After the successful issuance of the convertible bonds of the United Group, the nerves of the market were further stimulated, and the Dow Jones index roared through the 400-point mark.

From August 11 to 17, in just one week, Livermore added $400 million worth of short positions, and the stocks distributed are the most prestigious and most traded blue chips in the market: American Radio, General Motors, General Electric, American Telegraph and Telephone, etc., so these stocks are large and easy to establish short positions, which are suitable for rapid opening of positions in the early stage.

So far, the United Group has held $800 million in short selling, nearly $500 million in longs, and $300 million in shorts, and has successfully turned from long to short, but if the United Group's own holdings of United Pharmaceutical, United Petroleum, United Bank and United Motorcycle shares are included, these holdings are worth more than $1.4 billion, and the United Group is still in a long position.

Contini already knew that the Dow Jones was not far from the top, so he wanted Livermore to pick things up further; At the same time, he asked the Union Bank to begin to speed up the contraction of its accounts: all due credit was no longer re-lending, all accepted acceptances were discounted and no new ones were accepted, and gold was traded in favourable realities - by 21 August, another $200 million worth of gold had been transported through the replacement of Italian naval warships.

Contini didn't have the idea of the gold under the legendary Hindu temple after crossing over, but after careful calculation, he laughed dumbly, because the pile of gold under the Hindu temple is only more than 100 tons, although it is also a very large number, but because the price of gold is not high at this time - an ounce of gold in the New York market is sold for less than $20, even if the price of gold is only $35 an ounce at the end of World War II in history, when the Bretton Woods system was established, Almost equivalent to the level of 1 gram of 1 US dollar (1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams), more than 100 tons of gold are not even 100 million US dollars.

If he wants to rob this temple, it will cost a lot of money just to prepare the fleet, personnel, armament, and all aspects of the dots and cover—India is a British reserved territory, except for a limited treaty port, the rest of the place is closed to foreigners, and it is easy for a few people to sneak in without knowing it, and it is necessary to have a large team of men and convoys to get in, unless the British are all blind. If you make such a big stance, if you end up risking a turn against the British just to make a little money, then it's better not to do it - there are many people who travel through economic means, so why use violence and robbery?

For example, you can now place an order to short sell silver.

Gold is the currency standard and the final reserve, although it will also fall, but when the time comes, all countries will ban the export of gold, so if you don't move now, you won't have a chance to move in the future, but silver is essentially just a useless industrial metal except for China and a very small number of other countries as a currency standard, which can be bought and sold for export at will, so Contini adopted a two-pronged strategy - began to bet on silver short orders in the London market, and placed 1 million orders (each representing 1000 ounces) within 3 days, The average price sold is 59 cents per ounce, which is only $590 per lot, and 1 million is nearly $600 million, which is of course a big number, directly knocking down the price of silver from 59 cents to less than 54 cents, but because the London market is the largest silver trading market, the leverage can reach 20 times, so the actual margin is only less than $50 million; In addition to silver, crude oil and copper have carried out a large number of short order settings.

Contini set up a lot of short crude oil orders, because he could anticipate that when the financial markets crashed, his $1 open purchase would be met with endless abandonment, so he can now sell some of it himself, which means that he has locked in the output of the two major oil fields he controls at a price of nearly $1.4 per barrel, and can recoup it for $1 in the future, which is also a good harvest.

On August 24, the stock market entered its third week, and Livermore's short position had exceeded $1.3 billion, as the stock market continued to rise steadily and broke through the Dow Jones 420 level, making these shorts a floating loss of nearly $80 million, but Contini did not care, instructing himself to sell short - this time it was the turn to open positions for those small-cap stocks.

