Rebirth in 1985

Chapter 3 Financial Crisis ()

Nothing happened that night. The next morning, Lu Shaohua woke up very early. However, today was different from yesterday. When he got up, he did not rush to the securities firm. Instead, he ran for a while and then stayed in his residence, not going anywhere else.

It’s not that Lu Shaohua doesn’t care about the peso exchange rate, but that Lu Shaohua doesn’t need to go out and doesn’t need to wait until the end of today to know how much the exchange rate will fall. If that’s the case, what does it matter whether he goes or not?

Lu Shaohua didn't go in the end, but when Liu Mingzhang and the others came back in the evening, Lu Shaohua's expression changed completely and he became extremely happy. Why was he happy?

The answer is simple. Lu Shaohua made money today, and he made tens of millions of dollars. How could he not be happy?

The bet was won. Yes, the bet was won. Lu Shaohua knew that he had won the bet without asking the result. It was not because he knew he had won because of his memory, but he could tell from the expressions of Liu Mingzhang and the others.

Disappointment and despair were reflected on the faces of Liu Mingzhang and Li Zongen. They looked sad, as if someone had offended them.

That's true. Each of them lost more than 10 million US dollars in gambling. How could they be happy?

Regret, deep regret filled their hearts, but is regret useful? Time will not give them regret medicine, so no matter whether it is Liu Mingzhang or Li Zongen, their faces are not good, they are very depressed, and a sentence keeps flashing in their hearts.

"If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn't have made the bet."

Lu Shaohua was in a good mood when he saw the two of them with sad faces, but he did not show it. After all, Liu Mingzhang was his subordinate, and although he won a huge sum of money of tens of millions of dollars, he could not gloat over his misfortune at this moment, and he should take care of his subordinates' feelings.

"How was the situation today?" Lu Shaohua did not think about comforting them, because he knew that the more he comforted them, the more it would hit them hard. So he simply changed the subject and asked about the situation today.

"It fell, and it fell badly." Liu Mingzhang responded expressionlessly.

"15.3%! Why don't I add one more percentage point? Then the commission will double." Li Zongen said with a wry smile.

Indeed, if he raised it by one more percentage point, he would win the bet. Of course, this also had a prerequisite, that is, if Li Zongen raised it by one percentage point, Lu Shaohua would definitely not bet with him.

"Haha!" Lu Shaohua laughed, as if he had expected it, then his face became serious and he said, "This decline will last for a long time, but we can't keep speculating on the exchange rate. Once the exchange rate falls, combined with Mexico's national conditions, the stock market will definitely fall as well."

According to Lu Shaohua's memory, Mexico's foreign exchange reserves dropped by nearly $20 billion in two days from the 21th to the 40st. The entire financial market in Mexico was in chaos. From the 20th to the 22nd, in just three days, the exchange rate of the Mexican peso against the US dollar plummeted by 42%, and about 17% of the foreign investment absorbed by Mexico was speculative short-term securities investment. The capital outflow was like a fire under the cauldron, and the Mexican stock market fell accordingly.

The chaos in the financial market affected the stock market, and the stock market followed suit and fell. This was Lu Shaohua's main focus. Although he could make a lot of money by speculating on exchange rates, it was far less profitable than futures. In particular, Lu Shaohua had applied for a margin system from a local bank half a month ago, and his profits could be doubled if he speculated.

The most important thing is that Lu Shaohua knows the specific extent of the index decline, so he can make a profit without loss, which makes Lu Shaohua more confident in transferring funds into the stock market.

When it came to business, Liu Mingzhang's depressed expression disappeared. Although he felt bad about losing more than 10 million US dollars, he also cheered up and spoke in accordance with the principle of doing things. "It is a foregone conclusion that the stock market will fall. It's just a matter of how big the decline will be and whether it's worth our speculation."

Now was the time to discuss the issue, not to quibble over the big and small, so Liu Mingzhang spoke in a generous manner, without holding back at all just because his boss, Lu Shaohua, was present.

Li Zongen had the same idea as Liu Mingzhang, which was whether it was worth hyping. He nodded in agreement but did not speak.

As for the old man surnamed Feng, he chose not to speak, because he knew he had no say, so he simply said nothing, and was too embarrassed to say anything. Last night he had guessed that the decline would not exceed 10%, but now it is 15.3%, a full five percentage points difference, which cannot be explained by the word "mistake".

It was precisely because the gap between yesterday's guesses was so huge that the old man surnamed Feng felt guilty, so he simply kept silent and sat there quietly, acting as a good listener.

Lu Shaohua paused for a moment, and seeing that the old man surnamed Feng didn't speak, he didn't wait any longer, and continued with the previous topic. "The stock market will not fall too much, and besides, we have already applied for the margin system, so we have to speculate."

