Chapter 497: 3.5 Billion in Floating Profits!
The next day.
It was Black Friday across the Pacific, and the market opening was imminent.
For everyone present, this day felt stretched into infinity—each minute, each second, lasting as long as a century.
Besides the traders, Gu Yebai and the others had also arrived on site, bringing their own laptops to connect to the international network, searching for the news they desperately wanted to see.
Finally, as they had hoped.
Suddenly!
Zhou Muchen sprang from his chair, pointing at his screen and shouting excitedly.
“It’s here! Sister Yutong! Look! It’s happening!”
His excited shout immediately drew everyone over. They rushed to his computer, crowding around to see the screen.
Though the headlines were in English, most of them could understand—these were, after all, people who had studied abroad.
When they confirmed their eyes weren’t playing tricks on them, excitement erupted.
On the screen, urgent financial news headlines were sweeping across every major portal.
“BREAKING: Lehman Brothers Fails to Find Buyer, Bankruptcy Appears Inevitable!”
“Wall Street in Panic as Interbank Lending Rates Skyrocket!”
“Weekend Emergency Talks Fail to Save Lehman—Century-Old Investment Bank on Verge of Collapse?”
“…”
Each more shocking than the last, each more terrifying!
These weren’t mere speculation or warnings anymore—these were blood-soaked facts.
Anyone watching the US markets could sense what kind of scene would unfold once trading began.
But even if they reacted now, it was too late.
“Hahaha!” Someone suddenly burst into laughter.
“Sister Yutong, you’re a legend!”
“We’re going to be rich!”
“…”
The Yunshan Society had staked almost their entire fortunes, even borrowing heavily, all to bet on this moment.
It could be said that their futures were now inextricably tied to those massively leveraged short positions.
If successful, they would create a financial legend.
If they failed, the 4.7 billion RMB they had invested would vanish into thin air, and they would be left with nothing—including Liu Yutong.
During this waiting period, neither Liu Yutong nor Chen Mo—nor anyone else, traders included—had slept well. The tension was overwhelming.
But finally, their moment in the sun was arriving.
Liu Yutong stood before the main control station, arms crossed as she stared at the large screen. On the surface, she appeared calm and unperturbed, but as the moment approached, her blood began to boil.
This moment—finally here!
“Everyone, final check on system connections, account status, and emergency protocols!”
Chen Mo’s voice rang through the hall. Though he was trying to maintain composure, the slight tremor in his voice betrayed his excitement.
After issuing the operational command, he couldn’t help but glance at Liu Yutong standing before the large screen, his heart filled with admiration.
This woman—their backbone—had such sharp instincts, such ruthless vision!
Most crucially, she possessed a daring that ordinary people simply didn’t have.
At this moment, someone shouted.
“The market’s open!”
On the large screen, Nasdaq 100 index futures had started pre-market trading deep in the red.
But within five minutes, the entire index plummeted like a kite with its string cut!
-1%, -3%… the numbers flashed wildly.
Red!
The favorite color in China, bar none.
In China’s markets, this color meant gains, but across the Pacific, it meant the exact opposite.
Right now, all they saw was that glaring red!
No, this wasn’t ordinary red anymore—this was the color of blood!
Suddenly!
Another bombshell news alert popped up, like a nuclear warhead detonating in the global capital markets.
“Lehman Officially Files for Bankruptcy!”
With this news, panic spread through the markets like a plague.
Not just Lehman—AIG, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual… the names of financial giants kept appearing in the headlines.
-5%! -8%! -10%!!
With virtually no resistance, the index free-fell.
“Nasdaq Plunges 12% in Single Day—Largest Daily Drop in History!”
“Dow Jones Plunges Over 500 Points!”
“Global Markets Crash in Sync, VIX Volatility Index Soars to All-Time High!”
“…”
For many around the world, today brought nothing but bad news.
Across the Pacific, shareholders were wailing as countless fortunes evaporated in an instant, leaving only despair.
At the top-floor operations center of Cloud Summit, however, the atmosphere couldn’t have been more different.
Time ticked by.
On the large screen, their profit numbers were skyrocketing at a dizzying speed.
Chen Mo immediately reported the latest figures to Liu Yutong.
“Miss Liu, our main short position on the Nasdaq 100 has a notional value exceeding $27.2 billion. Current floating profits… are over 400%.”
“And some of our targeted tech stock shorts are up over 600%!”
“Those far out-of-the-money put options… some have already gained over…”
“…”
Zhou Muchen and the other non-professionals didn’t fully grasp this and asked in confusion.
“What does notional value of $27.2 billion mean? How much have we actually made?”
Chen Mo took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement. “Notional value isn’t our capital or profit. Think of it as using margin to control a $27.2 billion gamble!”
He walked straight to the whiteboard, grabbing a marker and scribbling numbers.
“Our initial capital was 4.7 billion RMB—about $690 million. After months of adjustments, our main fund grew to roughly $920 million. Of that, about $500 million was used as margin.”
“That $500 million deposit, leveraged at roughly 50x, let us control a $25 billion position!”
“Now that the market’s crashed, we’ve won that gamble. A 400% floating profit means our $500 million has already earned over $2 billion—and that’s just the main position. Including the $400+ million in options and other channels, our conservative estimate for today’s gains should exceed 3.5… well, billion US dollars!”
“Gasp!!!”
Though they were prepared, when Chen Mo announced that number, the entire operations center gasped in unison.
“This is insane! The world’s gone mad! And… we’ve gone mad too!”