Chapter 387 Another Margin Call

The noise from outside is just like the barking of the neighbors' dogs, adding a bit of noise.

They can conduct internal investigations at will, and they're not afraid of anything as long as it's legal and compliant.

I'm afraid they'll nitpick and make you look bad.

Fortunately, the stock market was closed, so the employees of Xing Baohua's branch office had nothing to do for the time being, and even actively cooperated with the investigation.

When the investigators tried to take the computer away, the lawyer intervened, saying that a court seizure order was required.

Upon discovering the presence of a camera, the other party had no choice but to give up.

Taking the computer away would only cause some trouble for the company's traders.

After the investigators left, Xing Baohua asked Huang Xingyao, "What did they investigate?"

Huang Xingyao said with a smile, "I just took a look at the scene and snapped a few photos. I estimate their investigation will focus on the transfer records between the exchange and the bank."

Xing Baohua nodded. He thought that since they were under some public pressure, they were just going through the motions when they came here to investigate.

As for taking things too seriously, Xing Baohua wouldn't mind learning from Boss Cao and assembling an even larger legal team to confront those people.

There are some inconveniences, but they don't affect my work at the moment.

The television in the office lobby was playing the news.

Most of the news is about yesterday's sharp drop.

Xing Baohua crossed his arms over his chest and watched the news on TV, most of which were interviews with celebrities.

I don't know how the conversation turned to the exchange's computers.

Many people in the discussion criticized the New York Stock Exchange's computer system for almost being paralyzed that day.

Xing Baohua knew that the NYSE had 200 computers, and this system had never handled such a huge volume of transactions before. This caused slowdowns, crashes, restarts, and so on.

The more you're in a hurry to sell, the less effective this thing becomes; anyone would want to smash it.

When massive amounts of transaction data flood into the system, the computer's limited configuration is almost unable to handle it.

When orders flooded in, the information system's processing speed lagged far behind.

Less than an hour after the market opened, the computer was 20 minutes slower than the actual trading speed due to the large number of sell orders.

This time difference is the most fatal factor.

By noon, the exchange's computer system was experiencing continuous malfunctions, and the system transition took about 75 minutes longer.

At this point, it wasn't just a problem with the trading system and computer configuration; everyone was panicking and placing sell orders. There were also quite a few companies like Xing Baohua's that had private dedicated lines for computer trading.

Insufficient server capacity caused a system crash due to congestion, resulting in 120 million out of a total of 396 million shares not being executed.

Xing Baohua acknowledged the investigation results broadcast on the news. After all, computer networks are for convenience, but in the event of an emergency, the computer can't be blamed!

You think that human yellow vests can process data faster than computers.

It's just an excuse.

Xing Baohua now wants to see how the political figures speak, as this is key to analyzing the situation in the latter half of the game.

After a while, one of them, who seemed to be an exchange employee, explained: "The Chicago Board of Trade sold a lot of index futures, and then the New York Stock Exchange also sold a lot of shares, but there was a severe shortage of buyers."

In this kind of market, who dares to go against the tide!

If Xing Baohua remembers correctly, there were a few who went against the tide, but he forgot who they were. In any case, they made a lot of money during this stock market crash and became a new generation of legendary figures.

A while later, the television broadcast a segment of SEC Chairman David Luther speaking in Washington, D.C., saying, "At this critical moment, I will discuss with the stock exchange the temporary closure of the exchange."

This news yesterday caused even more panic.

Because once the exchange closes, traders won't have time to sell their stocks, which will become worthless, and tens of thousands of dollars will turn to ashes.

As a result, securities firms, stockbrokers, funds, wealth management products, and insurance companies had to quickly dump their stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted as if possessed.

In the afternoon, officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission clarified: We have not discussed anything about closing the exchange.

The clarification came a little late, but it was too late; the disaster was already unstoppable. After things spiraled out of control, another announcement was made to suspend trading.

How can the market's people believe it if it keeps repeating itself?

At the close of trading that day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508.32 points, a drop of 22.6%, which was not announced until 9 p.m., marking the largest single-day decline.

The Nasdaq index fell 11.35%.

These assets, equivalent to over 500 billion US dollars—the annual GDP of the Great Rooster Country—vanished in a single day.

Almost all major companies' stocks plummeted by about 30%, such as General Electric (down 33.1%), Telegraph and Telephone (down 29.5%), Coca-Cola (down 36.5%), Westinghouse (down 45.8%), American Express (down 38.8%), and Boeing (down 29.9%).

Everything spiraled out of control. Nobody knew why, and there were no answers. All they knew was that their money had mysteriously disappeared.

According to relevant reports, countless investors suffered heavy losses on this day. For example, the world's richest man, Walton, lost $2.1 billion in stock value in one day, the world's youngest billionaire, Gates, lost $3.945 billion, and computer tycoon Ann lost $31 million on the afternoon of the 19th alone.

Many millionaires have become impoverished overnight, and those who have suffered the most are the individual investors who invested their hard-earned money in stocks over the years.

It is foreseeable that retail investors will become extremely vulnerable due to the shock of this financial crisis.

This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!