The short-selling strategy had been written long ago.

As for the funds, two months ago, he had pledged stocks and prepared 1 billion us dollars.

Now, with the travel warning issued, the wind Chen Cheng had been waiting for had finally arrived.

Chen Cheng tapped the keyboard gently, and an exceptionally complex short-selling strategy began to operate.

During the incubation period, he gradually invested 120 million, laying out deep out-of-the-money Puts on the S&P and Nasdaq (strike price -20%), as well as Puts on energy and airline stocks.

Subsequently, he added 180 million to near-month out-of-the-money puts.

He used 200 million for auxiliary short-selling, opening positions in a 4:3:3 ratio: SQQQ 3x short Nasdaq, SDS 2x short S&P, and opening Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures (MES) with 20x leverage.

A 150 million cross-market strategy was used to hedge risks while shorting emerging markets.

After all, in the early stages of the great pandemic, Italy was the first to be affected.

...

In short, for someone who holds the future in his hands, there are simply too many investment directions.

The problem is the principal.

Obviously, for Chen Cheng, who has already completed his initial capital accumulation, this is not a problem either.

He could even leverage his past track record to secure more money to directly short constituent stocks and buy put options on them.

Clearly, he was already prepared to do so.

After setting up the trading strategy for the entire next three months for this 1 billion in short-selling funds, a devilish smile appeared on the corner of Chen Cheng's mouth.

This should be the largest short-term speculation he had undertaken since transmigrating.

Someone might ask, with such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, why not go all in?

Why not get tens of billions and directly take on the entire market?

Short-selling should always be like a mouse stealing rice from a granary—small amounts, many times.

If you steal silver from someone else's pocket and do it so blatantly, the entire market will jump out to resist.

Near the market close, John, far away in LA, sent a message.

"Boss, it's ready. The roadshow document has been uploaded to the system."

Chen Cheng operated his computer, logged into the company's internal system, and saw the file.

After reading the document, he immediately replied to John.

"Let's begin."

After replying to the message, Chen Cheng conveniently took a portion of the content from the file and sent it to Guo Donghui.

This was the performance report of Likely Chen Chengs company for last year.

Likely Chen Chengs company, over the past year, had gone from an assets under management of 1.6 billion us dollars at the beginning of the year, surging all the way to 9.8 billion by the end of the calendar year.

In fact, counting the few trading days after the new year, the assets under management had already exceeded 10 billion.

And that's not even counting the 1 billion us dollars Chen Cheng took with him when he returned to the country.

If that were included, the management scale within the calendar year would have already exceeded 10 billion.

He sent it to Guo Donghui just to give him a sense of urgency.

A week had already passed, and it wouldn't do for there to be no movement at all in Hong Kong Island.

After sending the message, Chen Cheng left the study.

It was the middle of the night in the country, so he wouldn't be able to reply immediately.

But soon, just at 6 PM, Chen Cheng received a call from Guo Donghui.

Chen Cheng's mouth curved slightly. He glanced at his watch; it was only 7 AM in the country, and he laughed:

"Mr. Guo, you're up quite early~"

On the other end of the line, Guo Donghui clearly had no intention of making small talk.

"3.5."

A sneer hung on Chen Cheng's face, and he shook his head. These people in the hong kong circles certainly knew how to do business.

They even wanted to haggle over a sure-win deal like this.

"Mr. Guo, in the market, funds that can achieve an annualized return of over 20% are already few and far between."

"Why don't you reconsider, Mr. Guo?"

As he spoke, Chen Cheng prepared to hang up.

With his fundraising terms, he wouldn't be short of investors if he put them out there.

If it weren't for his future plans, he wouldn't even want to deal with this circle of people.

"Mr. Chen, wait."

On the other end, Guo Donghui let out a bitter laugh. The terms were indeed too good; he couldn't refuse. He was completely held in check.

Guo Donghui shook his head with a smile, "Alright, we'll do as Mr. Chen says. 30% annualized."

Chen Cheng's mouth curved slightly, "General Manager Guo, happy cooperation."

"Happy cooperation."

Having decided to invest in Chen Cheng's fund, Guo Donghui on the other end let out a hearty laugh, finally letting go.

30% annualized, what else could he be unsatisfied with?

Once he figured it out, Guo Donghui immediately abandoned the thought of Chen Cheng making even more.

He smiled, "Mr. Chen, aren't you going to ask about the investment scale of my Guo family?"

Chen Cheng smiled indifferently: "General Manager Guo, the scale is not important. Being able to start our first cooperation with you, having this first connection, is more important."

Chen Cheng said the polite pleasantries casually.

But he meant it; what he wanted was the future, not the present.

The two chatted for a few more sentences before hanging up.

The Guo family would invest 500 million us dollars into Likely Chen Chengs company.

The capital from the hong kong circles contacted through Guo Donghui would participate online in the performance report meeting held tomorrow morning.

That is, the fundraising meeting.

The next day, the fundraising meeting held by Likely Chen Chengs company for specific clients was held online.

Chen Cheng did not give the main speech throughout the process, only answering a few individual questions.

It was called fundraising, but with a guarantee against losses, it was actually borrowing money.

Less than three days after the meeting ended, over 6 billion us dollars in fundraising had already been confirmed.

Of course, in reality, much of it had already been confirmed by Chen Cheng beforehand.

Half of it, 3 billion us dollars, came from the Morgan Group's asset management plan.

In this, some underhanded methods had played a big role.

That is, turning against one's own side.

After confirming that 6 billion had been raised, Chen Cheng did not pay any more attention to this matter.

"Boss, the dirty water company should be ready to start."

Chen Cheng stared at the K-line on the computer screen, his mouth curving slightly, "Proceed according to plan."

"Understood, boss."

The call ended, and a smile rose to the corner of Chen Cheng's mouth.

Zou Yu walked over in striped pajamas, sat down on Chen Cheng's lap, and raised her glowing white arms to wrap around Chen Cheng's neck.

"What's proceeding according to plan?"

Chen Cheng smiled and pointed at the Company Name stock price on the computer screen.

Zou Yu looked at the price of 56.38, her eyes lighting up, "Wow, this is a new high for Company Name, right?"

After being by Chen Cheng's side, following the stock market had become her mandatory homework.

Chen Cheng's mouth curved slightly, his hand already reaching inside, "Just a false prosperity."

"Mmm~" Zou Yu let out a suggestive nasal sound, then let out a long breath, "What do you mean?"

Blinking her lively eyes, she thought of something and widened them, "You shorted Company Name?"

Chen Cheng smiled without answering, continuing to play around.

Zou Yu's eyes darted around quickly, and she thought seriously, "Company Name has indeed risen too much in the past few months; it's already risen more than double."

"But you filed a stake in Company Name and became a shareholder. Hmm... there shouldn't be any reason to short it, right?"

Chen Cheng's mouth curved slightly, and he didn't speak.

According to common sense, this is true; as a shareholder, the higher the stock price, the better.

But Chen Cheng didn't want to just be a shareholder.

While enjoying the softness, Chen Cheng always kept a smile on his face.

Those who haven't participated in it cannot understand the grandeur behind the K-line chart on the screen.

Suddenly, Chen Cheng's eyes lit up as he thought of someone who could empathize.

He freed one hand, picked up his phone, and sent a message to Han Su.

[Look at the stock price of Company Name]