254: Chapter 254 Fame

Chen Cheng pondered for a moment. "Have John take the Security Department and investigate; see who leaked the information."

Karen replied immediately, "I have already had John investigate, and there will be news soon."

Chen Cheng nodded; Karen was quite handy to work with.

He changed to a comfortable position, crossed his legs, and tapped his fingers lightly on his thigh. "Find the person and have him leave the company. Privately, give him 2 million."

Karen was stunned. "You're still giving him money?"

Chen Cheng smiled. "There is a saying in the Dragon Kingdom: 'If you want someone to perish, you must first make them go mad.'"

A wicked smile curled on the corner of Karen's mouth. "Boss, I know what to do."

The two chatted for a while longer, then hung up.

Qiao Jingjing cast a concerned look. "What's wrong?"

Chen Cheng had been speaking English just now, and Qiao Jingjing only understood it partially, but judging by Chen Cheng's expression, it was not good news.

Chen Cheng thought about it and decided to tell her, "I accidentally became famous."

It was already in the news, so there was no need to hide it from her.

The Wall Street Journal is one thing, as it doesn't get much attention domestically.

But Time Magazine is different; its influence domestically can be described as unparalleled.

Only the person on the cover knows what they are thinking, but those studying journalism smelled the scent and came running.

By tomorrow morning, many financial media outlets will definitely have reposted it.

By then, there is a high probability that Qiao Jingjing will see it, so since she asked, I might as well tell her now.

Qiao Jingjing was stunned. "Famous?"

Chen Cheng smiled and handed her his phone; the page showed the digital edition that Karen had forwarded.

Times have changed, paperless reading has become more prevalent among the masses, and the speed of information dissemination is rapidly increasing.

This forces media outlets to push out news quickly to capture traffic.

Otherwise, news events lose their timeliness.

However, most media outlets have not abandoned traditional paper publications, though there is usually a delay.

Like Chen Cheng's cover, the paper edition will be delayed by about a week.

Qiao Jingjing looked at the cover, frowned, and asked in confusion, "Is this the Time Magazine I know?"

Chen Cheng nodded.

Qiao Jingjing's eyes widened. "What did you do to get on the cover of Time Magazine?"

Chen Cheng didn't know how to explain it; he couldn't exactly say, "I annoyed the short sellers by playing the stock market, and they paid to put me online."

Chen Cheng had actually roughly guessed who the mastermind behind the scenes was.

Company Name has bought too many Emaar shares in the last few months, which non-subjectively created a short squeeze situation for Emaar's short sellers.

He only realized this the day before yesterday when he checked the remaining short positions of Emaar.

As of the last trading day of last week, Emaar's open short interest amounted to 8 billion dollars, accounting for 23% of the entire circulating market capitalization.

These people probably hate Company Name so much that their teeth itch.

The most critical point is that Emaar's third-quarter report turned a loss into a profit.

Now the short sellers are completely broken.

Continuing to short is unrealistic.

If they close their positions, it will continue to drive up the stock price.

Being single-minded has turned into being blocked at both ends.

He smiled, took back the phone, and flipped to the page written about Company Name and himself.

Qiao Jingjing felt a headache looking at the dense English text; her English level just barely passed the CET-4.

Reading an English magazine like this was practically the same as making her do reading comprehension exercises.

Chen Cheng saw fine beads of sweat appearing on her forehead, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.

He reached out to take back the phone, thought about it, and decided to explain it himself.

Qiao Jingjing was very embarrassed. "My English isn't very good."

Chen Cheng waved his hand. "You have been in the country for a long time without a language environment, so it's normal that your English isn't good."

After speaking, he began to explain the matter of being put on the magazine cover.

After listening, Qiao Jingjing's eyes almost fell to the ground.

"So you robbed Wall Street?"

Chen Cheng was stunned; the word 'robbed' was well used.

Chen Cheng's mouth curled slightly, feeling a bit proud. "You could say that."

Regardless of whether this was done by the short sellers or the long sellers, one thing is certain: it was that group of people on Wall Street.

Now, whether they are short sellers or long sellers, they are all angry that he bought too much.

The long sellers dislike that he drove up the price and snatched up the chips.

The short sellers are the same.

Chen Cheng smiled, guessing that Chanos is probably losing his hair in handfuls right now.

This buddy might not have the largest position among Emaar's short sellers, but he is definitely the most active.

Every few days, he stands in front of media cameras and shouts, 'Emaar is overvalued, everyone come and short it with me.'

But he met that man.

His legendary experience from shorting Enron to the subprime mortgage crisis must come to an abrupt end.

The old king is gone, and the new king ascends the throne.

The two chatted idly for a while, with Qiao Jingjing asking about some financial operations she didn't understand.

Chen Cheng's phone rang; he took a look and saw it was John calling.

Chen Cheng smiled at Qiao Jingjing and answered the phone.

Throughout the entire process, no emotion could be heard in Chen Cheng's tone, while on the other end of the phone, John had dense beads of sweat on his chubby forehead.

It was indeed an internal leak regarding the relationship between Company Name and Chen Cheng.

A trader got drunk, bragged in a nightclub, and sold Chen Cheng out.

But whether there was any inducement involved, that is unknown.

Come to think of it, it's still because Chen Cheng gave too much money.

Some people got carried away.

Once the weed was smoked and the liquor was poured, their psychological defenses were all gone.

Chen Cheng said, "Besides the one who leaked the information, fire a few more," and then hung up the phone.

People really shouldn't be too well-fed. If they are too well-fed, they look for trouble.

John sat in the office, his body went limp, and he slumped in his office chair.

Chen Cheng didn't reprimand him, but that didn't mean he didn't have a problem.

The most direct responsibility was his poor management, which led to this current mess.

John sat in the chair and pondered for a long time; how many exactly should he fire?

Finally, after hesitating for a long time, he made a decision and prepared to slowly replace the four traders with the lowest KPIs.

Now John felt like he could strangle that kid who leaked the information.

"Stupid!"

Soon, John interviewed all the traders.

At noon, he casually threw an analysis report about Emaar's super factory onto the market.

This report was prepared to explain the basis of the investment behavior.

He didn't expect it to be used for a short squeeze.

Since the short sellers want to play, Chen Cheng naturally won't back down.

Company Name has no plans to reduce positions in the short term, and including the recent pledges, the overall leverage ratio is less than 20%, which is very safe.

It can be said that as long as the short sellers want to play, Company Name can keep them company for as long as they like.

Soon, these hawks will pay the price for their arrogance.

Back to Chen Cheng and Qiao Jingjing.

Qiao Jingjing had not yet recovered from the shock and was holding her phone, looking at the original text while reading the translation.