What many bigwigs on Bear Stearns' board of directors would never have imagined was that Joseph, who was the largest individual shareholder of Bear Stearns. Lewis was in New York at the time, and not far from Bear Stearns, the headquarters of the Quantum Fund.

"George, what exactly is your purpose?" Lewis asked Soros lightly.

Joseph. Lewis was five feet two inches tall, with brown hair and a gaze as sharp as a falcon, but the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose diluted the shrewdness and sharpness a lot, adding a bit of bookishness. As a super-rich man who started out in foreign exchange trading, he is no stranger to the treacherous ups and downs of the stock market, and in fact, when Soros approached him, he knew that the hedge fund manager was going to short Bear Stearns' stock.

As Bear Stearns' largest individual shareholder, Lewis should have steadfastly refused, as shorting Bear Stearns stock would shrink his fortune. But the billionaire has his own considerations: first, he is optimistic about Bear Stearns' long-term earnings prospects, believing that the current low price is a good time to buy the bottom; The second is that he is still not satisfied with his current share of the stock and wants to be able to hold more shares, and Soros's plan to short Bear Stearns is exactly what he wants.

And most importantly, by selling it to the other party, Soros can help take care of some of the funds, so why not do this kind of good thing? You must know how many billionaires in the world are waving money to let Soros take care of their funds without being allowed to enter the door, and how can he miss such an opportunity now?

Although Joseph. Lewis started by trading foreign exchange, but after a certain amount of money, he couldn't help but start thinking about diversification, because it is very dangerous to put all his eggs in the same basket, and it is also for this reason to buy Bear Stearns stock. Of course, if you can leave your money to a top-tier hedge fund. Especially with a manager like Soros, it is naturally the best choice.

Just if Joseph. Lewis wanted to know the real thoughts of Soros and others, that is, if he was not shorting Bear Stearns for a while, but was ready to completely wipe out Bear Stearns, he would say that he would not lend this part of the stock.

But where in the world are there so many ifs!

"Of course, it is to short Bear Stearns' stock price and take the opportunity to make a lot of money!" Spacious and bright in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. It was Soros who stood with Lewis and looked into the distance, only to see him with a smile on his face, and replied without changing his face, "Joseph, you also know that I am a person who pursues profits, so whether I am long or short, I always pursue the maximization of profits." ”

"But the stock price has fallen to the current point, it should have reached what you hoped for, right?" Lewis was a little impatient because Bear Stearns' share price has fallen a bit bit recently. In just a week. Bear Stearns' stock has fallen from around $70 per share to $50 per share today, a drop of nearly 30 percent, which means that he lost more than 30 percent of the assets he bought in Bear Stearns.

Anyone in such a situation would not be able to talk to the short seller calmly, Joseph. Lewis is no exception.

"Relax, Joseph. Although the current share price has fallen sharply, it is far from what I expected. Soros didn't answer immediately, pouring two glasses of Scotch whisky at the bar. A cup was handed to Lewis and wobbled for a long time. Cai said with interest, "Maybe you don't know much about this market, but you should have heard of my operating style." If I didn't make more than double the profit, I wouldn't take it lightly! ”

"What?" Lewis, who had just poured the whiskey in his glass, coughed violently, and he was shocked by Soros's words, "Double the profit? Also above? Oh, my God. George, you're a surprise. ”

Joseph, who has been immersed in the foreign exchange market for many years. Lewis, the market encountered every day is a few basis points of change, can have a change of about 1% is a rare big market, and a change in the exchange rate of about 10% in a week can simply be called a catastrophic change in the foreign exchange market. Not to mention a 30% drop in a week!

Although foreign exchange trading can increase the leverage several times or even tens or hundreds of times, the leverage itself is a double-edged sword. Lewis has been cautious about this.

Coughing for five minutes, Joseph. Lewis calmed his breath, but then Soros's words made him not calm, "But Joseph, when the time comes, you can take advantage of the low price to absorb a large part of the shares, as long as the control is within 10%, I believe it should be able to reduce the cost of many of your upfront positions." When the stock price recovers in the future, it's very easy for you to make a profit from it, isn't it? ”

Before Joseph. Lewis's investment firm owns about 7 percent of Bear Stearns, which was bought last year and is priced higher than it is today. But now, if you know when Bear Stearns' stock price is at the bottom, you can buy some of it at that time, you can greatly reduce the cost of building a position, and even if you unbundle it in the future, you don't need to wait until the price of the first batch of purchases in 07 to recover.

Lewis quickly made a mental calculation, and when he was sure that the move would reduce the cost to a certain number, a smile welled up on his face. In this way, it not only satisfies its desire to increase its stake in Bear Stearns, but also reduces all costs, although it will have to pay some additional funds, but in the long run, these are rich returns.

