Chapter 36: Sharing the Spoils

The essence of stocks is just a proof of ownership. Owning how many shares implies how much profit-sharing one can get from the company. The price of stocks actually has nothing to do with the dividends. It won't give you an extra dollar just because your stock price is $3, nor will it give you one less if it's $2.

For the "helping hand" financial institutions, if a thousand shares go out, Carter still has to return a thousand shares, or even more. Their dividends from Vicks Company increase every year. In addition, taking advantage of Carter and Julian lowering the stock price, they can also take the opportunity to bottom out and continue to expand their holdings.

Whether it's eating dividends or selling these shares at a premium through over-the-counter transactions to some ambitious shareholders in Vicks Company, they can all make money.

It can be said that under the operation of Carter and Julian this time, they made big profits, financial institutions made small profits, but only Vicks Company and individual investors suffered losses. After understanding the logic of this operation, which is quite like "returning money to the nobles and dividing money to the people", Carter no longer feels surprised by Julian's tacit understanding. Instead, he pays more attention.

Although the cooperation with other financial institutions seems like "good buddies", alliances of interest have always been the most stable and the most unstable. When it comes to bottom fishing, they won't be polite to you.

If you're too slow to act, you might lose out. Selling a large stake of 700,000 shares also means that Carter has to buy back 700,000 shares or even more in the stock market.

With the stock price getting lower and lower, more and more stocks are listed on the market. When the stock price falls below the $2.3 mark, Carter looks at Julian:

"$2.3 now, should we start buying?"

"Almost, but don't buy too much. Let's start by buying back two hundred hands."

Two hundred hands, which is twenty thousand shares, when there are already more than four thousand hands circulating in the current market, quietly buying back two hundred hands in segments shouldn't attract much attention, as long as it's not a one-time complete purchase.

The market is always fluctuating, when some sell, others buy. There will never be a shortage of bottom-fishing customers and trend-following customers in the stock market. While Carter quietly buys back shares, suddenly there's another five hundred hands of selling in the market.

This further brings the stock price down to $2.23, but this sudden appearance of five hundred hands is quite abrupt. Naturally, it couldn't be Carter, who was supposed to start buying, nor the financial institutions who pyed in advance. And such a large volume couldn't have come from individual retail investors.

"Interesting, interesting. Carter, don't rush to buy back just yet, the situation has changed, there's a big fish coming! No, we still have to buy, but slowly. Your position is too big, it's a pity."

On the big board where there were already more than four thousand hands of stocks listed, after adding these uninvited five hundred hands, it's close to the five thousand hands mark. At this point, even the patient ones can't sit still anymore. A few hands, tens of hands of small listings are popping up like mushrooms after the rain.

The stock price drops below the psychological expectation of $2.3 and continues to fall below the $2 mark. However, Carter's position this time is too big, he borrowed seven thousand hands of stocks. Trying to close the position completely from top to bottom is simply impossible.

When it really hits the bottom, all kinds of bottom-fishing customers enter the market, making it too difficult to buy back the seven thousand hands. Carter understands this, and after hearing Julian's words, he doesn't feel regretful.

Making money is like robbing a bank, when you've robbed enough, you can't be too greedy. While authorizing Julian to command the traders to buy back stocks, Carter quietly watches the market trends.

From five thousand hands to six thousand hands, it only took less than five minutes. And the number of listings continued to rise, even though Carter was quietly buying back, it couldn't stop this downturn.

Finally, the avalanche-like fall happened!

By the time the market closed, Carter had bought back a total of three thousand seven hundred hands, except for the eight hundred hands that were not sold, he bought back a total of 2900 hands, totaling $580,000.

Looking at the reduced funds in his account, Carter walked out of the Kiddle Company with weak legs. He hadn't eaten all day and had been in a tense state. Even the strongest person can't handle it.

"Sometimes, a high market value isn't good either!"

In a restaurant near Kiddle Company, Carter mumbled as he slurped his pasta. The last five hundred hands of listings seemed to be the last straw that broke the camel's back, but Carter knew in his heart that it was actually the bubble of Vicks Company being burst.

Being overvalued can indeed attract investors to buy enthusiastically, making everything look splendid. But in reality, the dividends that don't match the stock price every year can't help but make people doubt.

It might be fine for a short time, people can comfort themselves, saying that the company needs to develop and grow, so it's normal for the dividend to start small. But once someone bursts this self-deceptive bubble, it will start to collapse uncontrollably.

Sure, he was a pusher, but wasn't the company itself also problematic?

The downturn from the previous day continued into the second day. The number of listings remained higher than the number Carter bought, and it kept falling until it reached around $1.8. Then, the downturn began to reverse.

With bottom-fishing customers entering the market, the stock price of Vicks started to rebound. But by this time, Carter had already bought back a whopping five thousand six hundred hands of stocks. The remaining one thousand four hundred or so hands were quickly bought back at an average price of $2.2 after the rebound. With Carter, the biggest bottom-fishing customer, satisfied and leaving the scene, the stock price of Vicks began to stabilize.

It wasn't until three days later that it slowly stabilized around $2.6. During these days, Carter was also repeating the same operation, buying back the stocks of several other companies. The luck of the other three companies wasn't as good, but Carter roughly calculated that on average, he made about $0.8 per share. Vicks Company, on the other hand, exceeded their expectations and made an average profit of about $1.2 per share.

And by this time, it was the third week of trading days, it was time for stock splitting. Time to collect money, time to pay off debts.

"Stop laughing, tone it down a bit! This time we were lucky, there probably won't be such suitable targets in the near future."

Still in Julian's office, watching Carter, whose mouth was almost stretching to his ears, Julian couldn't help but scold him in a joking tone.

At this moment, Carter didn't mind Julian's rudeness at all. Joking aside, if you could make over a million dollars in about half a month, even if you scolded me, it would sound pleasant.

"Vicks Company's stocks were borrowed 700,000 shares and returned 730,000 shares; the other companies were more or less the same, borrowing 1.4 million shares and returning 1.48 million shares. Vicks Company, with a profit of $1.2 per share, minus the extra 30,000 shares returned, leaves $764,000; the other three, with a profit of $0.8 per share, minus the extra 80,000 shares returned, leaves $920,000, totaling $1,684,000."

"Stop laughing! We still have to deduct taxes! And there are operating costs on my end. You don't think I've been working tirelessly for you these past few days for free, do you?"