The NASDAQ Golden Dragon Index is a stock index released by several US stock research companies that tracks the performance of Chinese concept stocks listed in the US.

Covering multiple industries such as technology, energy, and communications, it provides a market reference standard for investors. The index currently comprises stocks from 38 companies including Ali, JD, Ctrip, NIO, and CNOOC, with a total market value exceeding 680 billion US Dollars.

In a way, the NASDAQ Golden Dragon Index is the night barometer of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Index of Big A.

Because when the Golden Dragon Index rises, Big A may not rise, but when the Golden Dragon Index falls, Big A will invariably fall the next day.

During the seven-day National Day holiday, with the US stock market not taking a break, the continuous decline of the Golden Dragon Index made Big A investors feel something major was coming.

Just like the Murphy’s Law, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. If you’re worried about a certain situation happening, it’s more likely to happen, especially since Big A has had the tradition of having ups and downs during holidays since its inception.

The first working day after the National Day holiday saw Big A collapsing unexpectedly yet inevitably, even affecting Ningde Era, known as King Ning, which usually stands strong. The 3000-point mark looks increasingly distant; now it’s a battle to defend 2800 points.

Due to the NASDAQ Golden Dragon Index, Lu Liang continuously received inquiry calls from Li Bing at NIO, Li Xiang at Li Xiang, and even Shen Peng at Redwood, among others.

"Mr. Lu, is something happening in the North American market? The recent downturn seems too abnormal."

Although since General Tianxing went public, Chinese concept stocks listed in the US have been relentlessly suppressed by the capital markets, there should be a limit to everything.

Moreover, with East Country conducting such a large-scale military parade and showcasing so much new military equipment, even if it’s not good news, it shouldn’t at least be bad news.

The current market environment is too unusual, as if brewing something, and as the person closest to Wall Street capital from East Country, Lu Liang should be able to clear their doubts.

"It’s nothing, just normal capital logic." Lu Liang said indifferently, "If East Country shows off its military power and the US stock market directly kneels, doesn’t it make them look spineless? How can they still regard themselves as the world’s financial center?"

"Is that so?" Shen Peng frowned, although it could barely count as a reason, it felt inexplicably forced.

"Mr. Shen, I have other matters to attend to. I’ll hang up now."

"Alright, Mr. Lu."

After ending the call with Lu Liang, Shen Peng fell into thought, with a growing sense of unease.

He had a vague feeling that Lu Liang might be aware, but seemed to be intentionally concealing something.

Shen Peng called over his assistant: "Give the order to pause all current work, cut unnecessary projects and expenditures, and closely monitor Tianxing Finance and Mr. Lu’s actions."

It’s like the proverb "The duck is the first to sense the warming water," if something major happens next, Lu Liang will surely exhibit some irrational behavior.

It doesn’t matter if Lu Liang doesn’t say anything, as long as they keep a close watch on him and Tianxing Finance, Redwood Capital will definitely get through this unknown crisis safely.

Meanwhile, at the Tianxing Financial Building in Xiangjiang Central.

Lu Liang arrived at the trading room, with Wen Chao hurrying up to him, showing a trace of helplessness: "Mr. Lu, we’re unable to secure chips for short selling."

The logic of short selling is to borrow stocks from institutions, sell them at a high price, then repurchase them at a low price, pay a bit of interest, and pocket the difference in between.

But they simply couldn’t borrow stocks; even after a few days, they merely accumulated over 20 billion US Dollars in chips for short selling.

Accounting for the 80 billion US Dollars managed by the Saudi Sovereign Fund, they had a total of 108 billion US Dollars but haven’t even spent 2%.

The institutions holding the shares either responded that they had already lent out the stocks,

Or mentioned the current market volatility requiring an extremely high short selling fee.

It’s as if the entire industry blacklisted them; the institutions holding shares would rather not earn any money than let them have a chance to earn.

Wen Chao sighed, "Apart from the stocks from recent IPOs we participated in, the Chinese concept stocks that went public earlier, such as Ali, JD, Ctrip, or NetEase, their stocks are basically in the hands of Europe and America institutions now."

Overall, if the institutions holding shares do not lend them out, there’s no way around it, unless they’re willing to be a fool and bear the high cost of short selling, which might make it possible.

"Is this what they call a free market? Absolutely shameless."

Lu Liang sneered, faintly sensing something amiss, yet unable to articulate it, so he temporarily set aside his confusion.

He pondered a strategy and after a while said, "It seems like we can only push them onto the public opinion front."

"How do we do that?" Wen Chao asked puzzled.

Lu Liang said, "Announce reduction announcements for all Chinese concept stocks of DiDi, NIO, Li Xiang, Panda, and even General Tianxing."

If they won’t let them earn money from shorting Chinese concept stocks, then nobody earns anything. Anyway, they still have Mr. Rich’s timely 80 billion support, they can hold out for a while.

On the evening of October 8, just as the US stock market opened, Tianxing Financial Group issued consecutive reduction announcements.

Lu Liang also published an article on Twitter, stating that the free market is no longer free and is being premeditatedly targeted against Chinese concept stocks.

The US stock market is no longer suitable for long-term value investment by overseas investors. Hence, they will be passively holding onto cash and waiting in hopes that the market environment may improve in the future.

With the group massively reducing holdings and Lu Liang’s article taking a dual approach, Chinese concept stocks plummeted at the opening, leading the NASDAQ index to crash with a single-day drop of -1.56%.