Chapter 49 Short of Funds

Tuesday, April 21st.

The flight of tens of billions of main-force funds during the previous trading day had already foreshadowed today's gap-down opening. In less than ten minutes after the market opened, 4.2 billion RMB of main-force funds had fled, with the decline plunging by a staggering 2.24% and continuing to edge downward, on the verge of breaking the crucial support level of 2,500 points.

The sudden and sharp plunge of the broad market caused retail funds to split.

Some fled in a panic, terrified of returning to 1,800 points and getting trapped.

Others aggressively increased their positions, believing the broader market would surge to 6,000 points as predicted by experts, viewing the current situation as merely a short-term fluctuation.

Unable to pool their strength, these fragmented retail funds inevitably became lambs to the slaughter.

At precisely ten o'clock, the Shanghai Composite Index dipped to 2,499.6 points. Just when everyone thought the support level was broken and a precipitous collapse was imminent, main-force funds began propping up the banking index to stabilize the broader market.

Construction Bank, which had initially tumbled from 4.53 RMB down to 4.43 RMB, was pulled back to 4.47 RMB, subsequently entering a "weaving" pattern of fluctuating back and forth between 4.47 RMB and 4.46 RMB.

The stabilization of the banking sector provided robust support for the broader market.

Shortly after, fueled by the brewing news of the "Sino-Russian Oil Cooperation Agreement," PetroChina and Sinopec reversed their declines into gains, driving the energy and insurance sectors to find a floor and stabilize.

Once the broader market steadied, an excerpt of the "Detailed Implementation Rules for Home Appliances to the Countryside" circulated. The meeting pointed out that the review and disbursement procedures for subsidies should be significantly simplified, shortening the time for farmers to receive subsidies from the original 33 days to within 15 working days.

This favorable policy, meeting market expectations, arrived with a boost that propelled Gome in Hong Kong and Gree in the A-share market to varying degrees of increase.

By the three o'clock afternoon close, the A-share market had rebounded from its intraday low of 2,499.6 points to settle at 2,535.83. The trading volume reached 154.982 billion RMB, an increase of 14.467 billion RMB compared to the previous trading day.

Seeing the increased trading volume and a lower shadow line on the candlestick, retail investors might assume that the buying support beneath the broader market was ample and capable of launching another upward assault.

Yet, in the eyes of professional institutions and securities practitioners, the A-share market was already in a precarious state—someone was simply offloading shares while masking their actions by propping up the banking sector.

Why say that?

Throughout the entire trading day on the 21st, small and mid-cap stocks were undergoing adjustments, while only large-cap stocks were rising.

What kind of capital would pull up large-cap stocks?

This was definitely not hot money, as hot money lacked capital of that magnitude.

Ruling out hot money, the only entity capable of lifting large-cap stocks was institutional players.

If an institution wanted to offload shares, it could not afford to let the broad market drop; because if the market fell, retail investors would scatter like frightened sheep. It was imperative to create the illusion that the market trend was still heading upward.

As the weather vane of the bull market, Huaxin Securities suffered a 2.91% decline. All these signs indicated that the Shanghai Composite Index urgently needed a drop that would "scare away" retail investors.

...

After the A-share market closed, Zhang Yang and He Jing, who had been trading in the library, skipped their classes and headed straight for neighboring Fudan University.

Universities in 2009 were generally open; outsiders could enter for visits simply by registering their information.

Of course, unlike Jiangcheng University, which had already evolved into a scenic tourist spot and required visiting appointments in advance.

Fudan was a member of the "C9 League," alongside Tsinghua, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, University of Science and Technology of China, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Xi'an Jiaotong University. They were all top-tier comprehensive universities in China and the dreams of countless students.

Although the concept of the C9 League was formally finalized in October 2009, these nine universities had long maintained cooperation and exchanges; formalizing the league merely served to deepen that collaboration.

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics enjoyed a certain reputation in Shanghai. After Zhang Yang and He Jing presented their student IDs and national identity cards, the Fudan security guards let them pass directly.

After meandering around for a bit, the two met up with He Jing's friend from Fudan.

