New York.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, another day of trading in the North American stock market ended on time, and it was also the last trading day of the week.

When Wall Street elites were thinking about how to spend the coming weekend, a sudden announcement from Westeros Company suddenly broke everyone's relaxed mood.

Westeros Company's announcement was not long, and the general idea was that due to the needs of corporate development, the company will reduce its holdings in the stocks of six technology companies, including Apple, in the near future.

After liquidating Motorola shares early last year, Westeros has not made any major public moves this year. Moreover, the total value of the six stocks that Westeros is about to reduce its holdings this time is not too large. According to

At the stock price before the market closed today, even if all positions were cleared, the cash-out scale would only be about US$500 million, of which Apple's stock alone would account for more than half.

However, no one will forget the investment boom in technology stocks triggered by the "Westeros Combination", let alone the young man behind the Westeros Company who created a series of wealth miracles in just two years.

Does the reduction of six technology stocks at one time mean that Simon Westero is no longer optimistic about the technology sector? Or, some unknown changes have occurred within these six companies? Or, Simon Westero

Raising money to do other things?

With a series of questions, many investment banks and securities companies have held temporary emergency meetings to discuss the possible impact of Westeros Company's announcement on the stock market next week. The phone number in the office of James Raybould, President of Westeros Company, was also on the line.

Suddenly he was beaten up.

Six companies including Apple became the focus of many people's attention in the following days.

Westeros chose to issue a holding reduction announcement after the market closed on Friday. In fact, it was giving everyone preparation time to avoid panic selling in the technology stock sector and triggering a sharp decline.

After the news was announced, Apple, the core company of this reduction, held a high-level meeting overnight.

In recent years, Apple's market share, revenue scale and profits have continued to rise. Company CEO John Sculley is not too worried about the sudden announcement of reduction of holdings in Westeros.

After emergency meeting discussions, Apple released its 1988 annual financial report ahead of schedule on Saturday afternoon.

As of December 31, 1988, Apple's total revenue for the year was US$2.661 billion, an increase of 39.9% compared with US$1.901 billion in 1987. Full-year net profit was US$218 million, compared with US$154 million in 1987.

up 41.5%.

At the same time, Apple's market share increased from 9.3% in 1987 to 12.1%.

Apple's eye-catching annual financial data gave many investors reassurance, and the other five companies also took corresponding measures under the influence of Apple.

James Raybould also publicly expressed his support in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, saying that Westeros Company is still optimistic about the prospects of these technology companies, and only has to take measures to reduce its holdings due to the needs of the company's development.

.

However, when asked by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal where the funds cashed out by the Westeros Company would be invested, James Raybould did not give a clear answer.

This evasive statement immediately caused a lot of speculation in the media, and they began to further pursue the inside story.

New Monday.

Amid numerous media discussions surrounding the announcement of the reduction of Westeros Company holdings, an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"Watch out, something big is coming in Westeros!"

"At this year's Golden Globe Awards, which is a joke, Daenerys Entertainment only won two awards for Best Director for "Dead Poets Society" and Best Supporting Actress for "Steel Magnolias" for a series of excellent films produced by Daenerys Entertainment last year.

"

"The author has no intention of discussing the intense controversy caused by the 46th Golden Globe Awards. What I am more curious about is how much money did Daenerys Entertainment make last year?"

"As a non-listed company, Daenerys Entertainment has no obligation to publish financial reports to the outside world. However, we can make rough estimates based on public data."

"According to industry sources, Daenerys Entertainment and ABC Television Network have resumed cooperation negotiations for the second season of "Who Will Be a Millionaire?"

The revenue from the show far exceeds that of the ABC Television Network."

"It is rumored that the pre-tax profit of the first season of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" alone will reach an astonishing US$250 million!"

"In addition, reality shows such as "Survivor", "Big Brother" and "The Housewives of Beverly Hills" launched by Daenerys Entertainment Television last year have also brought huge profits to the company. "Dangha"

"Lee Met Sally", "Pulp Fiction", "Basic Instinct" and a large number of blockbuster films have made Daenerys Entertainment a lot of money."

"The domestic and overseas box office of films such as "Dead Poets Society" and "Rain Man" as well as peripheral distribution such as video tapes will only contribute profits to Daenerys Entertainment this year and next."

"However, even if we only calculate the income Daenerys Entertainment received from film, television and other business areas in 1988, subtracting the company's various expenses, due debts and taxes payable, the final net profit scale,

It will still not be less than US$200 million.”

"Many people may have begun to wonder, why is the author talking about this?"

"Because this is the most critical basis for the conclusion of this article."

"Just last year, Daenerys Entertainment earned Simon Westeros 200 million U.S. dollars. The dividends received from a series of technology stocks invested by Westeros Company throughout the year were also very considerable. In this way, Simon Westeros

·Westeros clearly has no shortage of funds."

