Chapter 91: Ascension

The massive bid immediately triggered covering from short-sellers that didn't want to stay involved in this any longer.$7.49...

$7.53...

More and more buyers showed up as the stock started gaining momentum.

Some bought the ask and some added to the support, creating bids below and above mine.

But that is when an unbelievable amount of pushback came in. As much as $20,000,000 of resistance all the way to $8.

'If I want to show my strength, I need to do it now.' I thought.

I smashed my keybinds and moved my bid up as I started buying the ask.

100,000 shares at a time.

$7.65...

$7.72...

$7.89...

In order to push the stock price up, I spent $15,000,000 in just a few minutes.

Because of my continuous support, whale buyers started to show up, buying 20 to 50 thousand shares at a time.

$7.95...

$8.00.

It stopped.

I quickly switched to the tape to see the resistance levels.

Fuck...

Another $20,000,000 was stacked at $8.

It felt like they had an endless supply of shares to short.

They were clearly engaged in naked shorting. Using non-existent shares or shorting the same shares multiple times; creating a wall against the upward momentum.

I quickly checked the borrowing rates.

They had skyrocketed to 130%.

My jaw tightened. 'They are really pushing their limits.' I thought.

With $13,000,000 of buying power left, I threw up a bid at $7.90.

However, the borrowing fees didn't stop them.

Before the market closed, they gobbled up every last cent of the 13 million.

The stock closed at $7.88.

For the next hour in after-hours trading, the stock slid down to $7.82. I watched anxiously, my heart racing as I hoped for a reversal.

Then, out of nowhere, it started to shoot up.

$8.10…

$8.50…

$9.10…

Suddenly, my phone rang.

I grabbed it, my eyes glued to the screen.

"Jack?" Sam's voice crackled with excitement on the other end.

"What is it?" I asked, barely able to keep my voice steady.

"I didn't know you would get it on TV!" Sam said in disbelief.

"What? What did I get on TV?" I asked, confused.

"Turn on ABC News. Now!"

I quickly walked to the living room, grabbed the remote and switched to the ABC News channel.

The Business ABC show was airing.

At the bottom of the screen, there was the same headline as the one on the website.

And it didn't stop there.

A few minutes later, the reporters themselves started talking about the situation.

The screen flashed images of companies being targeted, and there it was—Monster Beverage prominently listed among them.

The reporters were discussing how the shorting was motivated by personal grudges rather than market fundamentals and about how the Johnson family's internal conflict was playing out in the market...

I stared at the screen with an expression of satisfaction and immense gratitude.

'Fucking Luna...' I thought.

...

I couldn't really sleep much that night. I wasn't only putting Johnson Trading Corp's future on this one play, but my own funds as well.

When morning came, I dragged myself out of bed, bleary-eyed and exhausted. I drove to campus in a haze, but none of it mattered.

Monster Beverage was trading above $11 and the tradable float was so thin it felt like you could see right through it.

The borrowing costs for new shorts had skyrocketed to 300%.

Shorting it right now was more or less a suicide mission. It was simply not worth it.

And best of all... if WhitePath Corp. was forced to cover, their losses could very well hit nine figures.

When I glanced at my brokerage account balance, my smile widened even more.

[Charles Schwab]

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[Total Balance: $33,270,683.06]

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[Market Value of Holdings: $51,744,722.69]

[Margin Borrowed: $18,474,039.63]

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'Now we'll wait for the next Monster Beverage earnings report, which should be a strong catalyst,' I thought. 'I might also need to think of ways to boost Monster Beverage's popularity. I can't let them slowly bring the stock back down. We can't give them any room to breathe.'

That day, I set up a plan with Sam.

I wanted him to hire people to drive up to the biggest universities and start giving out free Monster Energy drinks—hand them out like candy. Even ask if people want two or three.

The idea was to give Monster a free promotion. Get the energy drinks everywhere and get people talking. Searᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

I wanted to boost their first-quarter earnings and make the Monster brand gain popularity so that we could keep the stock's momentum going.

Slowly but surely, we will win, and Evelyn and Doyle will have to pay a huge price for it.

...

Over the next two weeks, Monster Beverage hovered between $10 and $12.

The buying pressure was relentless, fueled by the ongoing SEC investigation and the news of possible naked shorting.

Of course, I made sure to reward Luna for her crucial role in this.

But this wasn't the end of the fight. All the military stocks were still being shorted, and the losses on those were higher than the current gains on Monster Beverage.

Fortunately, neither Doyle nor anyone else bothered me during this time.

They must have been busy dealing with the shitshow that they have created.

...

More than a week later, on Friday, April 8th, together with Sam, Mia and Alex, we decided to finally drive to the beach with Lucas, the surfer guy.

We also wanted to get Raheem, but he had a marathon run planned out for Saturday.

But in the end, there would be one more person going with us. I invited Charlotte.

I had been to her tenis turnament a few days before and I decided, why not.

After waking up, I wrote to her.

Jack: "I'll pick you up in around 2 hours, so get ready."

Charlie: "What do I need?"

Jack: "Don't worry about shopping or anything; I'll take care of everything. Just get some swimwear and maybe something warmer for the night."

Charlie: "Okay, I'll be ready. winking_smily"

I drove to the supermarket and picked up some snacks as well as some sausages and seafood to roast.

Lucas said that he would be bringing a grill with him, so unless I misunderstood him and he was actually bringing a girl, it was all good.

I also grabbed some lemonade and cola.

Thinking that we might set up some sort of camp on the beach, I also bought a cooler, a tent, sleeping bags, a blanket, and towels.

Though, with Sam being with us, we will probably just rent a hotel.

After I threw everything onto the back of my Ford pickup, I called Charlotte to let her know I was on my way to pick her up.