Global Monopoly of Technology

one week later.

Michael Barry, the head of the Succession Fund, was sitting in the place where John Paulson had sat before, and the person sitting face to face with him was Luo Sheng.

After the meeting, there was a huge gap between Michael's image and Luo Sheng's impression. He couldn't see John Paulson's neat financial man's suit.

A T-shirt + shorts is standard for Michael. He has a habit of running around the office with bare feet, and he has a drum set in his office.

Michael lost an eye to cancer as a child, and he now has a prosthetic eye.

He started learning about the stock market when he was in the second grade, starting with simulated investing, and by middle school, he had started putting real money into stock market trading.

But in reality, he almost became a doctor in the first place.

However, investing has attracted a lot of his attention, spending almost all of his free time at night on it, and has a dedicated blog for it.

And this caused him to fall asleep standing up during a complicated surgical operation, and also damaged the patient's oxygen tent. He was finally kicked out of the operating room by the doctor. At the age of 29, he said goodbye to his career as a doctor and set foot on Wall Street. become a trader.

Those who knew him were used to calling him Dr. Michael, not Mr. Michael.

It turned out that Michael belonged to Wall Street, and he was a good trader by nature.

He founded Succession Capital in 2001, which has created quite astonishing returns for investors, bringing investors a terrifying rate of return of 55.44% in the same year.

At this time, Luo Sheng stared at Michael. He didn't know what the head of Heirloom Capital was. If it really didn't work, he would rather leave the remaining $2.9 billion to Paulson's hedge fund.

So Luo Sheng decided to make a scene and asked: "I now have 2.9 billion US dollars in cash lying in the bank, and I lose tens of thousands of dollars every day. The return on investment of human capital is quite amazing. I will leave this 2.9 billion US dollars to you to take care of. Michael, but before that, I need you to answer my two questions, how much cash does the First Successor Fund have now, and Second, what are you going to do with my banknotes?"

Without any hesitation, Michael responded immediately: "$1.3 billion, if you give me $2.9 billion, I will use it to bet against the real estate market in the United States, and credit default swaps."

Immediately,

Luo Sheng stared at the pair with blank eyes, and subconsciously spread his hands and said, "What?"

Michael recognized Luo Sheng when he saw Luo Sheng, a technology giant from China, the top ten super-rich in the world's richest list, and the youngest billionaire in the world.

However, Michael does not think that he can do as easily in the financial market as in the technology industry. In his opinion, Luo Sheng contacted him this time because he was interested in the good rate of return brought by the successor capital to investors, so he wanted to Entrust a sum of money to inject capital into successor to hedge or appreciate in value, that's all.

To be able to attract such a super rich, Michael is still a little proud in his heart.

So, he explained to Luo Sheng: "In the 1930s, the housing market in the United States plummeted by about 80%, and half of the loans defaulted, but there were many signs beforehand, and everyone could see them. One of the characteristics is that the sophistication and rate of financial fraud is skyrocketing, did you know that these problems are on the rise right now?

Luo Sheng shook his head: "So, what does this have to do with the gambling market?"

Michael smiled slightly and said, "Mortgage-backed securities, subprime mortgages, bond levels, you may be confused, but it's normal, Wall Street likes to use these high-profile terms to make non-professionals think they are professional, even Leave investors powerless to ask about those investments.”

It was dinner time now, and Luo Sheng invited guests.

He poured a glass of wine for Michael with his own hands, then looked around at the delicious food on the table, pondering which plate to start with, and said casually: "While eating and drinking, it is best to let me, a non-professional, listen to me. Understand."

"Thank you for your wine."

Michael responded politely, took a sip, and continued: "The so-called mortgage bonds are what make big banks crazy to make money. They make billions of dollars on the 2% handling fee for each bond, but later they find that they don't lend enough. There are only a limited number of people who can afford a house with a good job, and banks have to fill it with riskier credit to keep their money-making machines running, and these high-risk credits are subprime mortgages.”

