stjorthotic Chapter 329 Recruiting a Newcomer and Setting a Trap for a Master
Chapter 329 Recruiting a Newcomer and Setting a Trap for a Master
Chapter 329 Recruiting a Newcomer and Setting a Trap for a Master
Mr. Porter nodded repeatedly as he looked at the candlestick chart, but he immediately asked, "How can you be sure when your competitors entered the market?"
Larry remained calm, his fingers tapping incessantly on the candlestick chart, clicking on the individual candlesticks representing the day's stock price.
"Time and price alone are not enough; I need to introduce a third variable—volume!"
"Quantity?" Matthew asked in surprise.
"Yes, that's the trading volume for the day!" Larry picked up the stack of trading records, then picked up another stack of reports before saying, "This is a daily stock count from the New York Stock Exchange that I asked a trader to send me—but it only shows the number of shares traded and the prices; you still need to calculate it yourself."
Mr. Potter stared at him, already having a rough idea of what he was going to do.
Larry quickly calculated in his mind, roughly estimating the trading volume for the day, and then drew the volume for the day below the candlestick chart.
This is a black cylinder located directly below the candlestick chart. Correspondingly, it also has coordinates indicating the number of shares traded and the trading volume for that day.
Larry drew three volume bars, and Matthew understood them, so he took the pencil from Larry and started drawing them for him.
With the operations handled by Matthew, Larry was able to focus on calculating the trading volume. So, in less than 20 minutes, the two had already completed the trading volume calculation for American Tobacco over the past few months.
So this candlestick chart was finally completed.
Aside from Saturdays when trading is only half-day and therefore trading volume is somewhat lower, anyone who recognizes Arabic numerals and isn't blind can immediately sense the extremely abnormal fluctuations in trading volume on certain days.
「3月26日、4月11、13、15日————」马修已经拿着手中的铅笔开始点数起来。
He identified 13 trading days with unusually high trading volume.
But under Larry's guidance, it avoided some key breakout points or market bottoming-out dates, ultimately narrowing its target down to six.
"Only when short sellers have an absolute advantage and trading volume is high will it be the day my opponents make their move!" Larry stared at the candlestick chart circled in red, but his smile vanished.
「那就是4月15日、4月21日和5月10日！这三天最符合你的要求。其他三天也有重大可疑————」波特先生捏着下巴走上了一步。
"Yes! These next few days are the best time to start—" Larry said thoughtfully.
Matthew stared at the chart, his eyes gleaming. The more he drew the candlestick chart himself, the more he understood the sheer power of this chart that shaped stock price fluctuations.
"Let me inquire for you. I have a few acquaintances at the New York Stock Exchange—" Mr. Porter nodded secretly.
Suddenly, he looked up at Larry and asked, "Speaking of which, I have a younger brother who used to be a trader for a big company. He recently lost his job. Would you be interested in meeting him?"
"Oh? Who is this person?" Larry asked curiously.
"He was a floor trader in the commissioned trading department of an institution—but apparently he lost money trading. His father was a former colleague of mine at the NYSE. Now that he's in trouble, he's come to me," Mr. Porter explained.
Larry nodded in agreement, "That means this person is familiar with the stock market and is a floor trader at the NYSE."
"Then I can see him. Where is he?"
"I've assigned him to the sales department! But since his business license was just revoked, I can only let him do odd jobs here. He'll be doing cleaning work here at night."
Mr. Potter took out his pocket watch, glanced at it, and continued, "He'll be here in another hour, around 6 p.m., to clean and keep watch over the accountant's books and the safe."
"Okay, sure! See you again sometime. I'm actually a bit short-handed right now," Larry said seriously, glancing at the candlestick chart.
At 6:20 p.m. on Saturday, Larry and Matthew sat in a steakhouse, drinking whiskey and chatting.
A short while later, Mr. Potter came in with a bearded man in his thirties.
Upon seeing the two enter the restaurant, Larry stood up with a smile and greeted them.
The bearded man seemed a little awkward, his eyes darting around. After Larry invited him to take a seat, he remained silent.
Mr. Potter placed the hat and coat in the cloakroom before walking over with a smile, patting the bearded man on the back and saying, "Vanderlip! I practically watched him grow up. A very capable fellow."
Larry nodded and extended his hand to Vanderlip. "Larry Livingston! It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Vanderlip."
