After reading the more than ten pages of the column, Eric chatted with Chris on the phone for another half hour. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info hung up his phone and was sitting in front of the computer thinking about the problems he might face in the next period of time, when there was a knock on the door.

Raising his head, Cindy stood in the doorway and looked at his expression, and said with concern, "Eric, is something wrong?"

Eric leaned back in the leather chair and stretched out his hand towards Cindy, and the woman walked in, smiling and leaning into his arms.

Gently stroking Cindy's already slightly bulging lower abdomen, Eric's chin slammed on her shoulder to feel the seductive feminine scent, and said, "Why don't you rest for a while?"

"It's eight o'clock," Cindy said, pulling her face and tapping it to Eric's side, "Breakfast is ready." ”

Eric looked at the time in the lower right corner of the computer monitor, but he didn't get up, and said, "Let Linda live here during this time, she can still help take care of you." ”

"Well, she's actually moved over," Cindy nodded, took the initiative to get up and pull up Eric, and said, "Let's go eat first, I still have work in the morning." ”

Eric opened his mouth, but didn't try to persuade Cindy to stop working. Anyway, the recording of the new season of "America's Top Model Contest" will be completed next month, and Cindy will be able to stop and take maternity leave until the end of the year, when the little one is born.

After a brief wash, Eric and Cindy arrive at the dining room together, where Linda, wearing only a pale pink long T-shirt and exposing her two long legs, is setting up breakfast. Seeing Eric and Cindy come in, he didn't forget to glance at Eric because of what happened last night, and thoughtfully helped Cindy pull out a chair.

Eric sat down at the dining table, just picked up the tableware, and remembered one more thing, and said to the two women: "I will go to Australia in early August, and the executive gathering of the Firefly system is going to be held there this year, do you want to come together?"

"It's winter in Australia, right?" Linda immediately shook her head and said, "I'm not going, I'm afraid of the cold." ”

Cindy immediately remembered that Virginia and the others were still in Australia, and Eric must have arranged the party there for this reason. At this point, the man said he was going to take both of them over, apparently intending to push them to the front of the stage.

If she can confirm her identity in front of the core executives of the Firefly system, it will be of great benefit to both herself and the child in her womb. However, after hesitating for a moment, Cindy also shook her head and said: "Forget it, I'm not suitable for making airplanes now, and several projects in Linda's hands have been working on recently, and we can't leave." ”

Eric nodded: "Forget it, next time." ”

Linda reacted at this time, and when she heard that Cindy decided not to go, she didn't want to speak again, but secretly touched her flat lower abdomen, and there was inevitably a little more resentment in her eyes.

After breakfast, Eric sends Cindy and Linda to work at the production company, and then he himself rushes to the Firefly Investment Headquarters.

It was past nine o'clock, Eric arrived at the office area of Firefly Investment in Building 50 Rockefeller Center, and under the guidance of the staff, he pushed the door directly into a conference room, and found Chris leaning alone at the large conference table, staring intently at a wall-mounted TV on the wall.

Noticing Eric's arrival, Chris nodded in greeting and immediately pointed to the TV screen.

By this time, Eric had recognized the figure of a middle-aged judge on the TV screen that he had seen in the video the other day.

Coming to Chris and leaning side by side with him at the conference table, Thomas Jackson on the screen is being interviewed by CNN and showing the host a few pages of documents: "...... After this period of evidence gathering, we can already be 100% sure that Microsoft has very serious monopolistic behavior. In my opinion, only a spin-off of Microsoft and stricter controls can prevent this company from further undermining normal competition in the industry......"

Listening to the middle-aged judge and the CNN host's eloquent conversation, Eric raised his hand and looked at his watch, it was already 9:15, only 15 minutes before the opening of the Nasdaq.

Chris noticed Eric's movements and said, "It's too late, and even if some people react, they won't be able to respond effectively." ”

Eric nodded approvingly, understanding what Chris meant.

According to some statistics over the weekend, the cumulative size of short positions in the Nasdaq index in trading markets around the world is conservatively estimated to be no less than $60 billion, and such a large-scale capital force is accumulating a blow, and the stock market of any country in the world can hardly bear it.

However, the total market capitalization of stocks on the Nasdaq market has reached $7.9 trillion. Investors naturally don't want such a huge fortune to disappear with the stock market crash. Therefore, if you can anticipate the layout of the short-selling forces in advance, you can definitely make an effective counterattack.

