My Age of Investment

   Chapter 1143 Black Monday

   The next day, evening.

  Xia Jingxing said goodbye to Christina and her son, boarded a Gulfstream private jet, and took off from San Francisco Airport in the afterglow of the setting sun.

  After more than five hours of flight, when the plane landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York, it was already dark outside.

   When Xia Jingxing got off the plane from the gangway and stepped on the ground, he subconsciously raised his hand and looked at the time on his watch.

  The hour hand has just passed the number "12", to be precise, it is already 12:01.

  A brand new day!

  Xia Jingxing walked out of the airport with a turbulent mood, and saw the bangs who came to greet him late at night.

   In the evening, there was no sleepiness on Liu Hai's face, and the whole person seemed extremely excited.

   As soon as they met, he took Xia Jingxing's hand and said, "There has been news from many sources that Lehman Brothers is dead this time!"

  Xia Jingxing nodded lightly, indicating that he already knew the news.

   In fact, in order to sell better to him, Blankfein and Mai Jinhe had already informed him of this "insider" news yesterday.

  On the night he left for the United States from Hong Kong Island, a dinner was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York.

  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Paulson, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Citi, Mellon Bank and a large number of prominent investment banks and CEOs of commercial banks all attended the meeting.

The theme of the    conference is only one: save Lehman.

  Treasury Secretary Paulson took the lead in stating: As the plenipotentiary representative of the commander-in-chief, the government will not use taxpayer money to save Lehman.

   This sentence made Ford's blood pressure soar on the spot!

   However, Paulson still gave Lehman a chance to persuade the chief executives who were present on the spot to make money.

The    guys still gave the Finance Minister face, and did not refuse bluntly, saying that things could be discussed, but they also put forward a request: first look at Lehman's family.

   The surprise audit took a few hours, and Lehman's asset quality scared most investment banks away.

   They are now all muddling the Buddha across the river, and they are really unwilling and unable to pull the good brother of Leiman.

   Among the many investment banks, only Bank of America expressed interest.

   Just at noon the day before yesterday, when the lawyers of both parties began to draft the agreement, Bank of America suddenly broke the contract, saying that it would not acquire Lehman, because they were going to rescue Merrill Lynch, and Merrill Lynch offered a purchase price that they could not refuse.

  Folder was angry and helpless about this. He tried his best to save Lehman. As a result, Bank of America and Merrill found the right eye, hooked up, and used the platform he built to complete the transaction.

   In desperation, Fuld put his last hope on Barclays Bank of the United Kingdom.

   The afternoon before yesterday, Lehman and Barclays signed an agreement of intent to acquire.

   But a few hours later, the FSA rejected the deal, citing too much risk.

  The actions of the British can be regarded as another kick to Lehman Brothers who are on the edge of the cliff.

   Because this is equivalent to an official British endorsement that Lehman has serious problems.

   Who would dare to buy it?

  Therefore, no one came to rescue Lehman, even if Fuld broke his voice.

   Just yesterday, Bernanke gave Fuld an ultimatum: the government will not save Lehman Brothers, and Lehman will be used as a typical case to warn those reckless and unscrupulous institutions in the market.

   So far, the 48-hour emergency rescue of Lehman Brothers, who has been lying in the ICU, has failed, the electrocardiogram has stopped beating, and the bankruptcy has entered the final countdown.

   Well-informed people, including Xia Jingxing and Liu Hai, received relevant news yesterday.

   "You said, what is Ford doing now?"

   After getting into the car, Xia Jingxing asked about Liu Hai who was sitting in the back row with him.

   "I heard that an emergency board of directors is being held to discuss the bankruptcy conditions proposed by the Federal Reserve."

  Liu Hai raised his hand and glanced at his watch, "The meeting that started at seven o'clock yesterday evening has been held for more than five hours, and it should be almost over!

Once the    meeting is over, the bankruptcy news should be officially announced to the outside world. "

  Xia Jingxing said with a smile: "The board of directors has been open for a long time, from evening to midnight."

   "After all, it's the last board meeting, so it's good to say goodbye."

  Liu Hai's face was ridiculed, and at this time, his spirit that he had suppressed for half a year finally relaxed.

  I think they sweated a lot when they shorted Lehman. After all, this is a century-old store and a well-known top investment bank on Wall Street.

   But with the announcement of the second quarter financial report, Lehman officially began to take off the fig leaf on Lehman, the stock price plummeted, and both Vision Capital and Greenlight Capital made a fortune.

After   , the short-selling behavior against Lehman did not stop. Not only the two hedge funds of the two of them were short-selling, but other institutions also joined the short-selling army and beat the underdogs together.

  The market trend is like this. Wherever there is an opportunity to make money, we will join forces. There is no friendship or position to speak of.

   A few days ago, Lehman released its third-quarter financial report again. This time, the loss was as high as $3.9 billion, which was $1.1 billion more than the $2.8 billion loss announced in the second quarter.

   The market was full of turmoil, and Lehman's share price plummeted from a dozen dollars to $3.65, which was a complete sounding of Lehman's death knell.

   At this moment, Fuld began to put down his face, put down all psychological burdens, and hurriedly sent a distress signal to all forces that could ask for help.

   "The fall of Lehman Brothers, I don't know how big a chain reaction it will cause in the market."

