Chapter 120 - 111: Is the Bull Market Here?

Chapter 120: Chapter 111: Is the Bull Market Here?

(There is quite a bit of financial jargon in these two Chapters; feel free to skip them if you’re not interested.)

After dinner, Li Qiguang and Jiang Ziqin usually watched television. Jiang Ziqin did most of the actual watching, while Li Qiguang simply held her hand. It was an old habit they had maintained for years.

Jiang Ziqin turned to glance at Li Qiguang’s phone screen. "Why are you looking at stocks?"

Hearing this, Li Beixing, who had been about to go upstairs for a shower, stopped in her tracks. Pricking up her ears, she tiptoed behind her parents.

Li Qiguang chuckled. "I heard from some people that the stock market has been showing signs of recovery lately. It feels like a bull market is coming, so I’m just doing a bit of casual research."

Jiang Ziqin rolled her eyes. "Didn’t you lose enough last time?"

Li Qiguang smiled awkwardly. "Don’t worry, I’m only putting three million in this time. With the current market index, even if I lose, it won’t be that bad. And if there really is a bull market like they say, making a small profit wouldn’t hurt."

With his current net worth, and his company unable to expand any further for the time being, his money could only sit in the bank. However, he scoffed at the meager interest rates offered by the banks. He figured he might as well pull some out and put it into the stock market, just for practice.

Li Beixing couldn’t help but laugh. "With the current state of China’s A-shares, a bull market? Even if it is bullish, how high can it go? It’ll return to 3,000 points at most. Frankly, I think even 3,000 is a stretch."

The couple turned their heads to look at her, surprised that their daughter was actually interested in this topic.

Li Qiguang was not blindly optimistic. He nodded and said, "I estimate it’ll hit 3,200 at most, and even that will be difficult."

Jiang Ziqin gave her a suspicious look. "Beixing, you didn’t put your money into the stock market, did you?"

"No, no," Li Beixing said, quickly shutting her mouth.

She didn’t dare confess that, acting out of ignorance, she had blindly followed the trend and bought one hundred thousand yuan worth of mutual funds, only to lose fifty thousand. Unable to handle the pressure, she had eventually cut her losses and ran.

That was almost five percent of her total net worth. It hurt. The lost money could have bought several of Chen Jingle’s calligraphy and painting pieces! She thought to herself that she shouldn’t have tried to learn about financial management from others—it was all a scam!

Her eyes darted around before she let out a mischievous laugh. "Dad, why don’t you give that three million to me? In a while, I’ll return one and a half million to you. Just pretend you took a spin in the stock market."

"Shoo, shoo!" Li Qiguang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "If you’re short on cash, just tell me."

Li Beixing giggled and waved her hand. "I’m not, I don’t need to buy anything. I just don’t want to see you throw your money down the drain."

Li Qiguang massaged his forehead, sighing with a wry smile. After his daughter’s remarks, he began to hesitate. Three million might not be a massive fortune, but it didn’t just fall from the sky either.

"Dad, if you really want to buy, you can consider picking up some tech stocks that are currently on the rise, like those in the automotive industry."

Li Beixing wasn’t adamant about stopping her father from touching stocks. When it came to business, her father obviously knew better than she did, but she couldn’t resist sharing her own thoughts.

"The domestic auto industry is booming right now. Combined with policy support, the market values of the leading domestic car companies still have a lot of room for growth. Buying in now shouldn’t lead to losses. Secondary options would be other high-tech manufacturing sectors, like semiconductors or new energy; those are worth considering too. As for liquor and pharmaceuticals, they’re too inflated. We should stay far away from those."

This was the conclusion she had drawn after two years of following the news.

Upon hearing this, Li Qiguang felt it made perfect sense. Sure enough, all those books his daughter had read were proving useful.

**A few days later.**

In today’s climate of economic downturn, plummeting housing prices, and workers facing either pay cuts or layoffs, the sudden influx of good news from the stock market was like a blazing torch in the dead of night, drawing the gaze of countless people. It gave the public a much-needed shot of adrenaline.