Vanderlip quickly extended his hand and shook hands with Larry. "You can call me Frank. My name is Frank Vanderlip."
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Vanderlip turned to Mr. Potter and said, "Sir! I haven't finished my cleaning duties for today. Perhaps I should go back to work now—"
"No rush! Let's have a meal together and get to know each other. Larry's not an outsider either." Mr. Potter smiled and patted him on the shoulder to encourage him.
Larry quickly called over a waiter to serve steaks to the four of them. He even personally poured whiskey for the three of them.
By the time the steaks arrived, the four had already drunk whiskey twice. The alcohol, combined with the lively atmosphere, had dampened Vanderlip's previous timidity, and his expression regained its sharp edge.
"I heard you used to be a trader at the New York Stock Exchange? Oh, I really admire that place, but I've never been there. Could you tell me what it is?" Larry asked Vanderlip with a smile.
"That's a fucking devil's kitchen!" Vanderlip raised his voice, then, perhaps realizing he'd misspoke, smiled apologetically and calmed himself before continuing, "You know about the short squeeze a while back, right? That old guy Morgan, he did a perfect short squeeze on GE stock—so many families were ruined, you didn't see it, the market was in turmoil those days—people were like vampires, like walking corpses." Vanderlip said slowly, his thoughts drifting back to the nightmare of a month ago.
Matthew and Larry exchanged a quick glance, then silently watched Vanderlip.
Van der Lip then recounted his past experiences to Larry in detail. Of course, he omitted his former employer, but he made it clear that the most crucial point was that he had made a wrong investment, which led to his bankruptcy.
Now he is not only penniless and separated from his wife and children, but also owes a big shot in New York tens of thousands of dollars.
Because of the hardships he had faced in life, Vanderlip had no choice but to seek help from Mr. Potter.
By this time, the steaks had been served by the waiter, and Larry invited everyone to eat, temporarily interrupting the topic.
The four of them enjoyed a sumptuous steak dinner. During the meal, Larry kept telling jokes to liven up the atmosphere and also took the initiative to start conversations with the other three.
By the time dinner was over, Van der Lip had become quite familiar with Larry.
After dinner, Van der Lip volunteered to return to the sales office to clean up and check the security measures.
After the three said goodbye to him, Vanderlip waved to them, put on his coat, pushed open the door of the steakhouse, and walked straight to the Paine Weber Securities Company across the street.
After watching him walk away, Mr. Potter turned back to look at him. "How about this man? Is he suitable for you?"
Larry smiled without saying a word, but Matthew, who already understood, said, "—I never would have guessed he could owe someone hundreds of thousands of dollars! That's a terrible thing."
Mr. Potter nodded. "Yes! But no matter how much I inquired, he didn't reveal who he owed money to."
"
Larry laughed. "You've seen that man before, sir! Didn't you notice why he lost his job?"
Mr. Porter paused for a moment, then realized, "Oh, I never thought of that—God, the stock he was shorted was General Electric."
"So, his boss must be one of those short sellers on Wall Street, maybe even Stillman, or Rockefeller Jr.!" Larry said with absolute certainty. He was even sure that there was a 99% chance that the big short seller who could make a trader lose tens of thousands of dollars was Stillman.
Mr. Potter nodded solemnly, "That's a pity—I was going to let you use him. He's in a very bad situation right now, and he's really capable."
Larry looked out the window at the street scene, as if searching for Vanderlip's silhouette, and said with a smile, "You're quite right about that, he's a talented man. But he's far from being down on his luck—"
Matthew asked curiously, "Why do you say that?"
“The truly down-on-their-luck people aren’t like him—” Larry smiled. “They’re either numb to life or indifferent to everything they’ve seen. His current cowardice is just a normal reaction after suffering a series of blows. But once he’s recovered for a while, just like after those two glasses of whiskey, he’ll become manic again—it’s in his nature, or maybe he hasn’t suffered enough yet—”
Mr. Porter nodded, frowning, and said, "I was thinking of getting him a job as a trader at a fund company, but his trading license has been revoked and won't be reinstated for at least two years—I even said if you can use this guy, keep him around. He's quite a special talent."
