8: Alex's disappearance

"If I follow Alex, I'll face no issues and worries even in a market downturn." 

I've got to stick to Alex's moves and never let go. As for Shafei stock, it only saw a turnover of 874,880 Dollars yesterday, but today it's gone over 4.1 million.

As the closing bell rings for the broader market, George checked out his positions:

[Current Holding: Shafei (600843)]

[Number of Shares Held: 3000 shares]

[Average Transaction Price: 5.00 Dollars]

[Current Market Price: 5.65 Dollars]

[Total Position Value: 16950 Dollars]

[Daily Profit/Loss: 2687 Dollars (+20.00%)]

[Unrealized Profit/Loss: 1950 Dollars (+9.92%)]

[Total Assets: 16018.35 Dollars]

[Cumulative Earnings: +85.18%]

George gazes at the total returns on his account and mutters with a grin, "From my first investment in Xinhuajin on July 11 to today, after four trading days, I've scored 85 points. Not too shabby."

At that moment, Alex chimes in, "Honestly, my friend, I reckon your skills outshine the captain's by miles, and your future accomplishments will be right up there with his."

The gains from these four trading days, if measured against the minimum wage of the time, are equivalent to a year's pay for an average worker in a small city. And the more capital I have, the bigger my absolute gains.

George's been following for just two days, but his capital now stands at 100,000 Dollars, with 25,000 Dollars earned in two days.

...

The next day, July 17, a Thursday.

I swinged by the internet cafe in the morning. It's my fifth day since jumping back into the trading scene.

The Shafei stock has a slight opening increase of 0.53% today but takes a quick dip of 2.6% after the opening. I stay unfazed, and Alex, right there with me, keeps his cool. As long as Alex's around, there's no need to fret.

Five minutes after the market opens, Shafei begins to turn green and makes a steady climb, eventually reaching a 5% increase before settling into a narrow consolidation range till the morning break.

In the afternoon, the stock continued its consolidation with slight fluctuations, and around 1:30 PM, it took a quick leap, hitting a new intraday high with over a 7% gain.

However, I didn't make a move, and the intraday chart for Shafei dropped again.

It's not until around 2:30 PM in the late trading session that the stock makes another rapid upward move with an over 9% increase.

That's when I decided to take action. I unload all my holdings at an average price of 6.16 Dollars. Today, I gained 9%, pocketing a profit of 1,530 Dollars. The total assets in my account have now reached 17,500 Dollars, with a cumulative return of 102.87%.

In just five trading days, my earnings have doubled.

At this point, George, ready to follow suit and make a purchase, checks the time, realizing that the market is closing in a few minutes. But I don't seem to have made up my mind about which stocks to buy today.

After a while, Alex suddenly said, "I didn't find a satisfactory stock today. Let's stay in cash."

George is initially taken aback but then smiles, saying, "Staying in cash can be a good idea. Making more than a dozen points every day with a full position is just too over the top. It's like I've gone numb from all the winning, just like eating spicy Sichuan peppers."

In reality, it's quite different.

Alex intentionally mention not finding a good stock, and George, who's been following me for three days, takes the bait. In just three days, George has earned 37,000 Dollars and is already hooked. At this moment, I figure that George might be daydreaming about achieving financial freedom by emulating my trading.

The timing is perfect for the next phase of my plan.

Alex skillfully managed George's emotional responses, after swiftly exiting the trading software and settling our bills, I and Alex exchanged casual pleasantries and left the internet cafe.

...

The following day, Friday, July 18, marks the end of the trading week. As usual, George arrives early at the internet cafe and waits for Alex to show up.

However, there's an unexpected twist.

As time goes by, it's almost 9 AM, and there's still no sign of Alex.

So George takes the initiative to open a computer, download the trading software for Alex, and continues to wait.

The opening auction is underway, but Alex is still a no-show.

"What's going on? Why hasn't he come?" George stands up, looks around for a while, and then sits back down, feeling a bit uneasy.

By 9:30 AM, the market had already opened, but Alex was still nowhere in sight.

George logs into his Instagram account, finds Alex on his friend's list, and enters the chat window. But then he remembers the five-character message Alex sent before: "Do not disturb unless necessary."

He hesitates again.

At this point, George is quite torn. He wants to ask Alex what's going on and why he hasn't shown up yet.

But he's afraid of rubbing Alex the wrong way.

George is being extremely cautious about Alex now. In his eyes, Alex is the key to sudden wealth and financial freedom. He can't afford to mess this up. If he misses this opportunity, he'll miss out.

Unbeknownst to him, the time has already reached 11 AM. George glances at the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen and sighs inwardly, "Alex probably won't show up today. Should I ask?"

George continues to waver, struggling for quite some time, and finally decides not to disturb Alex.

"He didn't show up today. Maybe he's got something important to deal with. Contacting him at this time might backfire." George thinks it over and nods to himself.

So he decides not to bother Alex for the time being.

The A-share market closed significantly higher today, with the Newville stock index rising by 3.49% to 2,778.36 points. It seems like the second bottoming is complete on the technical side. The W double bottom has taken shape, and the second bottoming hasn't reached a new low.

There appear to be signs of stabilization.

Since George started following Alex for three days and got a taste of copying his trades, he's stopped caring about market indices and such.

Following Alex, every day feels like a bull market with a daily limit up. Who needs to pay attention to the overall market index?

The next two days are weekends, and the A-Share won't be trading.

...

On July 21, the new week begins as scheduled, and the A-Share welcomes the first trading day of the new week.

George arrived at the internet cafe, as usual, ready for the trading action.

The A-share market continues to surge, with the Newville Stock Exchange Index rising by 2.99% to close at 2,861.40 points. In just two trading days, it has risen from over 2,600 points to the current level of over 2,800 points.

However, George is once again disappointed because Alex still hasn't shown up. He wanted to reach out to Alex through Instagram and find out what's going on. But he decides to hold back. In the following days, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, George keeps his routine, showing up at the internet cafe as if he's going to work and waiting for me. However, Alex remained absent, and hasn't appeared since July 17.

Today is already July 24, and the market has returned to the 2,900-point mark, but Alex haven't shown up for a week.

George feels like the opportunity to get rich is slipping away.

"I can't continue like this. I need to reach out." George thinks, unable to bear the uncertainty any longer. It's too agonizing to continue this way, and if things don't work out, he can at least move on. So he opens his Instagram friend list and enters Alex's chat window to start composing a message.