Chapter 159: Futures Trading Commences, Total Net Profit Reaches 250 Million!

April, a new beginning.

At Shengxin's headquarters, everyone was eager to make a move, determined to deliver an impressive performance report. Even though the stock recommendation reports filtered by Zhang Long were somewhat controlled in quantity, their accuracy compared to before had still improved significantly, providing a massive boost.

Every employee in the investment department, and even the analyst team, had a clear feeling of this.

...

"Hello, President Chen..."

Zhang Long sat upright in his executive office chair and dialed Chen Youwei's number, smiling amiably. "Let me offer my apologies first—I truly cannot personally guide stock trading anymore. Linyuan has already said everything that needed to be said, but still, I am sorry."

"Well, I know."

On the other end of the line, Chen Youwei sounded noncommittal. This result was not unexpected, but his tone and attitude were much more polite than before, no longer overbearing.

"However, please rest assured..."

Zhang Long smiled and continued, "Whether it's Gold Medalist Xu or any of the other gold-tier teachers, they all report to me. I will find you a technically more professional analyst who better suits your tastes to guide you, and I believe we can have a pleasant cooperation."

"With me here, there will be no problem."

"Well, I believe you."

Chen Youwei also smiled. "I still have great faith in Director Zhang's technical skills. Being headhunted back to Shengxin with such a high-ranking position is naturally extraordinary. No need to be modest."

"Xiaoyuan is my nephew, and it can be considered fate that the two of you became acquainted. Please keep in touch more often in the future."

"Naturally, no problem."

It was the first time Zhang Long had experienced Chen Youwei being so polite on the phone, and he actually found it a bit unusual. However, he didn't suffer from any masochistic tendencies, so he chuckled and wrapped up the conversation: "I will go ahead and arrange a gold-tier analyst for President Chen. If you have any questions, feel free to call this number at any time."

"I am generally available 24 hours a day."

The number Zhang Long used to speak with Chen Youwei was his private cell phone. As a director, he had that privilege, and maintaining a certain level of private friendship with major clients was entirely normal.

"Alright, talk to you later."

Chen Youwei hung up the phone, his gaze flickering as he pondered something, his brows furrowing slightly.

If he remembered correctly, Zhan Yi's wife, Zhang Lizhen, was previously being guided by Zhang Long. They had met back when she went to Shengxin's offices to demand an explanation, and he still remembered it.

The lawsuit between the two families had been deadlocked for nearly half a year now. Although it didn't have a major impact, it was still unsightly.

It was time to bring about a thorough resolution.

...

"Get lost, don't call anymore."

At Hongze's marketing department, a certain team manager listened to the furious cursing coming through the receiver, his expression sinking slightly. Before he could say anything else, the phone was hung up. He let out a soft sigh and shook his head speechlessly.

Starting in March, without President Qian's elite stock-picking radar, Hongze's stock-recommendation standards had plummeted.

Now a month had passed, and very few of the previously active clients remained; most were suffering losses and trapped in heavy positions.

Although the volume of new client orders had also declined, fortunately, Hongze had built up some fame previously, so there were still some people wandering in blindly... stepping onto a path of no return.

Because the newly acquired clients couldn't make more than a few trades before either incurring losses or getting stuck holding declining stocks, resulting in total failure.

"I don't want to hear excuses."

Ling Yushan's expression was gloomy. Although he hoped the arrival of a bull market would resolve the current predicament, Hongze couldn't just have zero performance, could it? At the very least, they needed to hold steady above a certain baseline. Watching trading clients dwindle day by day, coupled with the drop in new order development, he inevitably felt angry.

Currently, the marketing department only had two teams generating performance, and there was no justification for hiring anyone new.

Otherwise, if performance were trending upward, recruiting to expand the team would amplify results—that would be the right track.

"Make the stock recommendations more accurate."

"So what if it's a bear market? Every day the broader market has stocks that go up or surge to the daily limit. Why can other people catch them while we can't? Why?"

