Chapter 15 - Abnormal price movement in the late trading session

Forty minutes later, the delivery rider brought the groceries right to the door, and a steaming hot meal of three dishes and one soup was set on the dining table. There was steamed pork ribs with rice flour, braised shrimp in oil, stir-fried seasonal vegetables, and oyster soup—simple, home-style dishes. "You're so beautiful, and you cook this well too. Whoever marries you is one lucky guy." Lu Liang couldn't stop praising her. It wasn't empty flattery—he'd cooked quite a bit himself before, so he could tell Zhang Qian was genuinely skilled. "Brother Liang, stop teasing me. Try the shrimp." Zhang Qian peeled one herself and held it up to his mouth. "Delicious." Lu Liang sighed in appreciation. He found it odd, though—Zhang Qian was from Guizhou, yet her cooking tasted distinctly southern. "I've lived in Shanghai for so many years now. My taste buds have totally adapted," Zhang Qian replied, looking slightly surprised by the question. Then she added, "If you like richer flavors, Brother Liang, I can make some of my hometown specialties next time." "No need. Light and fresh is perfect." After the meal, Lu Liang took Zhang Qian for a stroll along the riverside promenade downstairs to digest their food. The river breeze ruffled Zhang Qian's hair, and a sweet smile spread across her face. Lu Liang stared, momentarily lost in thought. This scene made him feel a sense of home—not the home he'd had before, but the one he'd always imagined. Once upon a time, his wishes had been so simple: marry a wife, start a family, work hard, build a good life together, have a child before he turned thirty, and then spend the rest of his days striving for the next generation. But everything had changed the moment Lu Liang brought Lin Wenjing to Shanghai from their hometown after getting married. She'd grown vain, obsessed with keeping up with the Joneses. She'd constantly go on about who had made how much money, who was living such a wonderful life… "What's wrong?" Zhang Qian asked gently, noticing that Lu Liang seemed to be in a bad mood. "Nothing. Let's head back." Lu Liang wrapped an arm around Zhang Qian's slender waist, and the two walked back to the apartment. The past was like smoke—let it drift away with the wind. He'd already cut ties with his old life and started a brand new chapter. Over the next few days, Zhang Qian would step out occasionally to take care of errands, but she spent most of her time at Tomson Riviera. During the day, she cooked Lu Liang a different delicious meal every day. At night, the bathroom, sofa, balcony, and kitchen all became their battlefields where they poured out their passion. Meanwhile, the stock price of Chinese Online kept climbing steadily. Zhang Qian was over the moon—she'd invested her remaining 500,000 yuan on the second day, going all-in just like Lu Liang. Her average cost price had risen to 20.25 yuan per share, but now the stock was trading at 32.72 yuan per share. She held 29,600 shares, currently worth 968,000 yuan—netting her a profit of 387,000 yuan. The adoration in Zhang Qian's eyes whenever she looked at Lu Liang was palpable. She grew even more passionate toward him, as if she wanted to merge her body and soul with his completely. On Thursday, Chinese Online opened higher and kept surging upward. Shortly before 2:00 p.m., the stock hit the daily upper limit and sealed the board tight. The latest price was 34.85 yuan, with the capital locking the price limit reaching as high as 125 million yuan. The main force's stance seemed resolute, and retail investors were also bullish about the stock's prospects, cheering loudly that it would be "the next Baofeng Technology". Lu Liang pondered for a long time, then walked out of his study and called Zhang Qian, who was watching TV in the living room. "Sell all your shares." Zhang Qian glanced at the market trend. "It hit the price limit again today. Are you sure we should sell?" "Who told you that if a stock hits the price limit today, it'll definitely keep rising tomorrow?" Lu Liang asked with a smile. Zhang Qian was slightly stunned, but she pulled out her phone and started tapping away. She looked up a moment later, grinning. "I listened to you—I sold all of them." "Good. I've got some things to take care of. I'll see you later." Lu Liang patted her cheek, then closed the study door behind him. He had a bad feeling about this. The voice in his head reminded him: June 2nd, Chinese Online, 39.82 yuan. Today was May 28th. There were still six days left, with four trading sessions to go. There was no reason for the stock price to rise this quickly. What's more, the stock's rally was almost at its end. Logically speaking, the main force shouldn't be this determined to lock the price limit. Sensing that something was off, Lu Liang took advantage of the bookmaker's aggressive buying to dump all his shares at the price limit of 34.85 yuan. He sold 