World's Richest Man: I Leaped Across Time

Chapter 51 - 51: Evil Practices

"They only released their energy drinks this year," I continued, "and they are only available in big cities. But the sales were quite amazing last quarter. They will definitely expand, and the brand they've been building will start to get engraved in people's minds."

"Then you're not a trader at all; you're more of a long-term investor."

"Not exactly," I answered. "I look for events that could wake those stocks up and try to leverage the movement on them in the short term, using options for example."

Mark nodded. "You're playing the volatility without the heavy capital investment."

"Exactly."

"As long as your re

"That's true," I replied. "But I don't buy pumped-up stocks. I buy the stocks that are already dead or barely alive but have been building a base and are not on a steep downtrend."

Mark looked at me inquisitively, "So, how good have you actually been doing? Not in terms of money amounts—I'm not that nosy—but percentage-wise."

"...I've made a few thousand percent over my initial investment."

He stared at me for a moment, his eyes widening. "What did you buy into?"

"For example, NetEase."

"Damn," Mark muttered, pulling up the stock's recent performance. "I traded that one before. It shot up massively, but I thought it dropped quite a bit afterward."

He checked the latest price. "Holy mother of all fucks. This stock looks strong. I guess the news wasn't just to pump it up. It's up 600%. Did you use options?"

"Yeah," I said. "I bought call options just a few weeks before their quarterly earnings announcement in August, and I'm still holding onto them."

"How did you know the earnings would be positive?"

"I looked into their stores, browsed through forum opinions, the number of players, and interest in their premium currency in their games," I explained.

Mark turned to Sam. "I don't know who is this guy that you brought to me today. But no trader here has insight like he does."

This comment drew some attention. "Hey Mark, watch your words!" one of the traders from across the room called out.

"Yeah, yeah, Tom, shut your ass up," Mark replied dismissively.

Tom shook his head, clearly unimpressed.

We spent some more time talking about various indicators and technical aspects of trading with Mark.

After a while Mark also got out of his short position making over $50,000 in the span of a few minutes.

He told me to drop by sometime, adding that it didn't feel like he was talking with a newbie but more like with a colleague.

I left the trading floor with Sam and we sat down on the sofas to drink coffee.

"So," Sam began, taking a sip of his coffee,"I'm sorry I did not tell you earlier, but I am actually the owner of this company."

Sam continued, explaining that while he wasn't ready to make any decisions at the moment, if he did extend an offer, it would be fair and based on equal grounds, not exploitative.

"For now, let's just stay in contact," he said.

"We have a group project. We will definitely stay in contact."

Twenty minutes later, we left the building, and Richard was waiting with the black Mercedes-Benz limousine.

As we walked up to the car, I spotted another black limousine parking a few dozen meters away, and I recognized the registration plates...

It was the car of a member of the Johnson family. Sam's brother, Doyle Johnson's, to be specific.

I had a bad feeling about this, but mentioning it would raise suspicions.

I slid into the back of Sam's limousine and we drove off to a high-end restaurant for lunch, courtesy of Sam.

After lunch, we returned to Gainesville.

...

Over the weekend, I had dinner with Chloe again.

Despite only a week of studying, she was already giving me the vibes of a dietetic, telling me what I should and shouldn't eat.

...

As expected, the topic "Oligopoly VS Perfect Competition" appeared in the microeconomics class, and everyone agreed that it's a great choice for our group.

Weeks passed as we prepared our project during classes and additional meetings, studied for National Economics tests, and got ready for our midterm exams scheduled for October 25th and 26th.

...

Four weeks went by quickly, and Friday, October 11, 2002, came around.

I was playing basketball on the court outside my dorm.