Chapter 49

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Young people's thinking diverges; having questions is a good thing, but what can a supercomputer do on Wall Street? Chen Congyu was momentarily speechless.

Chen Congyu was a self-made businessman; clear thinking and a rich background were the main reasons for his success. But after entering the new millennium, increasingly huge companies posed enormous challenges to his management skills. On the other hand, the once enormous fund management also constrained the further development of the Chen Group. It was precisely because he felt his own inadequacy that he hoped his son could change.

He had just said so many benefits of finance, yet he happened to be unable to explain questions about finance, so he cast a pleading gaze toward his wife Fang Man Yi.

Fang Man Yi pinched him without changing expression, then said to her son: "Wall Street wants supercomputers, presumably there are a large amount of calculations to complete. Things in this regard, if you want to know, you can ask all kinds of professionals. Aren't the professors at school there to teach and resolve doubts? With them laying the foundation for you, learning anything later will be convenient. Jiangning University's faculty is quite good; the opportunity is rare."

Chen Yi acted as if half-understanding, not taking up the latter half, but still said: "Then I want to ask someone, who can I ask?"

Fang Man Yi was stunned for a moment, then simply poked her husband and said: "What high-end talents does your company have? Let one give our son a talk."

The Chen Group's operation was still stable; Chen Congyu tilted his head and thought for half a day, finally speaking the truth: "I'll call Old Zhou from HR and ask him to bring someone over to give a talk?"

"Find two more fresh graduates." Fang Man Yi clapped her hands and said: "We are seeing flowers through mist; let someone who has been there tell our son."

When the couple encountered matters concerning their son, they could no longer remain calm.

Normally, Chen Yi would definitely find his parents' behavior boring, but considering the importance of supercomputer applications, he was quite looking forward to it. After all, relying on his own imagination, even if he exhausted himself to death, he could not bring out its function.

Private enterprises were very efficient; Chen Yi requested in the morning and saw people in the afternoon.

The one who came was a PhD who had studied in the United States, plus two students who had just graduated. All three had the appearance of elites; besides the former's suit being more fitted, they were all full of confidence.

But compared to him, Chen Yi was young in age but even more imposing in bearing. Besides the air cultivated since childhood as an aristocratic scion, entering and leaving the Holy Qiao Kingdom more than ten times was also conducive to cultivating temperament.

Think of mages like Timothy; they were characters above millions of people, frequently commanding such people, and naturally would be influenced.

Chen Yi was like meeting the Holy Qiao crowd in the subway; standing in the living room at home, the three people who originally held their heads high, looking and looking, actually lowered their heads.

Minister Zhou, who handled personnel and had seen countless people, seeing this situation, opened his mouth in surprise. He not only knew that the PhD who studied in the United States was famously arrogant, but also knew the meaning of this subconscious action.

"Old Chen has good luck." Minister Zhou was Chen Congyu's friend of many years, patting his shoulder and laughing: "Your son is promising, unlike my brat of a son."

"Where, where..." Chen Congyu thought he was talking about the College Entrance Examination, quickly turned to flattery, letting words of praise flow like cash, always the unfailing method for businessmen's success.

Fang Man Yi poured tea for everyone, then stated the purpose, saying: "It's just that the College Entrance Examination ended recently; my little Yi is preparing to apply for schools and majors, and we have some questions we can't answer, so we want to ask you for advice."

All three responded with smiles. Chen Congyu and Old Zhou looked at each other and smiled interestingly. If it were replaced by a worldly person with much experience, the first thing they should do now is show humility; that is the Chinese way of being.

However, the two graduates had just left the school gate, and the PhD student who returned from America, relying on talent and being arrogant, did not have such a basic reaction.

One of the fair-skinned students spoke first: "Have you estimated your scores? Where do you want to study?"

He still remembered the process of the College Entrance Examination.

Chen Yi smiled and said: "Jiangning University is already decided; as for the major, Mom and Dad lean toward the finance major."

"The finance major at Jiangning University is not easy to get into." He said, thought for a moment, and said: "Unless you are sure of 620 points, you dare to try, but to say it's secure, at least 640 points."

Getting 640 points out of 720 is of extraordinary difficulty. With the level of Jiangning Middle School, the number of candidates scoring over 640 in mock exams is only a dozen or so. Of course, from the perspective of the whole country, the number of people who can reach this score line every year is still countless.

Fang Man Yi and Chen Congyu did not speak; they were thinking the same thing—choose the major first, and if the score is not enough, then consider whether there are other means that can help.

