Chapter 233: The Oracle of Delphi (5)
Meanwhile.
On Wall Street, the name Ha Si-heon was echoing through trading rooms.
“How far is he planning to go?"
“Has there ever been a monster like this before?”
Historically, Wall Street had seen its share of legends.
There was Soros, who brought the Bank of England to its knees; Kovner, who predicted Russia’s sovereign default; and Burry, who foresaw the collapse of the subprime market.
And yet, if you looked at Ha Si-heon, he already had three masterpieces under his belt.
Epicura, Theranos, and Valeant.
That alone was already astounding...
Recently, he seemed to have taken a liking to toppling entire nations.
After suddenly bringing down Malaysia and Greece one after another, he was now setting his sights on China.
“No matter how bold you are, China?"
“He’s completely insane.”
China, along with the U.S., was one of the two superpowers dominating the world economy.
Moreover, it possessed an exceptionally strong state control apparatus—making it, in some ways, an even more formidable opponent than the U.S.
To aim directly at China.
“Man... I wish I could get a job at Pareto right now. Are they hiring?”
“Think they’d have an opening?”
Pareto Innovation was currently the most talked-about hedge fund on Wall Street.
New hires were recruited strictly through private networks, and even then, the waiting list was endless.
“I’d work as an unpaid intern...”
“You? Work unpaid?"
“This isn’t about the money! This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness the birth of the next Soros!”
The traders’ eyes gleamed with ambition.
The story of Soros shorting the British pound.
That incident held a special meaning in the hedge fund world.
Until the early ’90s, hedge funds were considered fringe players in global finance.
In an era when pension funds and large institutional investors ruled the markets, hedge funds were viewed as little more than high-risk, high-reward hyenas.
But then.
Soros’ victory changed everything.
By forcing the Bank of England to its knees, hedge funds rose to become powerful beasts in the financial jungle.
More importantly, Soros redefined the very purpose of hedge funds.
Hedge funds correct inefficiencies in the market.
Of course, their ultimate goal is always profit.
But in pursuing profits, they often play a vital role in restoring market balance.
Soros’ example demonstrated this perfectly.
At the time, the UK was clinging to an unrealistic exchange rate within the outdated European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
But this ran counter to market forces.
Soros’ attack on the pound showed how artificial policies would inevitably crumble before the harsh judgment of the market.
—Those who defy the logic of capital will be punished by the market.
This became the hedge fund industry’s informal creed after Soros.
And by that logic, China had long been ripe for a reckoning.
“It’s about time someone taught them a lesson. They’re twisting the principles of capitalism more than anyone.”
“It’s not even comparable to the UK back then.”
China’s current stock market was the epitome of distortion.
Correcting this was a mission worthy of hedge funds.
Furthermore.
“If this plays out like the pound crisis again...”
The traders’ eyes sparkled with excitement.
In truth, Soros’ victory was so inspiring to them because it wasn’t a solo triumph—it was a collective triumph for hedge funds.
Funds united by a shared belief in profitability.
They spotted the same weakness, reached the same conclusion, and poured capital in the same direction.
Not even a nation could withstand that force.
“Could we pull that off in China too?”
If Ha Si-heon truly became the next Soros, the collective movement of hedge funds would surely follow.
In other words, those who joined in would be participating in a historic moment firsthand.
They’d have their names recorded in legendary tales for generations to come!
The traders dearly wished for this reckoning to become reality.
However, there was one obstacle...
“We can’t go through with it if it’s not profitable.”
“True.”
They chased only profits.
This was the unbreakable law of hedge funds.
Right now, the profits weren’t clear.
That meant they needed to wait.
So, while traders across Wall Street longed to join the fray, they kept their fingers on their calculators.
And then.
A voice rang out across the trading room.
“China just made a move!”
***
The CSRC has imposed a six-month total ban on major shareholder sales.
It was a drastic measure from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
Any shareholder owning more than 5% was now prohibited from selling.
Effectively, all major shareholders’ stocks were frozen.
Expletives burst from the traders’ mouths.
“Are they serious? I can’t even sell my own shares now?”
“This isn’t a market anymore—it’s a prison!”
Free trading is a core principle of market economies.
You should be able to buy when you want and sell when you want.
Only when that freedom is guaranteed can a market function properly...
But China had just shattered that principle.
Now, under the CSRC’s directive, major shareholders were being forced to hold onto their stocks for six months, no matter how much they lost.
Such direct intervention in the market was unprecedented.
“This pretty much says ‘stay away from the Chinese market,’ huh.”