Liu Mingzhang was the one who handled the application for the bank's deposit system. At first, he didn't understand Lu Shaohua's intention, but now he understands it. Coupled with the determination in Lu Shaohua's words, it is not difficult for Liu Mingzhang to guess that Lu Shaohua had already calculated this step.

Lu Shaohua had already made the decision, so what else did Liu Mingzhang have to say? He asked directly, "When does it start?"

This time, Lu Shaohua didn't rush to speak. He glanced at Liu Mingzhang and then said slowly, "There's no rush now. What I want to say is that we should split into two teams. One team will continue to speculate on exchange rates, and the other team will speculate on futures. Can you do it?"

Lu Shaohua had already made the plan before he came to Mexico. He planned for the two teams to operate separately. However, the team he brought with him this time consisted of dozens of people, divided into several teams. Separating them would inevitably bring pressure to Liu Mingzhang and Li Zongen.

"I have no problem." Liu Mingzhang expressed his opinion immediately. He has been under great pressure before, and this time is a good opportunity to challenge himself.

"I have no problem either." Needless to say, Li Zongen has managed more than a dozen offshore companies over the years and has long been accustomed to separate commands. It is the same now and he has no problem dealing with it.

"Okay." Lu Shaohua nodded heavily, then turned his attention to the old man surnamed Feng, and said after a moment of silence, "Mr. Feng, you are the leader of this team. Now you have two choices. The first is to continue to work on exchange rates, and the second is the stock market. Well, let me explain, if you choose the stock market, you may make more money."

Lu Shaohua knew that the stock market had fallen sharply, but the state funds belonged to the state after all, and the old man surnamed Feng was the leader of this trip, so Lu Shaohua gave him a chance to choose.

The reason why the country mobilized 5 billion US dollars to participate in this financial crisis is simply to make money from money and earn more money. Lu Shaohua reminded him that no matter how stupid the old man surnamed Feng is, he knows how to speculate in the stock market.

"The stock market." The old man surnamed Feng made his choice.

"Okay, starting from tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, you will slowly change the exchange rate, and then wait for my order." Lu Shaohua was also very straightforward and gave the order directly.

After giving all the instructions, Lu Shaohua didn't say anything else. Knowing that they were very tired, he simply let them go and rest.

Things became much simpler afterwards. Just as Lu Shaohua remembered, on the third day, December 12, the peso continued to plummet, falling another 22% in one day. So far, in just three days, the Mexican peso's exchange rate against the US dollar has plummeted by a total of 13.87%.

After the end of the 22nd, on the 23rd, the old man surnamed Feng began to supervise his four team members to slowly sell off their stocks in preparation for entering the stock market.

It took three whole days, and on the 26th, I finally sold everything and prepared to turn to the stock market. The only difference from before I entered the market was that the billion US dollars mobilized by the country had now doubled to billion US dollars.

How many times the funds have multiplied is not what Lu Shaohua needs to worry about. If he had not promised Mr. Deng that he would have the opportunity to make money for the country, Lu Shaohua would not have bothered to lead such a team of people to Mexico.

However, everything must have a beginning and an end. Now that he has already done it, Lu Shaohua has to keep going until the end of this financial crisis.

Time flies, and soon another three days have passed. It is the third to last day of 1994, which is December 12th.

This morning, Lu Shaohua got up earlier than usual and went downstairs. Seeing that everyone was there, he didn't hesitate to find a seat and sit down. He looked around and then asked, "Mingzhang, Zongen, have you two discussed it? Who will manipulate the exchange rate and who will manipulate the stock market?"

"My stock market, Zong En's exchange rate." Liu Mingzhang quickly agreed.

"Well, okay, Zong En, it's almost time, go and do your thing." Lu Shaohua didn't want to get Li Zong En away, but it was really late.

Li Zongen didn't say anything, he just stood up and left. Suddenly there were only three people left in the hall, Lu Shaohua, Liu Mingzhang and the old man named Feng.

"Today is the 29th, and there are only three days left until 1995." Lu Shaohua first said something unrelated to the topic, paused, and then continued with a serious expression. "Let's start today. The stock market may fall sharply tomorrow."

The financial crisis broke out on the 20th, and now 9 days have passed. The exchange rate has been falling, but the stock market has not fallen much. Although it is a bit unstable, many investors believe that the stock market will not be affected. However, they never expected that on the penultimate day of 1994, the stock market would plummet. Investors then woke up and realized that the 9-day period was just a reprieve.

"Target?" Liu Mingzhang said straightforwardly. At the same time, he was inexplicably excited because the time to show his skills had come.

Lu Shaohua glared at Liu Mingzhang unhappily, and then continued, "Mexican IPC Index."

Yes, what Lu Shaohua was speculating on was the IPC index, and he also used the margin system. As for the amount of funds, it was withdrawn from the original 586 US dollars, a total of 33 billion US dollars. It was a real big move.