December 4, 2004, marked the darkest day for many Wall Street elites, as their wealth virtually evaporated, losing over three-quarters of its value in a single day.
At the market's opening that morning, the stock prices for two major mobile phone companies stood at $189.2 per share for Motorola and $98.32 per share for Nokia.
By the time the market closed, Motorola's stock had plummeted to a mere $61.33 per share, while Nokia's had fallen to $41.72 per share. Both stocks had seen their market capitalization slashed by approximately 65%, a staggering single-day decline that was exceptionally high in stock market history.
Of course, such a situation would be impossible in the A-share market, which would simply hit its daily limit.
This dramatic drop left the entire stock market stunned.
The sharp fall of these two stocks triggered a chain reaction, causing related stocks in the entire electronics sector to decline significantly, nearly precipitating a financial crisis.
Ordinary investors were bewildered. They had no idea what was happening. The companies' performance showed no issues, quarterly reports indicated slight increases, and no major scandals had surfaced during that period. How could they suddenly plummet in value within a single day? Many felt as though they had lost everything.
These investors only saw that on the morning of the 4th, sell orders totaling over 10 billion yuan appeared, followed by another 20 billion yuan, and then it became uncontrollable. Stocks worth hundreds of millions of dollars were being sold almost every minute, as if shareholders had discovered something terrifying, treating the stocks like hot potatoes they desperately wanted to discard.
This panicked many uninformed retail investors, causing fear to spread. Even those who didn't own these stocks became anxious, fearing some unknown bad news and the potential collapse of the entire market, leading them to sell their own holdings.
Consequently, a bizarre phenomenon occurred where two stocks dragged down the entire market by about 1%, astonishing future generations.
In fact, at its lowest point, Motorola's stock price dipped below $50 before staging a rebound. A large influx of capital entered the market, scooping up shares and stabilizing the price above $50.
It wasn't until the market closed that day that the mobile phone sector began to stabilize slightly. However, even at this point, all the retail investors remained utterly confused, unaware of what had transpired. Only the institutional elites watched the market with wry smiles, lamenting that they couldn't escape after all.
At 6:32 PM on December 4th, news broke on Wall Street: the representative from Western Mustang Fund had formally settled its short positions, and the stocks borrowed for $40 billion had all been returned.
Upon hearing this news, the Wall Street elites could only manage bitter smiles. They had, in fact, anticipated this outcome, and some even vaguely suspected that the mastermind behind it was Swift Jr. himself.
Some astute elites had even pieced together the entire sequence of events. Upon realizing their short positions could not be delivered on time and no extensions were granted.
Swift Jr., learning that a large number of people were entering the market attempting to bleed the Western Mustang Fund dry by propping up the price, devised this ruthless and devastating strategy.
He created various deceptive maneuvers, giving others the impression that he was struggling to secure an extension, appearing flustered and thereby luring more people into investing.
Meanwhile, he secretly borrowed a sum of money and quietly acquired a batch of shares at slightly lower prices. As December arrived, he exploited the anxiety of the elites, released various rumors, and then directly crashed the market with massive sell-offs, destroying everything in an instant.
"This was the most intelligent, most vicious, and most masterful campaign in Wall Street's history, capitalizing on human nature and stupidity!" years later, a book titled "The Top Ten Battles of Wall Street" would describe this confrontation.
According to the author, the entire industry was terrified by Swift Jr.'s exploitation of human weaknesses, especially those of financial professionals.
Swift Jr. understood that even the smartest Wall Street elites, driven by greed, would commit the most foolish acts in the world, and he designed this scheme accordingly.
In reality, the plan was not particularly difficult to counter. Had the elites simply held onto their stocks and maintained high prices, Swift Jr. and Western Mustang Fund would have been ruined within twenty days. They could not have sustained the daily loss of $400 million.
However, it was precisely this uncrackable strategy that proved fatal. The astute Wall Street elites would never risk their entire fortunes to confront him directly, for they knew that their peers were the least trustworthy people in the world.