"Damn, the broader market has been rising for several days in a row, and it’s surging across the board. Is a bull market really coming?" Liang City sent a message.

Chen Jingle, who had just finished taking a shower, silently rolled his eyes. "You call 2,700 to 2,900 a massive surge? Then what do you call a drop from 6,000 to 3,000? A minor adjustment?"

Liang City laughed heartily, yet sighed at the same time. Deep down, he bitterly missed the five thousand yuan he had lost in mutual funds. It broke his heart! Even though that had happened back in 2018, it still hurt every time he thought about it.

Geneva, refund the money!

Truthfully, Chen Jingle had been watching the news over the past few days. Frankly, seeing the rumors of a stock market recovery spreading online, he felt no emotional fluctuations whatsoever; in fact, he wanted to laugh. It felt as if someone was marching down the street with a megaphone, shouting, ’Make money, make money! Everyone come make some quick cash!’

If there was a genuine way to make a fortune, who would ever share it with others? How was this any different from luring people out of the country to Southeast Asia under the guise of high-paying jobs, only to harvest their organs?

He always kept one saying in mind: "When even the aunties at the wet market know you can make money in stocks, it’s already too late to run."

"You didn’t buy any, did you?" Chen Jingle asked.

"Nope," Liang City replied. "I’m broke!"

"Good thing you didn’t. I suggest you grab some popcorn and watch the show, just like me."

"Exactly, watching the show is the way to go!"

"I feel like it will go up this time, but not by much. Given Mian A’s predictable behavior, cashing out before the holidays is the safest choice."

Ever since he managed to break even on a mutual fund he’d been trapped in for over three years, Chen Jingle had resolved to stay far away from Mian A. People used to call it China’s A-shares, but now he had followed the crowd and started calling it Mian A.

Aside from the major market makers, everyone else was just cannon fodder. No one should expect to make money in the stock market. Anyone who entertained the thought that they could beat the market was essentially doomed to get slaughtered.

Because the stock market was simply a casino. You might win a little, but the house never loses. The longer you play, the more you lose. The best strategy was simply to not play at all!

Chen Jingle and Liang City chatted about all sorts of topics, naturally including stocks and finance. But neither of them would actually buy anything. If asked, it was because they had both been burned before. Now, they mostly adopted a wait-and-see attitude, treating the whole thing as a spectator sport.

One of them worked within the government system, and while the other hadn’t joined the civil service, he had read a great deal lately and developed a certain political acumen. From this recent stock market rally, both men caught a whiff of something unusual.

There was great terror lurking ahead!

Unfortunately, the masses were largely blind followers. This was especially true when faced with potential profits; their ensuing frenzy was comparable to zombies breaking out of their cages. Because of this, Chen Jingle couldn’t muster any sympathy for Mian A’s investors. He simply felt that greed had hijacked their brains.

That included his past self.

As previously mentioned, the stock market was essentially a casino. In that kind of environment, very few people could maintain their self-control. Those who thought they possessed superior willpower and could quit while they were ahead...

Heh, yeah right.

Aside from the stock market, another area worth watching was the price of gold.

Due to the continuous expansion of wars across the globe, both domestic and international gold prices had been climbing steadily. The real-time gold price was already nearing six hundred yuan, while the price at branded jewelry stores was over seven hundred per gram. It was safe to say that the people who bought in when it was two to three hundred per gram were making an absolute killing.

Right now, it wasn’t just ordinary citizens buying gold; major central banks worldwide were frantically hoarding it.

"Collectibles for peacetime, gold for troubled times" wasn’t just a joke. The signs of impending chaos were already showing. It was just that the domestic environment remained relatively stable.

Currently, wars were breaking out everywhere abroad. Everyone was wondering when World War III would officially kick off—or if it already had, and it would just take a few years before it was formally defined as such.