585,000 shares, worth a total of 20.38 million yuan. He'd almost broken the price limit with his massive sell-off, but the main force had quickly stepped in to prop it up again. Besides his suspicion, Lu Liang also wanted to test whether his actions would affect the market trend. Twenty million yuan was no small sum—for some small-cap stocks, that amount of money would be enough for him to act as the bookmaker himself. "The bookmaker must be seething right now." Lu Liang sipped the lemon tea Zhang Qian had made for him, and a sudden thought struck him. He thought of Baofeng Technology. A similar situation had happened right before its rally came to an end. The stock had skyrocketed to the daily upper limit only to crash to the lower limit by the end of the day— a classic "limit-up to limit-down" move. Then it opened higher and surged again the next day, luring a flood of retail investors to pick up the shares. Even after Lu Liang had dumped 20 million yuan worth of shares, the price limit still held. This scenario felt eerily familiar. If his reasoning was correct, the 20 million yuan he'd cashed out should have been part of the bookmaker's scheme—trading shares between their own accounts to create the illusion of high demand. But Lu Liang had intercepted a portion of those trades. Lu Liang swiveled around in his chair, his eyes fixed firmly on the screen. If his prediction was right, there would be abnormal price movement in the late trading session. 2:40 p.m. Twenty minutes left until the market closed. Chinese Online's price limit was broken. The 125 million yuan that had been locking the price limit was suddenly withdrawn—over 90 million yuan of it vanished in an instant. The remaining 30 million yuan worth of buy orders were all filled within seconds. 10.05%… 6.56%… 3.15%… A flood of sell orders hit the market, and the stock price plummeted. Because the stock had been at the price limit, there were no support levels established below. It crashed a staggering 13 percentage points in no time. The market was in a state of shock. Some retail investors who had bought in at the peak were absolutely devastated. The stock had opened 5.6% higher that day and had been in the green all morning, hitting the price limit at 2:00 p.m. It had stayed locked at the upper limit for three whole hours, luring countless retail investors to jump on the bandwagon during that time. Some had bought in when it was up 6%, others at 8%, and still more at the price limit. With the stock hitting the price limit and so much capital backing it up, everyone had thought it would open higher the next day. Zhang Qian had thought the same thing—her thoughts were representative of the general public. Many of them hadn't even had a chance to taste any profits before getting hit with this devastating blow. In the living room, Zhang Qian had also been keeping an eye on the market. When she saw what was happening, her eyes widened and she let out a gasp. She quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, afraid of disturbing Lu Liang while he was working. "That's incredible. It's like you have a magic touch—you just told me to sell, and now the stock's crashing." Zhang Qian patted her chest, feeling a surge of relief. If she hadn't listened to Lu Liang, she would have lost at least 80,000 yuan in profits. Her initial investment of 580,000 yuan had now grown to 1.02 million yuan. She'd made a profit of 440,000 yuan from this rally—equivalent to over a year's worth of her salary. Humming a tune, Zhang Qian decided to make some pastries to reward Lu Liang, thanking him for leading her to this fortune. In the study, Lu Liang fell deep into thought. After several minutes of volatile trading, support levels finally reappeared below. The stock price stabilized at around 31 yuan, down 2.1% for the day. In his opinion, there were three possible scenarios moving forward. First, it could follow in Baofeng Technology's footsteps and experience a "limit-up to limit-down" day. But that would be extremely risky. Baofeng Technology had crashed hard recently, with four consecutive limit-down days. Rumor had it that the heads of several institutional investors had been summoned for talks by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. No one in their right mind would dare to pull the same stunt right now. Second, the stock could end the day flat, keep trending downward slowly tomorrow, then stage a dead cat bounce next week to unload more shares to retail investors. Third, it could be a bull trap— a late-session rally to lure retail investors into chasing the price, followed by a slight drop tomorrow and a big surge next week. Lu Liang had done his research. There were at least three institutional investors involved in this stock, and they'd been accumulating shares quietly for over 20 days. His sudden large-scale sell-off might have disrupted the market trend slightly, but the impact would definitely not be significant.