Ahem, I've drifted off track a bit. Even after these slow-to-realize elites understood everything, it was too late. They could only watch as Western Mustang Fund ultimately purchased all the outstanding shares for $19.8 billion, returned them to the institutions, and completed the short sale.
Ultimately, this $40 billion short sale cost a total of $2 billion in transaction fees, $1.6 billion in late fees, and with the $19.8 billion buyback cost, Western Mustang Fund profited around $16 billion in net profit, with Swift Jr. once again making a fortune.
Simultaneously, no one dared to question Swift Jr.'s title as the "Black Financial God" anymore.
If all his previous trading successes could be attributed to luck, then this operation involving the short sale fully demonstrated the terrifying capabilities of Junior Swift.
In a situation that was almost certainly fatal for everyone else, Swift Jr. single-handedly defeated everyone with his operations, siphoning $16 billion from Wall Street.
Wall Street's losses were even greater. According to later statistics, Wall Street lost at least $70 billion in this incident, and four or five individuals committed suicide due to this failure.
With such formidable combat prowess, everyone was genuinely convinced of Swift Jr.'s abilities. A simple example is that the Finance Department of the University of Pennsylvania directly invited Swift Jr. to give a lecture at their institution and even offered him an honorary professorship.
This was an immense honor. While many Chinese people might not consider the University of Pennsylvania a very renowned school, with little fame compared to famous American universities like Harvard and Princeton, it housed the world's best finance department. Those who lectured there were naturally industry-recognized titans.
Since the university's inception, its finance department had never invited a black person to give a teaching lecture, nor had they ever invited them to become an honorary professor of finance. Swift Jr. was undoubtedly the first to receive this honor.
The invitation made Swift Jr. tremble with excitement, and he couldn't sleep for three consecutive days. However, he eventually declined the invitation. The reason was simple: Swift Jr. was acutely aware of his own limitations.
While he could pose as a high-flyer in his company and participate in ordinary lectures, if he went to a place like the University of Pennsylvania, he feared his true capabilities would be exposed within minutes, revealing his lack of substance.
Of course, even if his limitations were discovered, it wouldn't have been a major issue. After all, Swift Jr. was publicly known as a self-taught prodigy without any relevant financial qualifications or education, merely a brilliant talent operating on keen intuition.
Naturally, it was precisely because of this that Swift Jr.'s abilities and achievements appeared even more formidable.
Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania was not particularly displeased when it received Swift Jr.'s refusal. This was because Swift Jr. used a handwritten letter filled with various spelling errors to explain his inability to accept the invitation, stating he was too mediocre and didn't know what to say.
Then, in his letter, Swift Jr. voluntarily applied to enroll in the finance department at the University of Pennsylvania for systematic study to supplement his shortcomings in professional knowledge.
The University of Pennsylvania was naturally extremely pleased with this request. To gain Swift Jr., who had taken down the entire Wall Street, as their student, and moreover, to have him voluntarily apply to become a student, was clearly a matter of great prestige. Thus, Swift Jr. became a student at the University of Pennsylvania, forming a celebrated anecdote in the industry.
Regardless of Swift Jr.'s developments, Motorola and Nokia, the battlegrounds of this war, fell into a deathly silence.
While Wall Street suffered the most visible losses, it was actually the boards of Motorola and Nokia that were truly left with almost nothing.
Just a day prior, the members of these boards had been leisurely sipping champagne with their lovers on beaches, enjoying beautiful vacations, and watching their personal wealth grow continuously without doing anything, earning hundreds of millions of dollars in assets every hour.
Then, in just one day, their wealth had shrunk by two-thirds. Many had become billionaires overnight. It was understandable that these board members found such drastic changes unbearable.
Every board member felt a surge of anger, and the unfortunate Edward Zamp was summoned and severely reprimanded, being asked to come up with a solution.
Zamp seemed prepared. After a moment of silence, he stated, "I suggest we cooperate with Apple!"