Chapter 252: Garden Forum

Yanzhong Industrial.

As the company's stock price steadily climbs, the board members are somewhat puzzled.

Yanzhong started as a small factory on a street in the Shanghai stock market. Although the company is now listed, compared to established stocks like Shinhua, Feile, and Yuyuan, Yanzhong is practically a minor player in the stock market.

Unlike these state-controlled listed companies, Yanzhong Industrial is an extremely rare "three-no" concept stock: it has no state shares, no corporate shares, and no foreign shares.

Besides this, Yanzhong Industrial has a small market capitalization. As a fully circulated listed company, Yanzhong's total capital is just over 30 million shares, of which over 90% are dispersed individual shares, without any major shareholders holding significant power.

It's a small and insignificant listed company.

So, seeing the company's stock price rise for three consecutive days, each day with a steady increase of around 3%, even the management and board are bewildered.

"Did our company accidentally do something right?"

Vice Manager Chu Hailiang scratched his head in confusion, unable to make sense of the situation.

General Manager Qin Guoliang, who had experience in Hong Kong, had seen a lot. The company's current business was as stable as could be, with nothing remarkable, so he speculated that the unusual fluctuations were due to manipulation in the secondary market.

If one had to use a single word to describe the stock market in 1993, it would be "immature."

This immaturity perfectly describes everyone involved in the stock market at that time.

The regulators were immature, so all policies and regulations were experimental.

The listed companies were immature, not understanding what abnormal market fluctuations represented.

The investors were even more immature, often betting everything on unverified rumors and insider information, using extreme courage and minimal skill to navigate a market with virtually no rules. They either ended up in ruin or striking it rich.

Hearing his deputy's guess, Qin Guoliang waved his hand dismissively.

"There must be someone manipulating the stock price. Don't worry about them. Isn't it good that the price is rising? Once it goes up more, I'll sell my 300,000 shares and buy a small car."

Old Qin's casual talk brought laughter in the meeting room.

---

The process of accumulating stock positions is actually quite dull.

Although Li Xian came to Shanghai's stock market to make a significant profit, he found himself completely uninterested in stocks.

To avoid attracting attention from retail investors, Li Xian distributed his account funds across Xu Maohuo and a few other subordinates' accounts, with about 500,000 each, buying small amounts repeatedly.

His subordinates were excited, watching the numbers in their accounts change, experiencing a thrill similar to the first-time use of Alipay in modern times, spending money without handling cash.

Xu Maohuo was also excited, but unlike his subordinates, Li Xian had already convinced him that buying Yanzhong Industrial was based on insider information.

The stock, currently at 10 yuan per share, was expected to rise to 20 or even 30 in a month.

So Xu Maohuo's excitement was akin to "I have a piece of land at my doorstep, planting wheat in the spring and harvesting gold in the fall, but I can't tell you," that kind of feeling.

With every successful transaction, he smiled foolishly at the computer, his expression reminiscent of a fan in the future admiring a profile picture of a cute girl on QQ.

Seeing everyone busy, Li Xian decided to take a break, borrowed a cigarette from Xu Maohuo, and greeted Xin Rumei before leaving the trading hall.

The department store, once lively, felt completely different from his home. The unfamiliar Wu Nong dialect made him feel like he had entered another world.

With nowhere else to go, he took a cigarette and walked through the street, filled with the sounds of bicycle bells and distant shouting, to the back of the department store.

Earlier, he had seen a small garden on the third floor.

By noon, the weather was a bit warm.

However, the garden was still quite cool. Passing through the low shrubs, Li Xian saw a small pavilion surrounded by flower pots arranged in geometric patterns.

He intended to rest there for a while but found that the pavilion was already occupied. A group of men and women were sitting on the wooden benches inside, talking loudly about something.

Standing outside the pavilion and listening to their conversation, Li Xian couldn't help but smile.

In 1993, without the internet, forums, blogs, or microblogs, the need for communication between people still existed.

While ordinary people's gossip about family matters could be easily discussed at their doorsteps, stock investors had a more intense need for communication about niche topics and technical details.

Finding a place to exchange ideas was quite difficult—after all, there were only two million stock investors in all of China, a tiny fraction of the 1.2 billion population.

The inability to exchange and share information was a painful and maddening experience.

So, clearly, this garden had become an offline "forum" for a small group.

There were only five people—three men and two women—but the atmosphere was quite lively.

Coincidentally, when Li Xian stood next to the pavilion, the group was discussing his current target—Yanzhong Industrial.

"Teacher Jiang, Yanzhong has been rising steadily these days. Is this stock worth buying?"

The man referred to as Teacher Jiang appeared relatively young, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. His neatly combed hair and the light cream-like appearance of his face gave him a refined look.

But contrary to his appearance, he spoke passionately to his "students": "Absolutely do not buy! Do you know what kind of stock Yanzhong is? It's a three-no concept stock. It's rising now, but it's just bait. Once you small investors fall for it, I guarantee you'll see the order book disappear, and you won't even find a place to cry!"

The crowd nodded in agreement.

"Teacher Jiang makes sense! This is experience talking. I was tricked like this before, buying at 8 yuan per share, ended up stuck, and lost over 40,000 yuan. I still feel painful thinking about it."

The speaker was a woman, not particularly attractive but with a good figure—well-rounded from behind.

Flattered by the woman's praise, Teacher Jiang became somewhat smug: "You people just don't think. You need to analyze the reason behind any situation. For example, I said not to buy Yanzhong now. But that's just the current situation. The manipulator's strength varies. If the stock rises steadily over ten or twenty days, it means the manipulator is strong. Then you can consider joining in and making a small profit. Got it?"

"Pfft,"

Li Xian finally couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.

How many people is this so-called teacher going to scam?

Hearing Li Xian's laughter, Teacher Jiang's face turned sour. He looked Li Xian up and down and pointed at him, "Are you also a stock investor? Do you have any objections to what I just said?"

Seeing the authoritative tone challenged, Li Xian waved his hand, "No, no, I just think what the teacher said is very reasonable! I happened to stumble upon this place and feel extremely fortunate!"