At their position, so-called interests and other unimportant things instead became the most important.

With this thought, Fang Man Yi interrupted the other party's persistent questioning and interjected: "Chen Yi, tell us about the earlier question."

"Oh, I am somewhat curious." Chen Yi paved the way first, then continued: "I heard there are quite a few supercomputers on Wall Street; those in finance want supercomputers, to calculate what?"

Everyone looked at the international student.

The latter did not expect Chen Yi to ask this, but still smiled with pride: "When I was studying in New York, I interned on Wall Street for a period of time. If you ask others, it's mostly boilerplate from newspapers and magazines, nothing more than analyzing data to trade stocks, or even estimating weather to trade futures, but I tell you, none of those."

Under everyone's curious gaze, the international student's vanity was greatly satisfied. He picked up the teacup and took a sip of water, coughed lightly: "Even in the 21st century, to make money from stocks, you still need inside information; to make money from futures, it mainly depends on large capital. Supercomputers can indeed calculate weather, and weather indeed can determine some futures prices, but these data, just sponsor a research institute; no need to buy a supercomputer yourself."

Everyone naturally fell into a fog.

The international student then lowered his voice somewhat: "Supercomputers, mainframes—they are on Wall Street, actually doing one thing: high-frequency trading."

"High-frequency trading?"

"That's right. High-frequency trading is using extremely short periods of time, through the speed of computer trading, to obtain profit. This short period of time might be only a few microseconds, which humans cannot capture." The international student said, then changed his tone: "Let me give a simple example. Now on the stock market, someone sells a stock at 9.12 yuan, and at the same time, someone buys at 9.18. Because the time is too short, neither party discovers the other. At this time, a faster mainframe computer will first buy the 9.12 stock, then resell it to the person at 9.18, thus earning 6 cents."

"6 cents?" Chen Yi frowned.

"The speed of high-frequency trading is very fast; as long as there is 1 cent of profit, they do it. But the trading volume is huge, at least several thousand times per second. After accumulating little by little, it becomes very terrifying. This year's high-frequency traders' profit might break 20 billion US dollars." After saying a string of data, the international student excitedly said: "Don't underestimate a few cents; this is currently the only known type of stock trading in the world that definitely makes money and absolutely will not lose."

"Then isn't everyone going to do high-frequency trading?"

The international student shrugged and said: "The more people doing it, the greater the competition. When two computers discover a profitable trade at the same time, it's a matter of who is faster. In any case, the average profit in the future will definitely decline. The minimum investment in this line is a mainframe computer costing several million US dollars. To earn more, you need better and more computers."

Chen Congyu listened and nodded, saying: "One million US dollars; the annual return must be at least 10% to be worth investing. If the return exceeds 30%, someone would be willing to switch careers. However... what is the current profit?"

It seems he was also somewhat tempted.

A stock trade that definitely makes money, and not a bizarre story—such a wonderful thing, who wouldn't want to get a piece of it?

The international student regretfully shook his head and said: "It is said that getco, that is, Global Electronic Commerce Company, earned 500 million US dollars in pure profit last year, and their entire company has fewer than 100 people."

Under everyone's widened eyeballs, he then denied: "High-frequency trading compares computer speed; quantity is naturally important too. Now the threshold is at least five or six million US dollars worth of machines, plus the capital used for trading, with very large capital occupation. Also, I heard there is something called lightning trading, which requires even higher standards."

"There should be quite a few hedge funds and private equity funds participating, right?" Minister Zhou also listened while secretly clicking his tongue, smiling: "When the group has tens of millions of US dollars in spare money, we can also enter the market to play around."

500 million US dollars, almost exceeding the market value of the unlisted Chen Group.

Chen Yi's algorithm was naturally completely different. He had a supercomputer in hand, and it was the most advanced one in the world. Not considering the high fixed asset investment, the capital's return rate naturally far exceeded institutions.

He couldn't help but ask further: "Using a supercomputer for high-frequency trading requires specialized software, right? How to buy it?"

Since Chen Congyu showed interest, the international student answered very meticulously: "Now there are quite a few software companies domestically that have made similar software; it should not be complicated. There are even more software companies overseas, with quotes ranging from several hundred thousand to several tens of millions, the difference mainly being trading volume. If you really want to buy, the other party will specially modify it according to your computer model. But initiating trades from China, crossing the ocean, will definitely be slower than Wall Street; those guys wish they could install their computers together."

"Siren" is in America. Chen Yi curled the corner of his mouth into a smile, like a earth wolf eyeing a lame rabbit.