Chapter Twelve: Going All In on Chang'an Motors

After He Jing, Xu Zhiruo, and the others left, Zhang Yang quickened his pace in finishing his meal and returned to the library before the market opened at 1 p.m.

Upon entering the financial analysis room, he noticed that his usual seat was already taken by a six-person discussion group.

As he came in, all six members simultaneously turned to look at him.

Just from their gazes, Zhang Yang immediately recognized them as students from the Accounting School.

Accounting at Hudu University of Finance and Economics was an A+ major, ranked among the nation’s top disciplines, and also a key source of talent for the “Tilanqiao Prison Academy.”

Among the six was a Japanese-inspired campus beauty with long, straight black hair and blunt bangs, fox-like enchanting eyes, and delicate features.

Her name was Xu Zhirou, the twin sister of Xu Zhiruo, and a perennial top figure in the Hufu Finance Forum’s discussions.

Though both accounting and investment were popular majors at Hufu Finance, accounting was nationally rated A+, while investment held a B+—a difference of nearly fifty points, or essentially different tiers.

Her sleek black hair, high attractiveness, pleated skirt, and A+ top-tier major made her a focal point wherever she went.

Xu Zhirou seemed to recognize Zhang Yang and gave a slight nod in greeting.

In the small circle of top students, Zhang Yang also had her on his QQ contacts and returned the polite nod.

To avoid disturbing their discussion and to keep from being interrupted himself while trading, Zhang Yang chose a seat near the corner.

...

Once seated, he efficiently took out his laptop from his bag, plugged in the power adapter, and connected to the library’s wired network.

WiFi speeds in 2009 were not great, and many areas of the Hufu Finance library offered Ethernet connections.

Once online, Zhang Yang quickly checked the market trends.

“Sure enough, it’s plunging.”

He murmured, watching the downward index line.

The main funds had stealthily pushed at the end of the morning session, so the afternoon opening was bound to trigger a move—a carefully orchestrated bull trap.

Analyzing the intraday chart, between 11:20 and 11:30 a.m., trading volume spiked abnormally, indicating many retail investors chased the high, betting on further gains in the afternoon.

Opening the stock forum on Tieba, Zhang Yang saw a sea of green posts.

[User: Taoist Shampoo Uses Rejoice]: Picture.jpg, I’m done, I’m done. Who said this was a ten-year bull market? I lost 6,000 yuan in three days. Damn it!

[User: Past Winds]: This is unfair, really unfair. As soon as I jump in, it falls. As soon as I jump in, it falls. Did the main funds install monitoring on my computer?

[User: Emperor of Baths]: Before entering the market, I got a full-body massage twice a week. After entering, I want to massage the masseuse.

[User: King of Sabak]: Isn’t a foot bath where masseuses get massaged? Are you all having the masseuses massage you?

“Newbies keep coming in waves, and they never run out to be cut,” Zhang Yang shook his head at the flood of posts.

...

They say in a bull market, even fools can make money, but there are two kinds of bull markets: technical and restorative.

A restorative bull market features collective rises, where indeed even fools profit.

But a technical bull market is not a collective rise; if you can’t find the right targets, your losses may even exceed those of a bear market.

As time ticked by, Zhang Yang toggled between banking, securities, consumer sectors, average stock price indices, MACD indicators, and Baidu Tieba pages.

Stock trading is inherently speculative, requiring synthesis of various information to make relatively accurate judgments.

At 1:30 p.m., the Shanghai Composite’s DIF and DEA lines were about to converge and break through. Zhang Yang immediately checked whether the banking and securities sectors were aligned.

When he saw the securities sector’s DIF line had turned down again at 1:27 p.m., he refrained from acting, choosing to wait.

Five minutes later, the securities sector failed to break through, and the banking sector, alongside consumer and infrastructure sectors, moved downward.

Technical indicators can be drawn, but they mainly apply to small-cap stocks; pure capital control over banks, securities, and the overall market is nearly impossible unless the national team intervenes.

After the index probed lower a second time, the retail investors on the forum were wailing, their sentiment providing the final cue for Zhang Yang to act.

At 1:57 p.m., he invested 300,000 yuan.

At 2:30 p.m., he added another 300,000 yuan.

At 2:57 p.m., during the closing call auction, he put in the last 100,000 yuan.

By day’s end, Changan Automobile closed at 7.37 yuan, a -1.60% return, with a high of 7.66, a low of 7.32 yuan, volume of 334,600 shares, turnover of 249 million yuan, turnover rate of 0.41%, and maximum amplitude of 4.64%.

After closing the securities platform webpage, Zhang Yang sent a QQ message to Lai Weijie, informing him that today’s trading was complete.

Lai Weijie immediately logged into his Huaxin Securities simulation account to check the returns, seeing a total daily account return of 0.97% displayed prominently in the upper right corner.

“Not even 1%!”

Lai Weijie doubted whether Zhang Yang could really get him into the top ten.

Only thirteen trading days remained, and the gap in returns was 45.07%, meaning an average daily gain of 3.46% was required.

In other words, over the next thirteen days, Zhang Yang needed to achieve daily gains of 3.46% to reach a 50% return.

What troubled Lai Weijie even more was that Zhang Yang had gone all-in on Changan Automobile.

“What the hell is Zhang Yang up to? Doesn’t he know that Changan Automobile’s Q1 earnings report is scheduled for this Sunday?”

Funds seek safety when earnings are uncertain.

Lai Weijie wore a sullen expression as if he had swallowed something foul. For now, he felt Zhang Yang’s trading skills were far inferior to his own.

Reporting earnings on Sunday, going all-in on Friday—unless Zhang Yang had insider information, this was nothing but gambling.

“Damn!”

Lai Weijie couldn’t help slamming the table.

...

He truly couldn’t understand Zhang Yang’s trading tactics, which defied conventional classroom wisdom.

But since the money was already invested and two trading days wasted, it was too late to take over; he could only choose to trust Zhang Yang.

...

Meanwhile, in another place.

In the Investment 201 female dormitory.

Wearing a camisole, the statuesque Xu Zhiruo stretched lazily, smiling warmly at He Jing, who was applying eye drops.

“Sister Jing, how much did you make today?”

“Only 1.2%. The afternoon plunge cut my gains short. How about you, Ruo Ruo?” He Jing asked in return.

“Ha-ha!”

Xu Zhiruo seemed to have been waiting for this, proudly showing off her returns.

“2.6%. I sold all my automotive ETFs and banking stocks in the morning session, then bought them back at the close.”

“Impressive!”

He Jing praised with a smile.

Nearby, Lan Sisi, with short ear-length hair and tanned skin, looked surprised and questioned, “With today’s trend, it’s strange that you managed 2.6%.”

“Indeed, very unusual.”

Their roommate Wei Yunshi echoed.

Facing their skeptical gazes, Xu Zhiruo puffed out her chest and raised her head arrogantly.

“You don’t get it—I’m a genius trader with absolute market intuition!”

“Pfft!”

Lan Sisi couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing.

Just as she was about to say something, two small hands began playfully massaging Lan Sisi’s chest, with Xu Zhiruo puffing her cheeks.

“Laugh at me, doubt me—now I’ll use the Great Shifting Technique to turn you into an A!”

“Stop shifting! You won’t reach my level,” Lan Sisi retorted, her playful defiance undiminished.

Xu Zhiruo: “I’m still young; I can definitely develop further.”

Lan Sisi: “You are indeed quite young.”

“No worries, Ruo Ruo,” Wei Yunshi appeared to comfort but took the chance to jab, “Small and cute, too!”

He Jing smiled helplessly, shaking her head.

“Heartless.”