“Showing their true colors as a dictatorship.”
It was clear that Western investors would soon turn their backs on China.
The most important thing in investing is your ability to exit, and no one wants to invest in a market where they can’t get out when they want.
This was a devastating blow to China’s efforts to attract foreign capital.
But even so, there was a reason why China had resorted to such extreme measures.
“How are Chinese investors reacting?”
“Well... they’re actually responding pretty positively.”
That’s because domestic retail investors accounted for 80% of China’s stock market.
And those small investors were welcoming the new measure.
The analyst displayed a screen showing translated real-time reactions from Chinese social media.
—Our stock market will never crash. The government will protect us!
—Government: ‘Stock prices falling? Just ban selling!’ ... Genius move!
—No more stop losses, no more crashes! The only direction is up!
To them, major shareholders were nothing but rich people living in another world.
It was hard for ordinary citizens to empathize with the wealthy.
In that context, Chinese retail investors actually felt reassured that the government was taking such aggressive action to protect the market.
“How’s the index doing?”
“They’re all rebounding. Shanghai, Shenzhen, CSI 300, China A50, even Hong Kong’s Hang Seng...”
Retail investors who had briefly pulled out were now rushing back in, believing the government would defend the market no matter what.
The traders clicked their tongues.
“Sure, it looks good now! But if they keep ignoring rules and market principles like this, it’ll come back to bite them eventually.”
“Life would’ve been easier for us too. If our government had just banned selling, we could’ve avoided the dot-com bubble and the financial crisis.”
Then suddenly.
Dobby turned to me.
“You don’t look surprised.”
Well, of course not.
I’d already expected this.
If anything surprised me...
‘They’re only doing it now.’
The China situation was unfolding quite differently from how I remembered in my previous life.
Back then, after peaking in June, the Chinese market had plummeted 30% in less than a month.
The “ban on major shareholder sales” had been China’s desperate response at that time.
It was like patching a cracked pillar by slapping metal plates on it and hoping for the best.
But this time, things were different.
Though the Shanghai index had begun to slide since June, the drop had only been about 15%.
‘That’s why the bubble-collapse narrative didn’t gain traction.’
Originally, my plan was to use the Delphi Report to hammer home the message that the market had fallen 30% and stir up public sentiment.
I was going to say, “Look at the cracks in this bubble—are you just going to sit by?”
But with only a 15% drop, the argument lost some of its punch, and aside from the retail investors who trusted me completely, fewer people believed in the bubble-collapse narrative.
Of course, I had a good idea why this had happened.
‘It must’ve been the butterfly effect from the Greece situation.’
The global financial markets are teeming with all kinds of speculators.
Among them are the hyenas who bet on the downfall of nations.
They don’t need my encouragement—they naturally gravitate toward shaky targets and pound away.
I suspected that, under normal circumstances, those hyenas would have swarmed China’s shaky market in June.
But thanks to my earlier influence, they had instead rushed to Greece first.
That’s likely why China had been able to weather the storm without resorting to drastic measures—until now.
And now that the Delphi oracle had pointed to China as the next target, they had no choice but to finally play this card.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
<CSFC to inject 3 trillion yuan to stabilize the market>
<CSFC provides 200 billion yuan in support to five mutual funds>
The Chinese government had just officially declared that it would inject a whopping 3 trillion yuan into the market.
That’s roughly $500 billion USD—or about 550 trillion won.
It was a clear signal of their intent to prop up the market by any means necessary.
And to prove they weren’t bluffing, China had already funneled around $3.2 billion into several mutual funds.
“They call it ‘support,’ but it’s basically extortion—‘Here’s some money, now go buy stocks.’”
“And obviously those funds can’t sell either. They’re being forced to borrow and go long, locked into long-term investments.”
This too was a ridiculous move.
But there was something more important to notice here.
<The Chinese government will respond forcefully to any attempts at external interference. Any effort to destabilize our economy will absolutely fail...>
Their statement specifically mentioned “external interference.”
In other words, it was a message directed at me.
China was making its position clear.
‘We have plenty of money.’
No matter how loudly I shouted from the rooftops, no matter how many cracks I caused in their foundation, China was saying it could always plaster over them with cash.
And this wasn’t an empty boast.
China had the largest foreign currency reserves in the world.
Plus, as a non-democratic nation, it was free from political constraints.
They didn’t need to worry about public opinion or negotiate bipartisan agreements—none of that red tape.
In short, their message was simple:
Go ahead and try us.
And Wall Street’s