The skyrocketing price of gold brought misery to those preparing to get married and buy traditional gold wedding jewelry during this period.

Chen Jingle hadn’t bought anything. He kept all his money in the bank and spent his days eating and drinking comfortably. If World War III really broke out, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about his house and car getting bombed before he finished paying off the loans.

If the first thing to get blown up was him... then he’d just have to accept his bad luck!

He always felt that saving money was better than spending in advance. After all, a loaf of bread domestically wasn’t going to suddenly jump to fifty yuan. If it truly reached that point, money wouldn’t be the real issue anymore.

"Who are you chatting with?"

Zhong Jing, who had just come out after bathing Little Mingyue, grew curious when she saw Liang City smiling so happily.

"Chen Jingle," Liang City replied, showing her his phone screen. "We’re talking about stocks."

Zhong Jing immediately frowned. "Are you trading stocks?"

"No, the topic just came up. I’m not stupid." Liang City chuckled. "I majored in economics in college. The domestic stock market isn’t driven by economics at all; it’s politically driven. If you strictly watched the evening news broadcast every single day, you might be able to make a small profit."

Zhong Jing shook her head. "All I know is that a person can’t make money beyond their level of comprehension."

"That is very true," Liang City agreed wholeheartedly.

An ordinary small family like theirs had no business touching the stock market. Diligently paying for their house and car using their double housing provident funds was more than enough to ensure their family lived a more comfortable life than most.

**The weekend.**

Over the weekend, Chen Jingle continued tutoring Chen Qiyun while pondering how to paint the Flowers and Birds Painting for Boss Long. He had some ideas but had not yet begun to put brush to paper. His main priority today was teaching; the painting would have to wait.

Then came Monday—the highly anticipated Monday. The stock market was set to open today.

"Brother Guang, which stock are you planning to buy?" Fatty Liu showed up at Li Qiguang’s office bright and early, skillfully brewing tea and washing the cups.

"BYD and Celsius." Li Qiguang had researched several stocks the previous night. "BYD’s stock price is a bit high. If it goes up over the next few days, I’ll cash out before the holiday. But I plan to hold onto Celsius a bit longer."

Although he was uneducated and worked in vegetable transportation, he knew that possessing industry-leading technology meant holding the key to the future. If DJI weren’t a private company, he would have loved to buy some of their shares. His reasoning was simple: the farmlands he contracted were already beginning to use drones for pesticide spraying and pest control.

Upon hearing this, Fatty Liu felt it made perfect sense.

"I’m also optimistic about Celsius, and I have a feeling its stock could double again!"

Ever since he bought a Celsius M9, he barely even drove the Bentley sitting in his garage. As a Celsius customer and a retail shareholder, he naturally hoped the stock would climb even higher.

Li Qiguang was not as optimistic as Fatty Liu. He figured that if Celsius went up by fifty percent over the next six months, it would be an incredible exaggeration. After all, while everyone had deep faith in Celsius’s smart driving technology, physical industries ultimately had to rely on the market, sales volume, and profits to prove their worth.

The two of them muttered together as they studied the market. After comparing notes with the opinions of several other bosses, they made their final decision: they would invest in the automotive and semiconductor sectors.

At nine o’clock in the morning, the market opened right on time.

They watched the broader market index surge from 2,900, skyrocketing straight toward the 3,000-point mark.

Everyone was cheering. China’s A-shares were finally making a comeback! The bull market is back, dive in!

For a moment, shockwaves rippled in every direction. Even many novices who knew absolutely nothing about stocks were asking around about how to get in on the action.

Driven by the frenzy of the stock market, the real estate market also saw a slight recovery. Right now, the real estate centers were mainly populated by two groups of people: one group was preparing to sell their homes so they could rush into the stock market, while the other group had just cashed out of the stock market and was preparing to buy homes.

Both sides thought the other side were absolute idiots.

Chen Jingle watched coldly from the sidelines, as if he could already see the market makers behind the scenes sharpening their scythes.