From legendary short seller to god of American capital

Chapter 262 Mixed War

Chapter 262 Mixed War

Peter Pan, a floor trader at Paine Weber Securities on the NYSE, looked at the clock on the wall while holding the order to sell 1 shares of General Electric at market price.

"...Three minutes left, how the hell is this going to go through?! That's 1 shares!"

Although he said that, he hurried to the middle counter, where the trading counter for General Electric, today's new and hot stock, was located.

When Peter Pan arrived at the counter, he found that the crowd was even larger than when he had just sold his first 1 shares of General Electric.

You can smell the strong stench of sweat emanating from the crowd of people from afar.

Meanwhile, the area around the counter was filled with the clamor of bidding.

"$101! I'm buying 500 shares right now!" A floor trader shouted to those around him, holding up his order form and making a buy gesture with his hand.

"All done, here you go! I've already made 5 yuan on these 500 shares. Besides that, I need to sell another 200 shares. Anyone want them?" In another trading room, a trader's face was beaming with undisguised joy. He was holding a handwritten temporary order, which was probably a quick short-term order he had placed for himself.

This floor trader sold 500 shares, still had an order for 200 shares in hand, and then immediately started looking for other buyers.

"Oh, that's perfect! So many orders at whole numbers mean that the 1-share order I just received should be able to be filled."

Peter Pan thought this way, and he did this way.

He glanced instinctively at the clock on the wall; there was less than a minute left before the market closed. He took a step forward, made a sell signal, and shouted loudly to those around him, "Sell 1 shares of General Electric! Market price! Hey, who has an order right now? Give it to me quickly!"

The traders around the counter had been preparing for the upcoming lunch break. They were all a bit stunned when a large sell order suddenly appeared just before the break ended.

A trader from Brown Brothers brokerage pulled out a trade order and said crisply, "I have 1500 shares here, priced at $100 and a quarter."

"I have 2000 shares here, but my price is exactly $100!"

"I have two hundred shares here!"

"A total of 1500 shares. Take mine first. My price is $100 3/4."

At the counter, the floor brokers who still had buy orders for GE rushed up to Peter Pan and shoved their orders into his hands.

Clearly, they also wanted to complete the task as soon as possible so they could have a nice lunch...

Just as Peter Pan was frantically completing the transaction, the noon bell rang.

According to the conventions of floor trading, Peter Pan had to record all the orders in front of him before he could go back to eat after the transaction was completed.

Seeing the outstretched hands and the payment slips in their hands, Peter Pan swiftly ate all the bills.

But after all the transactions were completed, Peter Pan suddenly realized that a total of 8350 shares had been traded, which was far from 1 shares.

"Hey! Don't you guys have any left? I still have 1650 shares left! At least take the rest! I wanted to have a good rest at noon, I don't want to be stuck with this order!" Peter Pan shouted at the crowd.

The surrounding floor traders laughed as if watching a spectacle. One of them quipped, "You took all the orders at the $100 mark! You dumped the stock too aggressively, managing to break through GE's key level at this point. No wonder you didn't eat lunch properly. Come back to trade at 1 PM!"

Peter Pan was a little stunned, thinking to himself, "I didn't even notice, but my 1 shares have already driven down the price of General Electric?"

He hadn't decided where to eat lunch when a trader in a blue jacket blocked his way, frowning and looking impatient, and asked...

"You bastard, who gave you permission to short sell right before the market closes?"

Peter Pan was taken aback, looked up, and realized he didn't recognize him at all, so he said in a cold and indifferent tone, "This isn't really your business, is it, sir?"

"I deliberately left the 100 mark there, and you broke it before the midday break. Now I won't be able to collect any more chips this afternoon!" the trader in the blue jacket said bitterly.

Peter Pan looked at his name tag again as if to confirm, and found that there was no registered company on his name tag. This should be another floor trader with an institutional exclusive seat.

"Business is business, sir!" Peter Pan didn't want to cause trouble, but he also didn't want to appear too weak. "I'm just doing this on behalf of someone else. All I know is that I should prioritize fulfilling my client's requests."

The floor trader in the blue jacket glanced at him, then swiftly snatched the order form from his hand, his eyes already scanning its contents.

"Hey, what are you doing? You reckless bastard!" Peter Pan quickly snatched the order form back from his hand.

But the man in the blue jacket had already seen the contents of the order form. He frowned and said, "If I remember correctly, you also sold 1 shares this morning. Was that order also from the New York branch?"