Larry smiled and shook his head, saying softly, "Mr. Potter, it's not that I'm being disrespectful, it's just that this man's 'talent' isn't very useful. It would be better if he could hone his skills a little more—"
As he spoke, Larry recalled the story Vanderlip had told him at the dinner table, and concluded, "I guess he must have been asked to pay damages by his former employer and signed a confidentiality agreement before leaving the exchange. He's unlikely to go back on his own, unless he can make up that huge sum of money."
"How is that possible? That's over ten thousand dollars! He works as a handyman and he could never save that much money in his entire life," Matthew shook his head and sighed.
Mr. Potter asked earnestly, "So what do you think of him as a person?"
Larry thought carefully before answering, "This person is indeed a master at identifying market trends, but he also has fatal flaws in his emotions. One is his extremely poor self-control, which will cause him to be unable to remain calm under pressure; the other is his arrogance caused by pride, which will lead him to act as if he is being clever."
Mr. Porter listened carefully, nodded, and said, "You make a good point. In that case, I'll also give up the idea of using him as a fund trader."
"But—this person isn't unusable, but I need to assign him a special position. Let him toughen up; if he can make it, he'll stay! If he can't, then no one can help him—" Larry said solemnly.
"What could he possibly do?" Mr. Potter asked curiously.
Matthew also looked at Larry.
Larry smiled. "If we hand him over to Old K, and he can manage Old K's real estate projects well, maybe he can regain his confidence."
Larry spent the entire Sunday working with Matthew on patents, setting up a fund with lawyers, and dealing with electric fans, among other things.
The biggest achievement of the day was actually finalizing the Tesla fund deal. The lawyers had fully grasped Larry's intentions and decided to manipulate Tesla's patent licensing, leaving "backdoors"—
After the lawyer left, Larry was in high spirits and instructed Matthew, "You can also contact Nikola Tesla later. When will he be back?"
"It should be soon! When I visited his lab last time, his assistant said it might be within the next day or two, because he has to come back to prepare for the Chicago World's Fair," Matthew replied.
Larry laughed and said, "That's good. The sooner he gets the contract signed—then the fund can be authorized to Manhattan Union Industries to start producing small motors—"
Matthew added, "If you're in a hurry, I'll go check on Tesla tomorrow after I finish my business!"
The next day, June 13th, Monday.
Larry first went to Goldman Sachs and found Henry Goldman. Ostensibly, he inquired about real estate, but he also intentionally or unintentionally asked Goldman to help him check if there were any common orders from the same branch or institutional seat for American tobacco on those six specific trading days.
Henry Goldman frowned and looked at Larry. "Why are you suspicious of these past few days?"
Larry laughed and said, "Don't worry, I paid for it!"
Henry Goldman waved his hand dismissively. "Look at you! I never said I wouldn't help you investigate. The way you're talking makes it sound like I'm only doing this for your bonus—of course, if it's convenient, you could also tell me how much you're willing to pay?"
"It's no big deal, $100 is fine, right?"
"Sure! Dollars are always a good thing, no matter how few they are—" Goldman smiled sincerely.
Larry nodded and smiled, then asked, "Is your good brother, Lehman, who trades futures, still at the futures company?"
"Of course! He's obsessed with making money!" Goldman had no doubt about it. But then Goldman asked, "Why do you want to see him?"
"It's similar to what I asked you to look up!" Larry replied with a laugh.
Larry then rushed to Lehman Brothers, where he met Herbert Lehman.
The short, dark-haired Lehman looked at Larry, blinking repeatedly, as if he recognized him but couldn't quite place him.
"My name is Larry Livingston —"
"I'm sorry, sir, have you been to our company before?" Lehman asked.
"Yes, I came with Henry Goldman!" Larry explained patiently.
Goldman's eyes lit up immediately. He instantly thought of his best friend Goldman, and also of Larry.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Livingston. Are you here to trade futures?" Lehman asked with a smile.
"Yes, I have some requests for you to make—but on one condition: I need the instructions to come from Reading's sales department. Can you do that here?" Larry asked with a smile.
"Sure!" Lehman smiled sincerely. "You, you only need us, Lehman Brothers, we're always at your service. Were you recently... were you conducting business at Reading Company?"
"Yes!" Larry laughed, but in his mind he was constantly calculating how to use Lehman Brothers' futures trading platform to set a honeypot trap for the "expert" who was secretly targeting him.
>
Fortune