Reborn with Consumption System-Chapter 413 - 202: Snatching Food from the Tiger’s Mouth_4

Manipulating the market is always a last resort for any competent finance professional.

Is there no other money to be made in the market? Must you break the law?

"The future is an era of synergy. Short-term trading plays on sentiment, long-term trading plays on cycles. Only an idiot would try to be a market manipulator."

Jiao Fangyan blinked rapidly. "Then... what about President Xu?"

"I suspect he painted himself into a corner. He couldn’t resist greed when he was starting out, made some mistakes, and now he can’t escape even if he wants to."

Han Lie spoke casually, but the underlying meaning of his words was brutal and bloody.

"It’s not that he can’t see the trend; he’s just stuck in the mire. That’s why I don’t think he’ll try to trip us up in Wei Hua. He doesn’t have the time. The most likely scenario is that he’ll approach us directly. Zexi is also in Magic Capital now; it wouldn’t be difficult for them to contact our shareholders. Let’s just make money together. A seasoned veteran like him should be open-minded enough for that."

Jiao Fangyan pondered this carefully for a moment. She partly agreed but also harbored some doubts, deciding to wait and see how things unfolded. She was a mature, steady, and resolute woman, not as easily swayed as a young girl.

Han Lie wasn’t surprised by her reaction and simply laughed it off.

Not everyone can pierce the mists of time; being constrained by the limitations of one’s era is the norm. Even by 2025, there were still countless naive investors who believed the hype from livestreamers peddling "follow the manipulator" tactics. What could anyone do about it?!

The reform of non-tradable share structures for listed companies began in 2005. In 2008, Shi Guangyao and Liu Guofang published "Market Value Management," and in 2012, they summarized and proposed the Avan premium model for evaluating the capital brand value of listed companies.

Astute listed companies had long begun practicing "market value management." After a few were penalized, the more audacious ones started entrusting third parties, only to be halted once more. Thus, the path of self-promotion for listed companies was never truly viable. Collaborating with external parties for market manipulation has always been illegal. The main difference was that before 2010, regulations were lax, but they progressively tightened thereafter. And with advancements in technology, regulatory effectiveness continued to improve.

Xu Xiang’s imprisonment was merely a sensational event; it was neither the first such case nor the last.

Later, brokerage firms implemented thousands of programs for compliance monitoring. Exchanges developed specialized, transparent big data regulatory systems. Accounts with funds exceeding one million yuan were placed under scrutiny, and the slightest suspicion would immediately require the brokerage to conduct a self-inspection and report its findings. Back then, Han Lie had his fill of completing forms for major clients who had made trading errors.

So, how did the smart people play the game?

They operated on shared philosophies, creating synergy to naturally drive up stock prices. Throughout this process, a continuous flow of capital would take over, with participants ultimately relying on their own skills to either feast lavishly or get a smaller share.

This required public funds and large institutions to establish positions early on, favoring and intending to hold for the long term. Gradually, the number of tradable shares on the market would decrease. Then, private equity funds would enter, igniting the initial spark. Speculators, seeing an opportunity, would immediately follow, passing the baton as shares changed hands and continuously pushing the stock price higher. After some time, the in-house research departments of brokerages would join in, publishing optimistic research reports and raising ratings, thereby fanning the flames.

Finally, a "demon stock" would emerge, its trajectory defying all expectations and analyses, creating a situation where sentiment reigned supreme.

Think about it: weren’t Shenche and Shibao like that? So, do they count as manipulated stocks? No, not even close.

Then, is there any collusion between these public funds, private equity funds, and speculators?

In most cases, there’s no explicit collusion, but rather a kind of unspoken understanding. Attempting to coordinate so many institutions is simply unrealistic. Besides, the risk is far too high; if one gets caught, a whole chain will be exposed. Who would be mad enough to secretly arrange such things beforehand?

However, among the core players, such an understanding certainly exists. They know each other, trust each other, and thus, when an opportunity arises, they move in and out together. This is called having a shared philosophy, not market manipulation. The actual process isn’t discussed. There’s no paper trail, no verbal agreements. It all relies on individual operational methods and predictions. That’s why the exchange’s transparent big data regulation system doesn’t flag it.

Operations that laypeople imagine are pre-arranged are caught easily. Try it a couple of times, and you’ll quickly be flagged by the exchange and the Securities Regulatory Commission as a high-risk target for special monitoring. Are you kidding me?!

As for the problem of making mistakes when relying solely on tacit understanding... if one attempt fails, just find another target and try again. It’s no big deal. Public and private equity funds are not immune to losses; in fact, in 2022, almost the entire industry operated at a loss. Speculators also frequently suffer substantial losses; this is all normal.

As for the crowd of naive investors fantasizing about following manipulators... if they lose money, they have only themselves to blame. Using your hard-earned money for such high-risk speculation—at the very least, you should do some basic information gathering, right? You don’t need to understand the market deeply, but you should at least have a general idea of how it works and what the current trends are, shouldn’t you? Even in 2022, if you still firmly believe in making money by following manipulators, convinced that "the big players are trying to shake me out," then if you *don’t* lose money, it’s practically a disservice to everyone else.

Even those few large funds tied up in small-cap stocks due to legacy issues—funds that could indeed be considered manipulators—still cannot use abnormal methods to wash trade, pump prices, or dump shares. Make one wrong move, and you’ll be investigated.

Three public funds engage in intraday cross-trading to boost a stock price? By the market close on the same day, a compliance officer will be on the phone, demanding, "What do you think you’re doing?!"

You might try to offer an excuse, "Oh, I just casually executed a T+0 trade..."

The compliance officer would snap back, "T+0 your ass! Who issued the trading order? Where are the operational minutes? Export the intraday monitoring records! Blah, blah, blah..."

Once they’ve vented their fill, you’ll have to start preparing the report.