"George, you've surprised me!" Lewis exclaimed heartily. In fact, after Soros came into contact with him, he began to pay close attention to the news about Bear Stearns, and the result was naturally an eye-opener for him, first in the Far East Bank began to end the trading relationship with Bear Stearns, and then the trend spread to Europe. The end of the deal was accompanied by a sharp drop in Bear Stearns' share price, and the market was filled with seemingly endless selling, shattering the bulls' confidence in a matter of days. And now, it seems that everything is a foregone conclusion, but since Soros said that he would suppress the stock price, he must still have a follow-up move, which aroused Lewis's curiosity, "But what I want to know more is what you plan to do next." Can you get Bear Stearns' stock price to fall to around $30? ”

"Wow, Joseph, you're a connoisseur!" Soros put down his glass, gave Lewis a thumbs up, and replied with a smile, "Naturally, it's the same routine as before." Don't you notice. Neither Bloomberg, nor the Wall Street Journal, nor the New York Times, nor the Washington Post, have any of the major media outlets reported negative news about Bear Stearns? ”

"What?" Lewis was really shocked this time, "George, do you know what you're talking about?" Do you want to say that you can control what these media say, or when they say it? ”

The Western world is particular about freedom of the press, which means that you can express any opinion you want. But the concept of press freedom is not something that you can say can be presented to the public. In fact, both the editors and the anchors have deleted the content of the broadcast, and without compromising the authenticity, they only post those things that are newsworthy in their hearts. The news belonging to different institutions and different anchors (editors) has different interpretations of things because of different values, political positions, etc., that is, on the basis of the three principles of objectivity, authenticity and timeliness, the news also has a position.

This position is even more pronounced between different news organizations. Because there is a shadow of a consortium behind every news organization, the report will be affected to a greater or lesser extent. And Soros in front of him is able to control most of the mainstream media from not reporting negative news about Bear Stearns. The sheer power and influence of his power immediately impressed Lewis. You know, even the president of the United States does not have this energy, and only capital can do it.

Actually, Joseph. Lewis was wrong, Soros simply didn't have this energy, nor did he have such a big influence. The main reason why many media outlets have not reported Bear Stearns' news is that the entire financial community has not released similar news. Because most analysts or traders can see that there is a lot of money going on around Bear Stearns. Until they find out who their opponents are, it is inconvenient for them to speak out on this issue, because speaking out means taking sides, and they are bound to offend one of them.

On Wall Street. Making a fortune in a muffled voice is the king.

Soros naturally didn't pierce Lewis's conjecture, just smiled slightly, and pretended to be mysterious: "Yes, this was originally part of my plan." I believe that in a few days, all kinds of inside information about Bear Stearns will emerge in an endless stream, which is bound to shock the entire Wall Street, and their board of directors will definitely not sit idly by when they come out to 'refute the rumors', it will be time for Joseph to make a move! ”

"It's this set again!" Lewis lowered his head and muttered to himself, at this moment, the mobile phone in his arms rang, and after making a confession, Lewis took two quick steps and picked up the phone under Soros's gaze, "Gordon, it's me!" ”

Soros turned around playfully, feigning indifference. But what Lewis never imagined was that the old fox's ears were long erected, and he was trying to catch every word he said.

"Are they really in trouble? To mortgage the headquarters building? Lewis's exclamation quickly rang out, but he immediately realized something, lowered his voice and continued, "It's not that bad at the moment...... Okay, I see, keep in touch. ”

Gordon was Lewis's agent, and after attending Bear Stearns' board of directors, he immediately sent a letter to Lewis, detailing what had happened on the board. Lewis was particularly surprised by the fact that Kane and Schwartz were going to mortgage the Bear Stearns headquarters building.

"Is it okay?"

When Lewis answered the phone and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window again, Soros didn't ask what the other party said, just greeted lightly.

Lewis was stunned for a moment, then realized that he might have spoken too loudly, and replied apologetically, "Please forgive me for being rude, Mr. Soros." Thank you for your concern, everything is fine. ”

Soros nodded silently, turned his head and stopped dwelling on the topic, instead saying some innocuous questions. It's just that Lewis didn't notice it at all that the joy that flowed between the corners of his eyebrows just now had been fully seen by Soros.

……

On the 11th, several mainstream media in the United States reported the news that Bear Stearns might fall into a "liquidity crunch" situation, which immediately caused a strong panic in the market. Many large and small institutions, including traders, have demanded that their funds be withdrawn from Bear Stearns because they fear that if Bear Stearns goes bankrupt, their funds will be frozen. And the institutions that trade with Bear Stearns in the United States have also instructed their traders not to trade with Bear Stearns anymore.

On the news, Bear Stearns' stock price fell sharply again, falling 19% throughout the day, from $51 the previous day to $41.3 at the close, and shareholders who held it lost a lot.

On the 12th, more details about Bear Stearns' "liquidity crunch" were revealed, especially the mention of the Bear Stearns' board of directors' mortgaged headquarters building two days ago was also revealed, which further intensified the panic in the market. The evasion of funds from Bear Stearns was even more severe, with calls from all over the United States nearly blowing up Bear Stearns' customer service system, and the amount of money in their accounts was rapidly decreasing.

Bear Stearns is in danger!

These two days Alan. Schwartz was anxious like an ant on a hot pot, and although he repeatedly assured their large institutional clients that there was no problem with Bear Stearns' liquidity, they still had to withdraw the money placed in Bear Stearns, whether it was profitable or loss-making. For the past two days, Bear Stearns was like a bleeding patient, and although Schwartz was running left and right, up and down, the blood still flowed unstoppably.

In just two days, about $30 billion in funds was withdrawn. At present, Bear Stearns still has less than $30 billion in capital reserves, which is enough to ensure the normal operation of Bear Stearns, but who knows what will happen in the next two days?

The only thing that makes Schwartz fortunate is that the funds put in the accounts of the hedge funds of Wall Street, Greenwich and Long Island have not been withdrawn, and this part of the funds is as high as 20 billion US dollars, accounting for more than 60% of the total funds of Bear Stearns today. Schwartz, who still hasn't figured it out, even feels a hint of gratitude to these hedge funds.

Now it's time to publicly "refute the rumors," Schwartz said to himself. (To be continued......)

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