Peter Pan ignored him and turned away angrily.

The man in the blue jacket said behind him, "We'll meet again this afternoon! Damn it, I hope you don't steal my orders again!"

Peter Pan frowned, squeezed out of the crowd, and then saw the floor trader who had just sold 700 shares, whispering to another floor trader.

"...See, I told you so! I knew I'd make money following him. That's $3500! And it didn't even take 40 minutes. It was amazing!"

Another trader nodded and said, "This guy's ruthless, and incredibly generous. He managed to drive down the price of a stock as large as General Electric. I wonder which tycoon's personal trader he is..."

Peter Pan was a little curious. He leaned closer, pretending to greet him familiarly, and then asked, "Who's that guy? The one in the blue jacket? You guys made money by shorting his stock?"

The two men looked at him, and one of them nodded, saying, "That's right, brother. This guy's been incredibly aggressive; he's already dumped at least 3 to 4 shares this morning! Otherwise, how could he drive the stock price down so low?"

Peter Pan was startled, thinking that General Electric's total share capital was only 40 shares. This guy sold so many at once. What if Morgan insiders pushed up the stock price and squeezed shorts tomorrow? Where would he find so many shares to cover his position?

However, judging from the man's confident and arrogant demeanor, Peter Pan vaguely felt that he might have been overthinking things this time.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Peter Pan hurriedly finished his sandwich and walked a few steps to the central counter, ready to sell the remaining shares in his hand.

There, he first saw the arrogant trader in the blue coat, and then a group of other floor traders from different banks huddled together, as if seeking warmth in a group.

The traders were whispering amongst themselves about some news.

The floor trader in the blue jacket saw Peter Pan's arrival, glared at him fiercely, and muttered, "You're fucking lucky..."

Peter Pan glared back fiercely, but didn't dare to say anything back. He moved closer to the other floor traders.

The opening bell had already rung at 1 p.m., but Peter Pan, not wanting to listen to their discussion, gestured to them.

"I have some General Electric stock left. Anyone want it? Selling at market price!"

The traders on the floor looked at him, their faces showing hesitation. After a good ten seconds, one of them finally said, "96 and a half dollars. If you think it's right, sell them all to me!"

Peter Pan frowned. "Hey, how could it drop so much all of a sudden? Are you even talking about the same stock as me? I'm shorting General Electric, and that stock was $100 before the market closed this morning."

The man's face was grave as he muttered, "I didn't expect it to be this low either, but haven't you heard? Westinghouse Electric has already secured the lighting contract for next year's Chicago World's Fair!"

Peter Pan wasn't very familiar with GE's fundamentals. After hearing the news, he thought about it for a moment before realizing that it was GE's competitor that had won the big government contract.

Interestingly, the competitor announced this news at noon today, coinciding with General Electric's first day of trading. That's absolutely disgusting.

Peter Pan frowned, somewhat like the other floor traders, and asked, "Does anyone here have a higher bid than him?"

The two traders looked around, but neither of them stepped forward; it seemed they were all planning to wait and see.

Peter Pan didn't hesitate any longer and handed the rest of his order to the person who had just made the bid.

In short, I sold most of the 1 shares at the $100 mark, which gives me a satisfactory result for the client.

Before leaving the intermediary counter, Peter Pan glanced again at the floor trader in the blue jacket. The latter had his brows furrowed tightly as he stared at the increasingly bustling intermediary counter, as if waiting for the stock price to rebound. He seemed to want to continue shorting the stock.

At the same time, James Keane's floor trader Quincy also came over, holding an order form, intending to make a trade.

Before he even reached the central counter, a deliveryman rushed up to him, grabbed his arm, and said something to him.

Quincy, with his slicked-back hair, looked puzzled. He glanced down at the order form, then turned to the deliveryman and asked, "Did Mr. Keane really say that?"

"Yes, he told you to give up buying!" the other party replied.

Quincy tore the order form to shreds without hesitation, a slick smile spreading across his face. "Okay, I can leave work early again today."

But the clerk pulled out another order form from his pocket and whispered to him, "Mr. Keane wants you to sell 1 shares using another account..."

Quincy took the order form, glared at the deliveryman, and cursed, "Damn it, can't you just say what you want to say all at once!"

Meanwhile, other brokerage firms received orders to sell General Electric shares and rushed to the central counter...

(End of this chapter)