Because other people had better bosses.

Of course, the two team managers and the company's gold-tier analyst present didn't dare to utter those words out loud.

They somewhat missed the days when President Ling Zhiqing and President Qian Caiying were still around—back then, generating performance was never a worry.

Even when problems arose, those two didn't just yell without solving anything. Unlike Ling Yushan, who only knew how to throw temper tantrums and talk nonsense about how well others were doing—go to hell.

There were simply very few companies in the entire industry with good results, and companies without heavyweight experts at the helm were all the same.

No more than five companies in the same industry had stable performance.

Now, Qian Caiying and Ling Zhiqing had jointly settled into Shengxin, and he heard that the mysterious figure named Zhang Long had also joined them. If Shengxin's performance could rise from here on out?

Then there was no need to doubt it; this guy named Zhang Long was definitely an industry heavyweight with razor-sharp market instincts.

Just wait, he would soon shake the entire industry.

...

"Yeah, beautiful."

Cheng Hai was just an ordinary working-class retail investor. With not much capital—only a bit over a hundred thousand—he had bounced around trading on numerous platforms, all to no avail.

He opened an account and started trading at Shengxin last October, but unfortunately, good times don't last, and while he made money initially, things went south later on.

Two massive waves of losses trapped him directly, and the situation had remained unchanged until now.

Just in the final week of last month, the Shengxin manager guiding him said the company had brought back the industry heavyweight who used to helm the firm, telling him to sit tight and wait for results.

Cheng Hai was skeptical, but from that day on, he kept a close eye on a few stocks. Oh mama!

The accuracy really had improved.

"5%, huh."

Cheng Hai's gaze showed a hint of regret; the capital trapped earlier hadn't been freed yet, but he had managed to scrape together nearly a hundred thousand from elsewhere and poured it in. Unexpectedly, the stock he bought just this morning started making money immediately, closing up 5% by the end of the afternoon trading session before the market closed!

It was a pity he only bought 30,000, netting a profit of 1,500.

Still, it was ultimately a good omen.

"Damn, bad luck."

Liu Hai was also a client of Shengxin, though he had several hundred thousand in capital. Unfortunately, his luck was a bit poor; a stock he bought two days ago didn't rise but instead fell. Meanwhile, other stocks in the recommendation report surged, causing him to miss out on nearly 12% in profits. He couldn't help but feel heartbroken.

"Brother Liu, don't fight the trend."

Listening to the phone call from the Shengxin guidance staff, "Losses are not scary; what's terrifying is refusing to admit losses and holding onto losing positions. If your capital remains trapped, you miss out on profit opportunities in other stocks, unless we have extra idle capital to average down. So cut your losses when you should, and don't feel bad about it."

"There are plenty of market opportunities."

"Well, alright."

Liu Hai could only nod in agreement. Over the past few days, if he had cut losses and exited in a timely manner, the other stocks would indeed have yielded profits. Alas, he regretted it.

He had better follow instructions in future trades. Making money in a bear market was already hard enough; holding onto losing positions without exiting meant certain doom.

Get in and get out quickly—opportunities were never lacking.

...

Massive profit, small profit, holding steady, small loss, massive loss—these five levels were Zhang Long's criteria for stock selection. The daily recommendation reports followed no set pattern, and the investment and trading departments used the recommendations as they saw fit; profits and losses also depended on a bit of luck.

Otherwise, if all massive- profit stocks were recommended and clients rushed to buy them en masse, the market makers behind the scenes would realize this was unacceptable, and the prices might not rise at all. Proper control had to be exercised.

Therefore, clients couldn't be uniformly told to buy a specific stock; employees had to make recommendations based on their own judgment.

As long as losses weren't carried and exits were made promptly, then as trading continued, profits were guaranteed.

Zhang Long had raised the accuracy of the stock recommendations, but whether clients could make money still relied on a tiny shred of luck. With the recommendation report in hand—whether they followed the staff's advice on the five daily stocks or bought based on their own judgment didn't matter—as long as they traded.