"But it's just a combination of a bunch of AAA-rated mortgages. In the past, the federal government guaranteed it, but now it's different. There is no guarantee, and it's divided into a bunch of tiers. The highest tier is AAA, which can be repaid first, and the lowest tier is B, the slowest to get the repayment, the first to default, but the B-level profit is good, but the risk is also high, and sometimes defaults, and if B and BB continue to develop, it will drop from low risk to almost garbage."

Michael took another sip of wine, and commented that Luo Sheng, who was enjoying dinner with his head down, spoke freely with the strength of the wine: "This is the lowest level of consumer credit rating, no need to provide proof of income, the floating interest rate is also garbage, and the default rate has risen from 1% to 1%. 4%, and as long as it goes up to 8%, there will be a lot of BBB ratings going to zero. So I’m going to short these bonds, which is a gamble.”

Luo Sheng immediately looked up at him: "You said that if you default on 8%, the bond value will return to zero. Now it's 4%..."

Michael: "That's right!"

Luo Sheng: "What if it reaches 8%?"

Michael even leaned back on the seat, folded his arms in silence for a moment, and then looked at Luo Sheng: "If it reaches 8%... the U.S. economy will be... Bo!! It will even lead to a full-scale economic disaster. Sooner or later, someone will discover this investment target, Mr. Luo, and we need to act quickly."

Luo Sheng remained calm, and asked, "You want to use my money to sell vacant mortgage bonds. How can you be sure that these bonds are worthless?"

Michael answered patiently: "I have done quantitative analysis and research. The housing market is supported by these bad debts. This is a ticking time bomb. I want to short it!"

Luo Sheng asked again: "How to do it? My company also bought real estate in the Bay Area. As far as I know, mortgage bonds do not seem to have insurance contracts or options."

Michael replied in an orderly manner: "Sir, this is what I will do, I will ask the bank to help me tailor insurance, and then I will buy credit default swaps, just like bond insurance, as long as the bonds default, the credit default swaps It will pay me, the mortgage bonds will definitely slowly collapse, and if you give me $2.9 billion, I can give you tens of billions of dollars in excess short-term returns.”

Luo Sheng chewed the food and said after a while: "It's a very tempting rhetoric, but Wall Street is at your feet, why hasn't anyone noticed this?"

Michael laughed sarcastically: "The entire Wall Street is in a carnival moment, greed and madness, all busy selling bonds to collect fees."

Luo Sheng asked again, "Can these bonds really be so bad? Are they legal?"

Michael replied: "No one knows the content of the bonds. I have seen 65% of AAA mortgage bonds, but in fact, 95% of them are subprime loans with a consumer credit rating below 550. What happens when the market thinks the risk is too high? Secured debentures can turn a housing crisis into a national economic catastrophe, even nationally and globally.”

Having said that, Michael stared at Luo Sheng with piercing eyes and waited for his reply, who was picking up the napkin and wiping his mouth and throwing it aside.

After a while, Luo Sheng said calmly, "She's my assistant. I'll give her $2.9 billion to play with tomorrow."

Michael couldn't help being stunned for a while. After he came back to his senses, he let out a long breath subconsciously, and finally showed a bright smile. He couldn't help but glance at Qin Weimu, who was sitting next to him without saying a word, and then looked at Luo Sheng, solemnly. Said, "Thank you, Mr. Luo, for your trust in me."

Not long after, Michael Barry left.

He took away the investment amount of 2.9 billion US dollars from Luo Sheng. Of course, it could not be cash. This money has been prepared for a long time, and it can be remitted to the account of the Churen Fund the next day.

As soon as Michael Barry left, Qin Weimu looked at Luo Sheng with a smile: "You guy's acting skills are quite good, you can't see any flaws."

"Multi-talented and more wealthy." Luo Sheng laughed, and suddenly he added quickly: "It's getting late, why don't you just stay here for one night, eh?"

Actually, it was just past seven o'clock in the evening.

Qin Weimu was too lazy to pay attention to him, and quickly left Luo Sheng's room. She was going to prepare the contract materials with the successor fund tomorrow.

...