It's just that too many people are immersed in the joy that the Nasdaq index has just broken through 5,000 points, and they are not alert enough to the direction of the debate in recent days.

Eric had expected this in advance, but the Firefly system had no intention of making a first bird, let alone having this kind of strength. The collapse of the Nasdaq index, which has reached the peak of the bubble, is already inevitable, and going against the trend will only be crushed to pieces.

Eric and Chris watched the situation calmly in the conference room of Firefly Investments, but it was not destined to be a quiet day for the securities industry.

With Microsoft's antitrust judge Thomas Jackson's comments in an interview with CNN, and a series of bearish comments over the weekend, whether premeditated or anticipated of a crisis, it became clear to equity managers across North America and around the world that they were receiving significantly more orders to sell technology stocks today than ever before.

Finally, at 9:30 a.m., the Nasdaq index had just opened, and a one-time stock sale of more than $1 billion directly knocked Microsoft's stock price down by more than 3 percentage points.

But this is far from over, and in the following hour, almost all major technology stocks such as Yahoo, Cisco, Intel, and Amazon on the Nasdaq stock market ushered in a huge number of sell-offs.

After the demand for technology stocks, which were far from being able to hedge the scale of the sell-off, was quickly neutralized, a large number of stock selling orders began to squeeze, which continued to pull down the stock prices of major technology stocks.

And so, panic began to spread.

More investors began to join the sell-off, and a terrifying domino effect quickly formed.

At four o'clock in the afternoon Eastern time, the Nasdaq index finally closed at 4,960 points, a decline of 1.9%. However, a series of mainstream technology stocks that were heavily sold lost heavily.

Microsoft's stock price fell 8.3% in a single day.

Cisco's stock price fell 5.6% in a single day.

Yahoo shares fell 6.5% in a single day.

Intel shares fell 5.9%.

Amazon's stock price fell 9.6% in a single day.

……

However, the declining figures, which represent tens of billions of dollars of wealth dissipated behind this series, are only the beginning.

At the same time, in the face of a gloomy Nasdaq market, Wall Street once again fully demonstrated its undisciplined side.

Analysts at major investment banks, who were touting that the Nasdaq would hit a new high of 6,000 points last week, have changed their tune and almost one-sidedly downplayed the value of technology stocks.

Over the next four trading days, the Nasdaq fell more than 100 points a day as the ripple effects of the stock market crash intensified.

While everything from the federal government down to the new tech companies has tried to stabilize the Nasdaq by a variety of means, the results have been ineffective.

Because a large part of investors are using investment leverage unscrupulously in order to maximize profits during the last crazy period of the NASDAQ. This also greatly reduces the ability of these investors to resist risks.

Generally, the investment leverage of about 5 to 10 times makes investors only tolerate a maximum decline of about 10% to 20% of a certain stock.

But in reality, many stocks tend to fall by more than 10% in a single day.

As the situation continues to deteriorate, it is no longer even up to investors to decide whether to sell stocks. In order to avoid losses that they can afford to lose, many financing institutions that provide financial guarantees for leveraged investors have to forcibly liquidate the stocks in the hands of customers. Large orders flow to the market, further creating a vicious circle of falling stock prices.

On July 23, the nightmare week for the new technology market finally came to an end, with the Nasdaq closing at 4,373 points, down 13.5% from last week's peak of 5,056 points, and more than $1 trillion in wealth was wiped out.

A series of leading technology stocks that led the Nasdaq market in the early stage generally fell more than the entire Nasdaq market.

Affected by Thomas Jackson's comments on Monday, Microsoft's stock price fell by 22.7% in five days, and its market value plummeted from a peak of more than $600 billion to $469.9 billion.

Cisco, which has just sat on the first place in the world's market capitalization, has fallen by 25.9% in a week, and its market value has fallen all the way to $453.1 billion.

Yahoo, which Eric has been paying the most attention to, also fell 16.5% in five days, but this is within Eric's tolerance, and the company's market value remains above $200 billion, reaching $215.5 billion.

The stock prices of other companies such as Amazon, Sprint, and Qualcomm in the Firefly system have all fallen to varying degrees.

In contrast, Nokia, which is listed on multiple stock exchanges in North America and Europe, was the least affected by the collapse of the Nasdaq, and coupled with its own solid performance support, its stock price closed on Friday with a decline of only 3.9% compared to last week.

In the evening, Bill Gates, who had been frustrated by Thomas Jackson's remarks on Monday, hurried to Manhattan to Eric's penthouse at the entrance to Sixth Avenue.

