Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 416: Wishful Thinking

On the other side of the ocean in the United States, on March 13, occupying the front page of the Wall Street Journal was a nearly 60-year-old barber named William Flyn, owner of Bill's Barbershop in Dennis, Massachusetts, the place where President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline B. Kennedy met.

He was a technology stock fanatic who always posted the relevant information he had collated on the notice board in his shop, thus attracting many like-minded people. As a result, his barber shop became the liveliest investment forum on Cape Cod, and many people came to him for a ten-dollar haircut and exchanged information in the process.

Just like the domestic craze for investing in the stock market in 2008, when the elderly women were dancing in the square, they were also exchanging their stock market experiences.

At that time, the United States was also in a frenzy, and even the shoe-shining boys on the street were established investment experts.

Thanks to the Internet and the stock market frenzy for high-tech companies that started after Netscape went public in 1995, these retail investors, who had neither investment experience nor reliable sources of information, simply followed the crowd and bought into the stocks of technology companies based on their own judgment and the information they picked up on the street. But the simple folk were lucky, and most of them got a handsome return.

For example, the initiator of the forum, Flynn, has invested his retirement fund, which is currently worth US$834,000. This little man has made the front page of the most influential American newspaper because his experience is the best embodiment of the 'American dream' that the United States so vigorously promotes.

If there were a pill for regret and a time machine, Feng Yiping thought, the senior editors on the front page of the Wall Street Journal would never have featured this person on the front page if they could have predicted what would happen on the 13th.

On the day the Internet bubble burst, the front page headline happened to be about a character who had profited from this bubble, advocating the bright future of the Internet industry, which was exactly the scenario that Bao Zhuoyuan had been worried about these days, a slap in the face.

Hong Kong is a place where entertainment really comes first. While many people are concerned about the turmoil in US technology stocks, the headlines on Tuesday in many local newspapers were still about the 'Feng Fei romance' that was revealed last weekend.

Coincidentally, the next day, both protagonists had public events: the man attended a press conference, and the woman was going to Japan to receive an award. When pressed by reporters, the man denied it and the woman avoided the topic. However, other people present testified to the fact that they had 'met face to face' that night.

In fact, it is understandable that everyone is so enthusiastic about this matter. This golden boy, who is the same age as Feng Yiping, would be considered newsworthy if he fell in love with a young lady of a similar age, but it would definitely not be as sensational as if he fell in love with a diva who is almost a full cycle older than him, that is, nearly a round of years older. Love affairs between young and old always attract more attention.

That day, in the print media, on television, and on the internet, the so-called experts and professors who paid attention to this issue all emphasized that this was just the stock market reaching a high and making its own adjustments, and that there was no need to overinterpret it.

Feng Yiping hates these people the most. They may have already disposed of or are disposing of their investments, but they are still making a lot of noise. The reason is simple: if a large number of retail investors also sell with them, where will the next taker be found?

Later, a series of measures were introduced against celebrity endorsements. Feng Yiping feels that what is more urgent and necessary than rectifying celebrity endorsements is rectifying these big-mouthed pundits.

Especially in the mainland, television and serious publications in the eyes of the public still have a fairly authoritative position. Everyone knows that advertising is bound to contain an element of exaggeration, but those pundits who talk eloquently in various columns can really influence many people because of the authority of the platform. The cost of this influence, however, is not comparable to the purchase motivation that those who watch the advertisements generate.

However, the experts' nonsense can fool some of the general public, while those institutions have their own judgment and will not listen to their propaganda. As the institutions continue to sell, many retail investors also start selling from a wait-and-see attitude. After all, everyone knows that actions are always more convincing than words.

Public sentiment, public opinion, and confidence are, most of the time, very vague terms, and some experts, professors, and politicians use them as excuses to whitewash themselves and find reasons.

However, at certain times, these things seem to be quantifiable. For example, confidence can be manifested as a series of buy or sell orders on the stock market, amounting to tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, and ultimately aggregated and reflected in the stock market index.

When the stock market falls, it is not just Yahoo that suffers. At the end of last year, the market value of the Internet giant exceeded the combined market value of the three largest US car companies. It is not just Cisco, a hardware manufacturer with a market value of over 100 billion US dollars, that has suffered. Other casualties include software manufacturers, consulting firms, hosting providers, advertising agencies, etc.

In this 'global village' era brought about by the spread and development of the Internet, at least one thing is true: the connections between industries are indeed closer than ever. A problem in one place can have a domino effect.

For example, if an Internet company successfully goes public on NASDAQ and raises 100 million US dollars, at least 5 million of it will be used to hire a consulting company, 10 million will be invested in advertising on Yahoo! or AOL, 5 million will be invested in software providers, and a few million will be used to purchase hardware such as computers and hosting.

Internet companies are experiencing a cold snap, and these associated companies will naturally catch a cold too.

So, on the 14th, some experts and professors still dared to say that this was a normal adjustment of the stock market. But by the 15th, no one dared to say so. Some pundits who had received benefits from associated companies still refused to change their ways and dared to say so, and the TV stations did not dare to broadcast it either.

Because as soon as the market opened at 9:30 a.m., investors of all stripes who had lost confidence scrambled to sell all kinds of high-tech and related stocks. By the time the market closed at 4:00 p.m., the Nasdaq Composite Index had been fixed at 4,180 points.

In just three days, it had lost nearly 900 points from its peak at the end of last week!

It was really good to make money this way, especially to make money off the Americans like this, that was really excellent!

Although Feng Yiping doesn't like red wine and knows even less about it, when he heard the news on the 16th, he pretended to be a big shot and ordered a bottle to celebrate.

Huang Jingping doesn't really understand it either, but as long as Feng Yiping is happy, she is happy too. 'How many more days do we have to stay here? Aren't we going to the magazine these days?'

'We don't need to go to the magazine. Lao Bao knows what to do. We have to stay at least until next week. Apart from this, we have to prepare for the investment company in the next few days,'

This time, the dot-com bubble, although it didn't last long, will not end until next year. Feng Yiping remembers that this time next year, the Nasdaq will finally hit a low of just over a thousand points. It will take someone to keep an eye on it for such a long time. In addition, this year, the price of oil in the international market has risen sharply, which also holds many opportunities.

In addition, according to his arrangements and division of labour, the finance and investment department, which provides capital flows to other areas, is the one that needs to be strengthened the most, and it is now time to implement this plan.

Regarding this Internet bubble, in fact, a very contradictory thing is that although, by today's standards, these Internet companies all had a big bubble and were seriously overvalued, the companies that survived this crisis are actually not overvalued, but rather seriously undervalued, when looking at their current stock prices in terms of their development ten years from now.

Therefore, Feng Yiping's wishful thinking is to take advantage of this round of market conditions to make some money, and when the stock prices of these companies hit rock bottom next year, he will use the money he made on them to buy their stocks at the bottom.

This kind of thing, when you say it, doesn't really sound right, but he is really happy to do it.

Jin Ling was walking with a spring in her step today. Although she didn't ask Feng Yiping, from the situation over the past two days, she felt that there shouldn't be any major problems with her favourite Ferrari. So when she received Feng Yiping's call, her attitude was quite positive.

However, Feng Yiping's words made her feel a little uncomfortable. 'Sister Jin, I think you need to change your travel plans. This summer, you should probably not go to France!'