"However, Simon Westeros has still chosen to finance his recent series of large investments through bank loans."

"According to investigation, in recent months, Simon Westeros first obtained a loan of US$200 million from Credit Lyonnais in France, which was rumored to be used for real estate investment in Europe (a failure, but who knows, this is Westeros)

.Subsequently, Daenerys Entertainment invested in Blockbuster, Melisandre Company acquired Gucci, and Simon Westeros again raised $250 million in funding from Citibank."

"Two new debts, excluding a small amount of repaid installments, Simon Westeros's personal debt is still close to US$900 million."

"Such a huge debt scale obviously means huge interest expenses. Even if Simon Westeros has enough strength to repay it, it is obviously not a wise move to rashly increase personal debt when he has sufficient funds."

"Is Simon Westeros an unwise man?"

"The answer is obvious."

"So, here comes the problem."

"Daenerys Entertainment has already accumulated a large amount of cash, and the Westeros Company has begun to cash out the technology stocks held by the Westeros Company, even selling stocks with great growth potential such as Apple. But in the company

In foreign investment behavior, we still continue to choose loans.”

"So, what does Simon Westeros want to do as he continues to accumulate cash?"

"The author couldn't help but think that in 1987, "Run Lola Run" continued to be a hit at the box office. Simon Westeros, who held all other copyrights except for the film's North American theatrical distribution rights, did not choose to seriously manage the film. Instead, he hurriedly released all the films.

Sell ​​at a low price.”

"It is said that the subsequent various copyrights only brought 80 million US dollars in revenue to Simon Westeros. Warner Bros. obtained 35 million US dollars for overseas distribution rights, of which only 200 million US dollars was spent on overseas box office, allowing Warner to double its income.

, Simon Westeros’ sell-out is nothing short of stupid.”

"However."

"Everyone knows what happened next."

"What Simon Westeros is doing now is very similar to what he was doing two years ago."

"At the same time, in Japan on the other side of the ocean, the Nikkei 225 index has exceeded the 31,000 point mark. In just three years, the increase has reached 138%. The performance of the Japanese stock market at this time is exactly the same as the crazy North American stock market in 1987."

"The author makes a bold guess that Simon Westeros' next target is Japan."

"In fact, when this article was published, Simon Westeros may have already begun his own layout of the Japanese stock market."

"Finally, let's wait and see."

The most direct consequence after the publication of the front-page article in the "Wall Street Journal" was that it successfully diverted most people's attention from Westeros Corporation's reduction in technology stocks. At the opening of the day, there were not many investors worried about the technology stock sector of the North American stock market.

Fall sharply.

Supported by the excellent financial report released last Saturday, Apple's stock price not only did not fall during this Monday's trading day, but rose by 1.7%.

On the other hand, the view expressed in the Wall Street Journal article is clearly that Simon Westeros is shorting the Japanese stock market, a view that is obviously shared by most people. However, Simon is actually going long.

Due to the time difference, when the article was published, it was already Monday evening in Tokyo, so we temporarily escaped the disaster.

However, if this view is allowed to spread, it is not difficult to imagine that the long position in Nikkei 225 index futures that Simon has established will suffer a huge loss tomorrow.

Simon even felt that this article was probably secretly promoted by some hedge funds that were shorting the Japanese stock market.

After a brief decline in 1987, it continued to rise wildly for more than a year. The bubble content of the Japanese stock market has far exceeded that of North America at the time, and a large number of short-selling forces have already entered the market.

Although he has no good impression of Japan in his heart, out of self-interest considerations, Simon cannot be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

When short sellers make money, they will not share the benefits with themselves.

Therefore, after urgent discussions with James Raybould on the phone, in the afternoon, several mainstream evening newspapers in North America disclosed some insider information: Simon Westeros has indeed entered the Japanese stock market, but it is not a short position, but a short position.

many.

To Simon's surprise, in addition to his arrangement with Raybould, on a CNN financial talk show that afternoon, a well-known analyst from Lehman Brothers was interviewed and said that according to reliable sources, West

Luo is indeed going long.

Obviously, the news of Simon's previous entry has been leaked.

Before, everyone just quietly followed Simon into the village, and even took the initiative to limit the spread of the news. If it hadn't been for the "Wall Street Journal" article that caught people off guard, some people would have just followed Simon to make a fortune in silence.

However, plans can never keep up with changes.

At this critical moment, those who also placed heavy bets on the long side may be worried that Simon will react too slowly, so they can only take the initiative to help him 'clarify'.

Lehman.

When Simon heard the news, he could only smile bitterly.

After those initial incidents, Simon never had contact with Lehman Brothers again, but he witnessed the whole process of Simon's miraculous stock index futures operation in 1987. Apparently, Lehman Brothers never gave up and tried to make money from him.

Some chance efforts.

When the commotion reaches this level, there is no need to hide things anymore.
To be continued...