When he saw the figure sitting leisurely on the chair of the rooftop open-air garden, cross-legged and drinking coffee while reading the newspaper, Bill Gates felt a depression in his heart.

Due to Microsoft's success, he should have been one of the proudest people in the world with a huge fortune, but in front of the young man in front of him, Bill Gates always had a hard time finding any superiority.

Unceremoniously sitting down on a chair, Bill Gates glanced at the newspaper in Eric's hand and said, "Eric, you'd better give a reason that satisfies me." ”

Eric folded the newspaper and put it in front of him, poured a cup of coffee for the gatemate, pointed to the direction of the Hudson River not far away, and said with a smile: "I suddenly felt that I should set off a firework recently, so I bought a boat, and it started at eight o'clock." ”

Bill Gates didn't touch the coffee in front of him, subconsciously lifted his glasses, and said, "Eric, don't you think this is boring?"

"Okay," Eric put away his expression, but obviously still looked helpless, and said, "Let's get down to business, the current situation is very bad, Yahoo needs some good news, and Microsoft is the same, so, what kind of cooperation do we have?"

Bill Gates gave a look of disdain: "And then?"

Eric handed a folder to Bill Gates, opened the laptop next to him, and said, "I've drawn up the contract." However, let's take a look at this first, you will definitely be interested, well, it's a bit long, so let's look directly from here. ”

Eric said, adjusting the progress bar, turning the laptop screen towards the doormate, and pressing the play button.

Immediately, a familiar voice from Bill Gates came over the speaker.

"Posting such statements in public, which resemble an out-of-court trial, is a serious violation of judicial process and could well ruin my career. So, $2 million is not enough at all, and if it works, you need to pay me another $3 million. ”

"Thomas, you're so greedy, $2 million is a lot of money. ”

"Don't think I don't understand that, Dean, based on the size of your short positions, if the Nasdaq crashes, you'll make at least a few billion dollars. So, it's not negotiable. ”

There was silence for a moment in the video before another voice sounded again: "Okay, I promise you." ”

Eric looked at Bill Gates' widening eyes, reached out and snapped the laptop shut, picked it up and took it back to his side.

Bill Gates raised his head sharply as if he had been woken up from his sleep, glared at Eric fiercely, and then realized his current situation again, put away his expression and said, "Eric, it's illegal for you to do this." ”

Eric pointed in the direction of the doorway, shrugged, and said, "If you're not interested, take it into your own hands." ”

Bill Gates swallowed and stared at Eric for a moment, before picking up the folder he had just handed over and opening it.

After flipping through it in a hurry, Bill Gates quickly put it down and said, "It's okay to give up that equity subscription contract." But it's simply not possible for Yahoo to continue to hold its original position on the Microsoft platform. ”

"I didn't think of such a good thing," Eric said, "and you certainly didn't look at it, Yahoo can pay Microsoft $1 for every operating system to install." ”

"But that's the equivalent of less than $50 million a year, Eric, if it were you, would you do it?"

"Of course I don't want to," Eric patted the laptop in front of him, "So, this is Yahoo's compensation for Microsoft." ”

"This video doesn't necessarily help Microsoft," Bill Gates said with mock disdain, "and if it comes out, it may even be counterproductive." ”

"So, so far, the people who have watched this video plus you have only just put together a hand," Eric said, "I've been thinking about this lately, and it's often difficult to do things at the same time in our position, and too often, we have to make compromises. Like this video, my first thought was to expose it and then stand by and watch the fun. But then I found out that if it is not exposed, it seems that it can bring some benefits, of course, this is for Microsoft, and Fireflies are not usable for this thing. ”

Bill Gates narrowed his eyes: "Eric, are you suggesting that I am going to threaten the Department of Justice?"

"It's just a negotiation," Eric shrugged, "Microsoft is now a victim, even a persecuted." So, even the president had to make compromises about it. You know, it is impossible for Clinton to withstand another political storm now. But the current situation is that a middle-aged judge has caused the collapse of the entire Nasdaq market for his own selfish gain, and trillions of dollars of wealth have disappeared like fireworks, and I have heard that there are already investors who jumped off the building because of bankruptcy this week. Then, once the scandal in the video comes to light, Thomas Jackson will definitely be the target of public criticism, but the Clinton administration, which has been a strong advocate of investigating Microsoft, is definitely not immune. Even if there is no second impeachment, the countless angry investors who lost so much in the stock market crash would be enough to end the political careers of the Clintons, which is exactly what the two of them fear most. ”