their total capital. Blowing out their accounts would just cycle 10 trillion US dollars, is that all you aspire to?"
"Let them keep dumping!" Zhang Menglong said. "With each of our dumps, we need to give them the illusion that we only have so much money. When they think they hold the winning cards, that's when we'll deliver the fatal blow. By that time, their money will be all tied up, unable to leave. The 50 trillion US dollars will all bear the name Zhang!"
"Boss, can we get a bonus at the end of the year?"
"Of course, the bonuses will increase! A billion US dollars per person, is that enough?"
"Enough! Hahaha, guys, get to work. The boss has spoken. Let's leave them without enough money to buy underwear when they go!"
Zhang Menglong: "I never said that!"
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"Suddenly 5 trillion US dollars?" Even though the exchange rate was steadily controlled around 6.6, the head of the European division didn't panic at all. They had only utilized a quarter of their strength.
"Zhang Menglong, so you've finally shown up!"
"Notify the American division, follow the plan, and commence Operation Dragon Slayer!"