The core of investing was capital management. One had to manage and allocate account capital properly, and never blindly go all-in.

The soul of capital management, however, was stopping losses. Only by controlling losses could one avoid devastating injuries.

As long as the principal remained, there was always a chance to make a comeback.

...

"You're just not going to listen, are you?"

In a residential apartment, an old lady coaxed her grandson to sleep, then walked up to her daughter with a dark expression. "I told you not to trade stocks, but you just refuse to listen, right?"

"You won't be satisfied until you lose everything?"

"Mom, listen to me first."

Zhang Lizhen shrank her neck back, mostly because her mother was still holding a feather duster and looked ready to whip her.

"I've been making money lately."

As she spoke, Zhang Lizhen shifted the computer screen toward her mother, pointing to the trading ledger to explain, "Look, these items with a plus sign are profitable trades, and the minus signs are losing trades. There's even a total here—it's profit, see?"

"Hmph, so what?"

The old lady remained noncommittal. Though she didn't understand stocks, how could this kind of thing always make money? No way.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Zhang Lizhen quickly raised her hand in a promise. "The person who guided me to make money before is back. With him here, as long as I don't hold onto losing positions, I'm guaranteed to make a profit. Last time, in just two months, he earned back the 1.5 million I lost, and it was only after he left that..."

With that, she gave her mother a brief and detailed account of her past history with Zhang Long, and only then was she let off the hook. However, the old lady warned that she would be supervising: if losses got too big, trading stopped immediately.

If she didn't stop, her backside would blossom under the feather duster.

...

"Huh? It moved?"

At Junan Futures, Ni Meng suspected her eyes were playing tricks on her when Zhang Long's account suddenly showed activity.

"Hiss, it really moved."

A moment later, a flash of pleasant surprise crossed Ni Meng's face. Although she wasn't short of clients like Zhang Long, seeing him start trading again after remaining dormant since the Chinese New Year still made her very happy—after all, every single trade meant money.

Only with commissions could there be a sales cut.

"Straight to half-position, impressive!"

Watching Zhang Long pump 450,000 in capital directly into a half-position leveraged trade, Ni Meng couldn't help clicking her tongue slightly. If this started losing money, a single large market fluctuation would wipe him out.

However, Zhang Long's open positions all had stop-losses set in place; as long as he didn't refuse to exit when losses occurred, it wouldn't result in catastrophic damage.

Not bad, scientific trading without reckless behavior.

...

"Phew, let's treat this as a pastime..."

In an office at Shengxin, Zhang Long looked at the futures market charts on his screen and let out a soft sigh. Screening daily recommendation reports didn't take up too much time, but as a company director, there were plenty of related matters that popped up from time to time—handling work, attending meetings, and so on.

Trying to make money by trading forex across three accounts was already a bit busy, and adding futures on top of that made things even more hectic.

So today, he decided to test the waters with the futures account, aiming to secure a few profitable trades first without going too wild.

Once he finished shearing the forex sheep and reached 100 million in profits, he would stop; from then on, he would formally trade futures on a large scale. As for how much money he made, it didn't really matter much at this point.

After all, he had achieved relative financial freedom.

Making 100 million from personal stock trading, another 100 million from shearing the spot market, and nearly 50 million from forex.

A fortune of 250 million was truly massive.

"Buzz, buzzz~"

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. Zhang Long picked it up to see it was a certain villa sales manager. His demand for purchasing a detached villa had always been there and never stopped.

However, high-quality detached villas weren't always available, especially in prime locations like the Bund and Lujiazui, where everything already had an owner, unless one went out to the suburbs.

"Hey, Brother Zhang, good news..."

He swiped to answer, and the crisp, cheerful voice of the pretty sales manager came through... A moment later, the call ended, and Zhang Long's gaze flickered slightly. It was indeed very good news.

A top-tier villa near Century Park!