At the same time as the position was opened, Contini's speech was once again precedent: "I expect the stock market to face a decline in the future, which is definitely not in line with the wishes of the majority of investors, but it may be in line with the expectations of the Federal Reserve - they have been doing this for two years, hoping to press the bull head of the stock market, but they have not succeeded, and this time they may succeed." However, I would like to remind you that this time it may continue for a long time, or simply open the curtain on the bear market, and I hope that you will remain vigilant and not let your hard-earned money go down the drain in a stupid policy, when no one will come to sympathize with you! ”

This news shocked many people, and a reporter on the spot asked: "Are you not optimistic about the future generations?" ”

Contini nodded: "I have always emphasized that the U.S. stock market will face a decline in the future, and I have said this since March, depending on when, where and in what form it will erupt, the strong growth of the U.S. economy can be maintained for a while, but the recent signs I don't think it will last long, don't you think the prices of agricultural products have been sluggish recently?" ”

The crowd looked at each other suspiciously, then nodded, as if there was indeed a sign of this—shouldn't this be a normal phenomenon before the harvest season?

"I don't see it that way, the industrial index has risen this year, and the agricultural index should follow the rise rather than consolidation, and now this lag is a sign that there is a sign of a decline, why not just go down, because President Hoover enacted the Agricultural Markets Act, trying to eliminate the surplus in order to maintain prices, and although this policy is difficult to do what he started, it does help a lot - it will prevent the farmers from going bankrupt on a large scale, because they are betting on the future to be bullish and have borrowed a lot of money, but now the prices are not rising, Interest rates are so high that they will be completely unprofitable and even burdened with a heavy burden. This is the stance from which the policy is made in the best interests of the people......"

Contini used this kind of Hoover to step on the Fed to forcefully declare that "there will be a big fall waiting for us......

Everyone said that they would be skeptical: although the president's words were very convincing, and he had proved that his judgment was in line with the market trend before, but he was not a god after all, and now he said that he was going to fall sharply, would it really fall sharply?

The next day, before the Fed could react, other Wall Street commentators finally found an opportunity to fire at Contini, with the New York Times reporter using an interesting headline "174 prominent Wall Street stock commentators and analysts pointed out: This time the president made a mistake!" 》

When a do-gooder asked Contini what he thought of the report, Contini shrugged indifferently: "Yes, I said that there was going to be a big fall, maybe it will happen by the end of the year, and hopefully the market and time will prove me wrong, because if I am right, the boom that you are witnessing at the moment will be snuffed out...... In addition, I would like to tell you that the situation of my inspection in the United States is basically the same, and after handling some economic affairs, I will prepare to go home. ”

"Can you tell us what kind of economic affairs it is?"

"It doesn't hurt to tell you, I'm selling my private account, and at the same time asking my assistant to watch the market to see if there are any stocks that don't have any performance support but have inflated stock prices, and I'm going to short...... If I talk empty and my hands are long, won't I become a sanctimonious hypocrite? ”

"Uh...... You say that......" the reporter finally came back to his senses, "are you serious?" ”

"Of course, did you see that I was joking?" Contini smiled, "I really don't, I'm a highly responsible person for my work and career, and I basically don't talk about it." ”

"Can you tell us how much stock you shorted?"

"You might as well guess how many positions are worthy of my net worth?" Contini laughed, "It's okay to lose, it's just that I'm giving back to American investors, I'm selling stocks with a philanthropic mentality, I'm going to leave around September 15-20, and I'm personally very satisfied with the results and fruitful results of this visit." ”

The reporter tried his best to ask which stock Contini was short and what the position size was, but Contini prevaricated on the grounds of "trade secrets", and said that he had a professional investment adviser, the specific details are currently unknown, and the author could only use the title of "The President Who Turned Short"...... The president further warned the market and vowed that there would be a big fall, and he was ready to abandon all his positions and turn to short selling, although he did not disclose the specific underlying stocks and position size, but from the style and strength of the president, we don't think it will be less than $100 million...... Whether this is a clever judgment or a misguided judgment remains to be further tested by the market.

Poverty limits the imagination of the journalist, who had no idea that the president had built up more than $2 billion in short-selling positions, all of which were held through joint trusts, and that now, even after deducting the value of the shares owned by the United Group, the entire group had turned to the short position outright.

The news caused a stir in the market, the market fell for a while, but eventually stubbornly closed, stock commentators began to laugh at Contini's judgment, on August 31, the Dow Jones index crossed 449 points and began to run wildly towards the end, Livermore quietly expanded the short position to $2.4 billion.

At this time, an unexpected episode interrupted Contini's deployment......