White-Haired Old Man's letter to investors triggered a silent earthquake in Wall Street.
Not because of the staggering loss figures it disclosed--
Although the scale of that loss was heavyweight in the industry,
But after a whole summer of Short Sellers stampede,
Everyone is mentally prepared for numbers.
What really caused this letter to be forwarded repeatedly on Bloomberg Terminal and screenshotted paragraph by paragraph in traders' groups were the few sentences he wrote in the letter.
"We underestimated the financial depth and compliance readiness of our opponents."
"We don't believe our opponents can do what we think we can do."
"This is not a transaction that was defeated by the market, this is a transaction that was defeated by the opponent - or in other words, it was a transaction that was defeated by oneself."
Bloomberg decided to do a special program.
The topic selection will be presented at the regular meeting on Monday morning.
The executive producer placed the printed copy of White-Haired Old Man's letter in the center of the conference table and said one sentence--
"This letter is not written to investors, but to the entire Wall Street.
It is summarizing for all of us. The debacle of Short Sellers no longer needs to be analyzed.
What needs to be done now is to look back at this battle and this man from the other side - the winning side."
The topic selection was unanimously approved, and the topic was scheduled for prime time on Thursday night, with the title
"Era Vanguard Zhao Chen: Wall Street is the youngest Billion-Dollar Fund Manager in the century-old history".
The trailer of Bloomberg has been rolling out on the trading terminal since Tuesday. The cover is the ID photo of Zhao Chen taken from the official website of Henglong Group--
Dark suit, calm expression, Board of Directors Meeting Room at the Henglong Chongqing headquarters in the background.
This photo has been used by Financial Media all over the world in the past few months,
But every time it appears on the screen, every trader can't help but look at it for two more seconds.
The special topic will be broadcast on time at 8 o'clock on Thursday evening.
Bloomberg In the studio, host Morgan Brennan is sitting on a high chair.
A timeline of all public documents submitted by Era Vanguard in the past year scrolls on the curved giant screen behind him--
From the first 13G declaration to the latest 13D revision, the dense nodes are like a battle map with every scar marked.
She invited three guests: one is Wall Street, a veteran fund manager who has been in the industry for more than 40 years.
One is a former SEC Enforcement Division senior official,
There is also a senior financial reporter who has been tracking the offshore fund ecology for a long time.
"Ladies and gentlemen, over the past eight months, Wall Street has witnessed a Bulls and Bears duel that will go down in financial history."
Morgan's opening remarks were concise and powerful. The giant screen behind her switched to Tesla, which bounced from 178 US Dollar to 300 US Dollar to K-line Chart.
"One side is Short-Seller Alliance composed of many old brands Hedge Fund,
They judged that the High Leverage cross-position structure of Era Vanguard was fragile.
As long as the pledge safety pad of Tesla is broken, liquidation can be triggered.
The other party is an offshore fund established less than three years ago - Era Vanguard,
And its actual controller Zhao Chen, who is only in his twenties."
The screen on the giant screen switched to Zhao Chen's ID photo and Era Vanguard's 13D declaration document, side by side.
Bloomberg specially highlighted the birth date of Zhao Chen and the founding date of Era Vanguard--
A young man and an offshore fund less than two years old,
The contrast formed in numbers is more impactful than any language.
The veteran fund manager was the first to speak.
He put the printed copy of White-Haired Old Man's letter on the table,
I turned to the passage that has been quoted repeatedly by countless people, and then raised my head,
There was a frankness in his tone that had settled after facing countless attributions and excuses for forty years.
"I have met many talented traders and many long-term value investors.
But Zhao Chen does not fall into these two categories.
Genius traders will take profits in batches when Bitcoin rises, instead of holding on to it for nearly thirteen months from beginning to end.
Long-term value investors will start buying Tesla at three hundred US Dollar,
Instead of catching all Selling Pressure when the stock price plummets and everyone is running out.
The way he operates is more like - he's playing a game of chess.
Chessboard is bigger than everyone sees.
Bitcoin is the opening, Tesla is the prologue, and Nvidia is the middle game.
He's now starting to wrap things up."
Former SEC officials provided additional analysis from a regulatory perspective,
She opened a copy of Times Pioneer's latest 13D amendment filing to the SEC.
Pointing to the section of commitment statement that had formed the format clauses with his finger, he then read it out word for word -
Do not seek Control, do not interfere in business operations, and do not ask for Board of Directors Seat.
"I have worked at SEC Enforcement Division for many years and have handled hundreds of compliance reviews of offshore funds.
I can tell you clearly:
This kind of wording is not uncommon, but funds that turn words into action are extremely rare.
Era Vanguard From the first time he submitted 13D to now, he has never deviated from his promise.
This is not compliance technology, this is discipline.
What surprised the SEC regulators even more was not how huge his funds were.
Instead, he keeps every transfer, every transaction, and every statement of this fund in its entirety and can submit it at any time.
Among the Crypto Asset related investigations we have handled in our career,
Very few early-stage investors have a tax withholding plan in place well in advance of liquidation."
A senior financial reporter took over. She has integrated tracking materials from Bloomberg, Reuters and several domestic mainstream media.
At this moment, he continued to add in an almost calm tone:
"Another fact that is often overlooked is that the linkage between Era Vanguard and Henglong Group has been very restrained.
Henglong's domestic investment landscape--from Bidiya to Bubble Mary to Green Energy Technology--
Zhao Chen has never used Era Vanguard's foreign investor status to circumvent any capital controls or disclosure obligations.
This is a plus in the eyes of regulators, but an extremely difficult signal in the eyes of competitors.
Because this means that he can stand firm in every market with his own two independent domestic and overseas compliance systems.
Instead of relying on information gaps and regulatory arbitrage to eat into profits."
At the end of the show, Morgan Brennan brought the topic back to the most fundamental issue.
The giant screen behind her freezes on the last paragraph of White-Haired Old Man's letter--
"This is not a transaction that was defeated by the market, this is a transaction that was defeated by the opponent. In other words, it was a transaction that was defeated by oneself."
The veteran fund manager was silent for a while.
He understands better than anyone in this studio how White-Haired Old Man felt when he wrote this -
Not anger, not regret, but a kind of silence after being completely beaten.
He took off his reading glasses and put them on the table. His voice was slow and powerful, as if every word was a heavy closing statement:
"This letter is Short-Seller Alliance's epitaph.
But epitaphs are not written for the deceased, but for the living.
Wall Street is not short of money, smart people, and Model and algorithms.
But Wall Street lacks one thing - the kind of person who can sit firmly in place when all the pressure is on him.
Zhao Chen did one thing right - he did not waver in the most difficult times.
Short Sellerss were not defeated by his money, but by his certainty."
Manhattan The night seeped in from the cracks in the studio Floor-to-Ceiling Window,
The K line on the giant screen that pulled back from 178 US Dollar to 300 US Dollar was frozen.
Morgan did not rush to answer, and the three guests also maintained a brief silence in tacit agreement.