  Liu Hai muttered to himself, with the series of critical attacks, Lehman's stock price has long since fallen to the bottom, and the short-selling profits of Vision Capital are basically locked.

   However, compared to the investment in Lehman, more funds of Vision Capital are invested in a series of derivatives such as shorting the underlying bank stocks, buying put options and shorting index and stock index options.

How much profit    can achieve depends on how big the storm is after Lehman's body falls.

   President Xia Jing sighed, "The market will open in about nine hours, and all the answers will be revealed."

  Liu Hai nodded lightly and didn't ask any more questions. In fact, he already had the corresponding answer in his heart, but he just thought it was a bit too dreamy!

   "Oh, by the way, how is the situation on Hong Kong Island? I heard that the battle situation is very stalemate? Lehman's fall should be able to break the balance, right?"

  Xia Jingxing glanced at Liu Hai and smiled lightly, "Some people outside said that the Li family is about to start a short squeeze, so I can't close my position.

  What if they withstand this financial tsunami and raise the stock price? "

  Liu Hai smiled, "Even if the Li family has the heart and the power, but the market is not opened by their family, and the people's hearts and market confidence are not within their grasp."

   "Let's look down, the good show has just been staged!"

  …………

  …………

   The next day.

   Early in the morning, Xia Jingxing came to No. 40 Wall Street, ready to witness the miracle.

  Compared with normal days, the employees are also very active today.

   Even people who are dedicated to their work cannot help but talk to their colleagues at this time.

   "Have you heard? At one o'clock this morning, Ford officially declared Lehman bankruptcy!"

   "I heard it earlier, I was still discussing this with my friends in the middle of the night! To be honest, I still think this news is a bit like an April Fool's joke. How could Lehman fall?"

"It won't fall, the key depends on whether the government is willing to help! Lehman is a bit unlucky. The government has been bailing Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae continuously, and has been criticized by public opinion, so Lehman can only become a victim. ."

   "Lehman concealed it too deeply. If he had disclosed the risk earlier, like Bear Stearns did, he might have gone ashore earlier."

   "Fold is to blame!"

  …

   As soon as Xia Jingxing walked into the office area, he heard the chatter of the employees.

   But when this group of people saw the appearance of the big boss Xia Jingxing, they immediately felt their throats being choked by a big invisible hand, and they all closed their mouths.

   The office area, which had been very noisy before, immediately quieted down.

   Liu Hai, who was standing behind Xia Jingxing, came out at this moment and shouted loudly, "Turn on all the TVs! Quick!"

   Hearing the order, the employees acted quickly and turned on all the TV sets.

  There are dozens of TV sets hanging in the office hall of thousands of square meters. At this time, these TV sets are all playing the same picture.

   Countless news and radio interview vehicles were jammed under the Lehman Brothers office building. All kinds of long guns and short cannons were aimed at the door of the building, shooting Lehman employees who kept walking out with cardboard boxes and suitcases.

   The faces of these financial talents who lost their jobs are no longer as bright as they used to be. They all have their heads down, their eyes are blank, and their expressions are numb, like walking dead.

   There were also people weeping in a low voice, hugging and saying goodbye to their colleagues at the door of the company.

   Dense layoffs scattered on the streets, blocking traffic.

  Because there are too many Lehman Brothers resigners, the police also dispatched a lot of police forces to pull the cordon and maintain order at the scene.

  Two workers took down the signboard with "Lehman Brothers" from the building door in frustration...

   Including Xia Jingxing, everyone in the New York office of Envision Capital silently watched the scenes that appeared on the TV, and their hearts were affected a lot.

  Lehman Brothers, which has been established for 158 years, ranked 132nd in the Fortune Global 500, and has total assets of nearly 700 billion US dollars, has really fallen!

   After watching the live TV for more than ten minutes, Liu Hai suddenly clapped his hands and said with a serious expression: "The market will open in half an hour, and now everyone, immediately return to their respective jobs.

The experience of   Lehman taught us a truth. Nothing is too big to fail. If you want to survive on Wall Street, you have to work harder and harder than others! "

   Hearing these words, all the employees froze in their hearts. It is foreseeable that Wall Street will become more and more introverted in the future. What about promotion and salary increase? If you can keep a stable job and not lose your job, that's fine.

   For a company like Vision Capital that also pays generous bonuses, every position is a sweet treat!

   Soon, everyone returned to their respective positions in unison, looking at the screen in front of them, waiting for the market to open.

   At 9:30, the U.S. stock market officially opened.

   It took only nine minutes for Lehman Brothers’ stock price to crash from $3.65 to 29 cents, a 92% drop.

  The three major indexes have recorded their biggest one-day point declines in seven years since the September 11 incident.

   The Dow Jones fell 504.48 points, or 4.42%.

The S&P 500 fell 58 points, or 4.6%.

   The Nasdaq fell 81.36 points, or 3.6%.

   American International Group AIG shares fell 60.8% that day, and the market value of US$18 billion evaporated out of thin air.

   Bank of America shares fell 21.3%.

   Goldman Sachs fell 12.1%.

   Morgan Stanley fell 13.5%.

   Wachovia fell 25%.

  …

   This is a day full of darkness and turmoil, so it is also called "Black Monday".

   (end of this chapter)