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Chapter 77: Wealth
Chapter 77: Wealth
March 10th, 2003.
Early in the morning, I left the dorm and headed straight to my car.
But it wasn't my cherished Snow White BMW M5.
That gorgeous BMW was parked in a garage I'd rented in western Gainesville earlier this year.
I'd leased the space to accommodate a few new cars I'd picked up after the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl.
Instead of Snow White, a blue Subaru Impreza STi 2.0 was waiting for me with it's aggressive lines, aerodynamic body, lowered stance and large rear spoiler.
I climbed in, tossed my bag onto the passenger seat, and yanked the door.
"BANG!" The door slammed shut with a loud thud.
Too much force...
Since December, I've been going to the gym regularly and my muscles are definitely starting to show.
I revved the engine, took off, and drove straight to campus.
A few minutes later, I was getting out of the car and heading towards the university's finance department.
As I walked through the doors, I was pleasantly surprised to run into my new professor. He was a guy whose gray hair was running from his head but he had a very friendly demeanor and a welcoming smile.
"Good morning," I said with a nod.
"Good morning, Mr. Somnus," he replied warmly.
Just over a month ago, together with my team, I won the College Fed Cup competition.
I'd been able to join an accelerated course thanks to Professor Blake's recommendation and, of course, the university board's approval.
This accelerated track meant I was juggling nearly double the usual workload, but it would allow me to complete my undergraduate degree in no more than two years—possibly even just three semesters.
This friendly professor was Mr. Sullivan, who had been teaching me Mathematical Economics for a few weeks now.
I walked into the auditorium for the class with Professor Blake.
Sam wasn't sitting in his usual spot anymore. Instead, he had found a new place in the middle of the seating area, right next to Mia Allara.
Over the past few months, they have become quite close.
I took my usual seat, but instead of Sam sitting beside me, it was Raheem Reddy. His onyx-black hair had grown out a lot over the last few months.
He had been so engrossed in developing an econometric system recently that it was almost impossible to have a normal chat with him.
I put down my bag and turned to look at him. "How's the project going?"
He glanced up from his notes and looked at me almost like a mad scientist. "No worries, man. You invested in me, and I'll show you results," he said seriously.
"You should relax a bit... I told you I don't expect any results right away."
'In my previous timeline, Raheem dropped out of university after the first year. Now that he has my financing, I'm pretty sure he will be even more willing to do it,' I thought.
After classes, I headed back to the dorm.
At the reception, there was mail waiting for me.
I sliced it open with a knife and pulled out the letter inside.
"
Immortal Investments
Rundown as of March 4th
The leveraged spot position: We hold 3,911,000 shares of Cal-Maine, acquired at an average of $2.04. The current value of the position stands at $16,465,310.
Cash Reserves: Our cash position stands at $3.1 million, up from $2.2 million in January.
Trading Activity: We continue to trade Cal-Maine on the uptrend as directed.
Operating Expenses: With the recent onboarding of two new traders and the finalized contract with Reagan Lee, our monthly operating costs amount to $27,800.
Best regards,
Derec Johnson
"
The agreement between China and the US was actually a great thing for Cal-Maine, as they announced that they would be expanding to China, which accelerated their rapid growth from mid-2003 to early 2003.
I have done a lot of things since January, when I won $2,788,000 on the Super Bawl bet.
I bought a few cars and then I transferred $2M to Immortal Investment to keep it liquid after they put everything into building a position in Cal-Maine.
$80,000 went to my friend, Jacob McCoy.
$50,000 went to Raheem Reddy. So that he can rent a machine with enough processing power to do the necessary calculations.
With both of them, I have signed SAFE agreements to receive equity in their companies in the future, with a defined percentage of shares based on their company's future evaluation, but no less than 20% of shares and no more than 40%.
The rest of the winnings went into my Charles Schwab account, and its value has been climbing rapidly.
[Charles Schwab]
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[Total Balance: $19,731,574.56]
[Available Balance: $588,028.32]
------------
[Market Value of Holdings: $19,143,546.24]
[Margin Borrowed: $6,747,688.83]
[Buying Power: $2,352,113.28] (4x Leverage)
------------
Portfolio:
[Single-Stock Futures ($AXON)] [$8.32] {[ 2,300,907 shares ]}
[% Gain Over Last Month: +92%]
------------
Recent Transactions:
[Futures Sell: AXON, Amount: 111,369, Average Price: $8.21, -2.93$/share Margin]
[Futures Purchase: $AXON, Average Price: $3.91, Amount: 2,412,276, 4x Leverage]
------------
I sold some of the futures just last Friday and was thinking about withdrawing the cash to buy a house in Gainesville, since I planned to live here for a while and property prices were set to rise until at least 2008. Until the mortgage crisis.
I could always sell the property in 2005 or 2006.
I started browsing online for houses close to campus.
After sifting through various listings, I found a promising one:
3 Bedrooms
3 Bathrooms
2-Car Garage
Over 2,000 Square Feet
Price: $368,000
In the late 2020s, this property would probably be valued at close to a million dollars... before the housing market crashed in 2029.
As I continued to mull over the property listing, my phone flashed with a new message.
I had bought a new golden Nokia 3650 with a circular keypad.
The message was from Mark at Johnson Trading.
I opened it, and my eyes grew really wide.
"We're fucked, Jack. Monster Beverage just tanked 40%. We bailed on our short-term plays ASAP, but we're already down over $15 million across the board. What do you think? Are we cutting the losses and running, or do we go all in?"
Throwing my phone on the bed, I quickly tapped the keyboard and opened Monster Beverage's chart.
It was a sea of red. A steep, relentless drop.
I pulled up the tape.
It was packed with sell orders... massive sell orders.
There was no clear reason.
No news.
Clearly, someone was attacking it.
Who the hell would do this?
I stood up, grabbed the phone and answered Mark's message.
"DO NOT SELL."
We were holding.
I needed to figure out who was behind this.