Chapter 252: Lack of Martial Morality

The office building of a financial company is like a casino that never closes.
From dawn till noon, it's the battleground of the domestic market, a fierce and relentless struggle.
And as the smoke clears in the East, a new battle ignites in the overseas markets across the ocean, continuing unabated through the night.
Not to mention the foreign exchange market, operating 24/7 without a single second's pause; traders working in three shifts are like cogs in an assembly line, welded to their workstations.
Therefore, seeing an entire building go dark in a place like Fanghuan Investment is harder than seeing a ghost in broad daylight.
But there are always exceptions.
Fanghuan Investment's "Special Grade Trading Department" is such an aloof entity.
The rules of this department exude a carefree "come or leave" attitude.
Unless there's a world-shaking trade or a super storm sweeping through the market, you can forget about finding them in the company.
"Damn, it's infuriating to compare yourself to others! I heard the year-end bonuses for those in the top-tier trading department are practically one or two zeros more than ours!"
"Seriously, what are the hiring criteria for that place? How do you get in?"
"Who knows? It's really weird. I heard from the HR ladies that even they're clueless.
They say that every time they need to hire, our big boss, Chairman Su, just locks himself in his office, looks at a bunch of resumes, and then randomly points to someone, saying, 'That's him.'"
"What? Really? No interviews, just a resume? What's the difference between that and opening a blind box?"
"It's exactly like opening a blind box. Apparently, that's always been the lottery process."
"Without interviews or conversations, how can you determine whether someone is a genius or a complete idiot based solely on a few pages of paper?
That's even more mystical than fortune-telling.
But the strange thing is, over the years, not a single person 'selected' for the elite trading department has ever failed! They're all top-notch!"
This sounds unbelievable, like an urban legend.
"But speaking of which, aren't those geniuses in the elite trading department usually rarely seen?"
"Yes."
"So what's the auspicious day today? Why is everyone here?"
"Wow, your news is way behind the times! It's already the talk of the company!"
A well-informed guy lowered his voice, a hint of feverish excitement on his face.
"Our elusive Chairman Su is leading the elite trading department in a fierce battle against those Wall Street wolves who're relentlessly shorting Tesla!"
"Huh?!"
Even a trader who only deals with A-shares and isn't particularly interested in US stocks, if they're in the financial world, they've definitely heard of Tesla, that "monster stock."
It's the ultimate toy for Wall Street bigwigs, a minor speculative move every three days, a major one every five, capable of pulling off a double whammy of bulls and bears.
Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, who's always making a big splash online, has cried his eyes out about it countless times.
"Wait... wasn't Tesla almost bankrupt lately because of its poor performance and production problems?"
"Yeah, those short sellers on Wall Street are practically popping champagne, thinking they've got a piece of the action."
"And then... our Chairman Su, at this crucial moment, chose to go long against the odds?"
"Now you understand?" The veteran employee chuckled, gesturing with his chin towards the brightly lit elite trading department office.
"Now you know why those big shots aren't home sleeping, they're all here on high alert, right?
Hehe, they're on 24/7 alert, isn't that exciting?"
"This...this is too irrational! Anyone with eyes can see that the shorts have a clear advantage with Tesla right now.
Although the battle between bulls and bears used to be fierce, this situation is clearly a one-sided massacre!"
Theoretically, that's true.
But what's that old saying in the financial markets?
Here, anything is possible.
"How much money...did they actually throw in?"
"Who knows the exact figure? Rumors are flying everywhere, everyone says it's in the 'tens of billions'."
"Ten...tens of billions!?"
Just hearing that number made their teeth ache, as if they could already hear the screams of money being shredded into paper.
Chairman Su has made the company a lot of money over the years, but throwing away tens of billions of dollars still made everyone's heart ache.
Just as the employees in the overseas trading department were chattering away,
"Holy crap? What...what's going on?!"
A trader who was intently watching the screen suddenly yelled.
"What's going on? Why all the commotion!"
"Tesla! Tesla's stock price suddenly skyrocketed like a rocket!"
"What? Let me see... Holy crap, it really is!"
Everyone turned to look at the screen. A huge bullish candlestick, as if injected with adrenaline, shot upwards at an unbelievable angle, piercing the sky!
A thought flashed through everyone's minds like lightning.
"Could it be... could it really be Chairman Su and his group?"
"They dumped tens of billions of dollars into the market all at once? That's why the stock price was artificially inflated?"
The principles of stocks are sometimes that simple and brutal.
When there are more sellers, the price falls; when there are more buyers, the price rises.
And now, the price is so wildly soaring, which only means one thing: a tsunami of buying pressure has flooded the market!
Their first reaction was that Chairman Su had abandoned all ethics and directly overturned the table, violently pumping up the price with tens of billions of dollars!
"Are you kidding me! Do you think the SEC will let this go?
What if they arrest them for market manipulation?"
"That's true... but thankfully, judging by the situation, it's probably not us."
They were all professionals, and quickly found the real culprit behind the soaring stock price on their information terminals.
The culprit was none other than Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself!
He dropped a bombshell on his social media!
He announced that he would acquire all outstanding shares at a 20% premium to the current stock price, turning Tesla into a private company! The funds were ready!
It was this earth-shattering news that instantly ignited the entire market, causing the stock price to surge so dramatically!
"Holy crap...is this guy really crazy or just pretending?!"
Ever since Su Hao made the decision to have Fanghuan Investment quietly acquire Tesla shares worth 40 billion from several funds through off-exchange transactions, Fanghuan Investment's elite trading department hadn't had a single peaceful night's sleep.
Everyone was on duty in shifts, in a 24-hour state of readiness, fearing that some unexpected event might occur in the market and they wouldn't have time to react.
"It's exploded! It's exploded!"
This was the first thing Su Hao heard when he entered his office.
Liang Haiyuan's exclamation was a mixture of fear and elation.
"Chairman Su! It's really explosive! A windfall!"
"How could this be... we actually stumbled upon something like this..."
Just as the company's research department had warned, almost everyone in the top-tier trading department was uncertain about this high-stakes gamble on Tesla.
Because looking at it from any fundamental or technical perspective, there wasn't a single positive factor to support the stock price.
But who would have thought that positive news doesn't necessarily come by waiting?
It can also be... artificially created.
Look at Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk; he's personally delivering good news to everyone!