Chapter 475: A Piece of News!
Nothing happened overnight!
The next morning, Li Yi woke up in a comfortable, plush bed!
After a quick shower, he got dressed and went to the living room.
Lan Xinyi and the others were already up, waiting anxiously for Li Yi in the living room.
Since they had been completely cut off from the outside world from yesterday afternoon until now, they had no idea whether the Hang Seng Index had risen or fallen, so everyone looked anxious.
When they saw Li Yi coming downstairs, everyone stood up immediately, and all eyes turned to him.
“Good morning, everyone!”
Hearing Li Yi’s words, everyone—including Lan Xinyi—felt a bit speechless.
It was already 8:30—hardly “good morning.”
Especially for those of them working in financial services, time is money.
On a typical trading day, they would rush to the exchange early in the morning and continuously gather various data—the very information they relied on to make investment decisions.
Therefore, even though the stock exchange didn’t open until 9:30, most people actually had to be at the office by 7:00.
In short, it was a grueling schedule!
“Mr. Li, should we head to the office now?” Lan Xinyi asked.
“No rush. In finance, you have to keep your cool first!”
Then, Li Yi turned to Tie Ying beside him and said, “Send someone to buy a few copies of the newspaper!”
Tie Ying knew that Li Yi was a friend the boss had invited from the mainland, so he asked directly, “We have the *Oriental Daily*, *Sing Tao Daily*, and *South China Morning Post*, among others. Which one would you like?”
“Whatever newspapers they have, bring me one of each!”
“Yes, sir!”
Seeing that Li Yi had actually sent his subordinate to buy newspapers, Lan Xinyi and the others were utterly stunned.
In finance, you need to keep your cool, but no one takes it to this extreme.
By the time those people returned with the papers and he finished reading them, the stock exchange would have already opened.
And as traders and portfolio managers, they hadn’t gathered a single piece of information—how were they supposed to proceed with their work?
Yet Li Yi remained as calm as ever. Not only was he in no hurry, but he even had breakfast prepared for everyone.
He then proceeded to eat his breakfast at a leisurely pace while waiting for Iron Eagle’s men to return.
Just as Li Yi finished his breakfast, the henchman Tie Ying had sent out to buy newspapers returned, carrying a thick stack of papers.
“Mr. Li, here are the newspapers you requested!”
“Thanks!”
With that, Li Yi took the newspapers and began reading them, all while Lan Xinyi and the others watched with anxious expressions.
However, when Li Yi received the newspapers, which were arranged in a vertical format, he found it somewhat unfamiliar.
More importantly, the first thing he saw upon opening the paper wasn’t the content he was looking for, but a gossip column—specifically, a sensational report on the “Fox Spirit Murder Case” at Windsor Tower.
Flipping through the pages, he found nothing but celebrity gossip. Only then did Li Yi realize he was reading a local tabloid.
Shaking his head, he tossed the useless tabloid aside and turned his attention to the other newspapers.
Good grief, more than half of the dozen or so newspapers were gossip tabloids.
Fortunately, his henchman wasn’t stupid; he’d bought every major mainstream newspaper in Hong Kong Island.
Picking up Hong Kong’s renowned *Oriental Daily*, Li Yi quickly found the news he was looking for: “The Hong Kong Association of Banks announced that the savings deposit interest rate will increase from 11% to 12% on July 21…”
Subsequently, Li Yi saw the same news in the *Sing Tao Daily* and the *South China Morning Post*.
After reading through them, he felt confident!
Everything was exactly as he remembered; his arrival hadn’t caused any changes.
“Mr. Li, the stock exchange has already opened. Shouldn’t we head over there?” Lan Xinyi asked again.
Li Yi smiled and said, “What for?”
“Um…”
Lan Xinyi and the others were stumped again. Boss, yesterday you invested 42 million in the stock market… no… wait, that should be 200 million!
And you bought nothing but Hang Seng Futures Index contracts—shouldn’t you go check on them?
Just as Lan Xinyi and the others were at a loss for words, Li Yi handed her the newspaper he was holding and said, “Take a look.”
With a hint of confusion, Lan Xinyi took the newspaper from Li Yi.
The moment she saw the headline, she froze in place.
The bank raised interest rates?
As a professional trader, Lan Xinyi was well aware of the impact a bank rate hike would have on the stock market.
Once banks raise interest rates, deposit rates go up, and naturally, fewer people are willing to invest in the stock market.
More importantly, major companies are currently borrowing money to conduct business—especially to speculate in real estate. A bank rate hike would have a massive impact on the property market.
Under these circumstances, a stock market decline was inevitable—the only question was how much it would fall.
At that moment, Lan Xinyi’s gaze toward Li Yi changed.
No wonder he dared to short the Hang Seng Index with a 5x leverage position—it turns out he wasn’t ignorant, but simply had a unique insight.
“Mr. Li, a bank rate hike will likely cause the Hang Seng Index to fall. Should we keep an eye on it? If the price is right, we could place a sell order right away?”
Li Yi replied calmly, “No need. Let the dust settle for a while!”
With that, he paid no further attention to Lan Xinyi and the others, turning and heading straight back upstairs without a second glance, leaving Lan Xinyi and the others on the first floor staring at each other in bewilderment.
No one knew how to react to Li Yi’s behavior—he was being way too cocky!
You’re trading futures indices here—unlike stocks, these aren’t meant to be held long-term; their prices can fluctuate in a matter of minutes.
It might be at a high right now, hit a low in ten minutes, and then be back at a high an hour later.
Making money depends on these split-second fluctuations, not on holding for the long term!
But Li Yi couldn’t care less about their opinions; he didn’t even have the patience to listen to their advice and just walked off. Everyone was completely speechless.
But was Li Yi really being overconfident?
Of course not. Li Yi understood the causes and consequences of Hong Kong’s stock market crash better than anyone. The current Hong Kong stock market was exactly like the “Little Day Pot Chicken” of ten years later—the frenzy over high market capitalizations was entirely built on a real estate bubble.
Driven by optimistic prospects, land prices in Hong Kong Island had been rising steadily, sparking a fierce competition among conglomerates to acquire listed companies holding land.
At the same time, a frenzy of property speculation had swept the market. According to later calculations, the mortgage burden ratio for current property prices had reached a staggering 180%—in other words, it took nearly double one’s income just to make the mortgage payments.
This interest rate hike did not appear to be significant—a mere 1 percentage point—but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
It directly caused the already overburdened property market bubble to burst instantly, and so, on the morning of July 17, the Hang Seng Index began to fall.
Most importantly, this decline was not the usual up-and-down fluctuation, but a relentless plunge all the way to the bottom!
Therefore, before the Hang Seng Index’s first major rebound, Li Yi had absolutely no need to constantly monitor stock market fluctuations!
……….