The other party was a girl with a single ponytail, about 1.60 meters tall, wearing distressed flared jeans, white sneakers, and a black graphic short-sleeve shirt. She was currently waving a greeting to He Jing.

"Hello, Sister Jing."

"Jiebao."

When best friends met, the warmth was palpable.

After exchanging pleasantries, the girl nicknamed "Jiebao" looked at Zhang Yang, sizing him up from top to bottom, and asked, "Is this your boyfriend, Sister Jing? You've got good taste."

"His name is Zhang Yang, we're just ordinary friends," He Jing corrected while casting a sidelong glance at Zhang Yang to gauge his reaction.

Zhang Yang was no innocent, naive boy; this kind of misunderstanding didn't provoke any special reaction from him. Instead, he extended a hand and said, "Hello, my name is Zhang Yang."

"Kong Jie, 'Jie' as in pure and clean."

The other party seemed very mindful of her name, observing Zhang Yang's facial expressions even as they shook hands.

This was because after the TV drama *Drawing Sword* aired in 2005, major characters like Li Yunlong, Chu Yunfei, and Kong Jie became wildly popular across the country.

Her name happened to have the exact same pronunciation as Kong Jie, and many times when she introduced herself, people would jokingly ask, "Do you know Li Yunlong?" or quote lines from the show like "Thrilling! Absolutely thrilling!" Even though she knew people meant no harm, who could endure endless teasing forever?

Fortunately, Zhang Yang's mind didn't wander toward television dramas, and he remained entirely oblivious to her inner thoughts.

He Jing said, "Jiebao, didn't I tell you last time that a friend of mine wants to build a financial website? That's him. You two should have a good chat about it."

"Mm-hmm." Kong Jie glanced at He Jing, looked back at Zhang Yang, and suggested, "Let's go to the cafeteria and sit down to talk. It's practically empty in the afternoon."

"Either way is fine."

"Then let's go."

...

The three of them moved to the Fudan cafeteria, choosing a secluded corner table.

Once seated, Kong Jie asked, "What kind of financial website do you want to build? Will it be custom-developed from scratch, or partially outsourced?"

"My current idea is to build a financial information platform with a paid subscription feature for research reports. Additionally, it needs to display real-time A-share and Hong Kong stock market tickers, and finally, a community section for retail investors to interact."

Laying out his requirements roughly, Zhang Yang asked, "How much do you think custom-development would cost?"

After listening carefully, Kong Jie replied, "If it involves real-time stock market data, you'll have to apply for financial information service qualifications from the relevant authorities and obtain the corresponding licenses."

"Let's calculate the costs now."

Upon hearing these words, Zhang Yang silently activated his phone's recording function to document all the expenses required to build the website.

"Domain name: around 100 RMB per year."

"As for the server, considering the low initial traffic, you could opt for an entry-level virtual private server to save costs—about 100 to 200 megabytes of space, supporting PHP and MySQL, costing around 500 to 1,000 RMB per year."

"Alternatively, you could go with a dedicated standalone server, such as the mainstream IBM x3650 or Dell PowerEdge R710 servers available today. A single unit costs about 35,000 RMB."

"A financial website requires real-time data transmission, so a 100M shared bandwidth would cost roughly 10,000 to 20,000 RMB per year. If you include independent IP and database services, that's another 500 to 1,000 RMB per year."

"UI design for the homepage, list pages, and content pages can be outsourced. Market rate for a full package is roughly 10,000 to 30,000 RMB."

"Then there's the development of the membership system..."

...

As item after item of expenditure was listed, Zhang Yang suddenly felt the pinch in his wallet. Interactive financial websites were truly money-pits, and on top of that, integrating third-party financial data meant the starting price alone was 80,000 RMB.

By the most conservative calculations, setting up a multi-functional financial website integrating interaction, real-time ticker viewing, and news subscriptions would require an investment of no less than 600,000 RMB—and that didn't even include user acquisition and traffic-generation costs.

Of course.

One could always settle for a secondary option.

Building a purely basic news and information website wouldn't require nearly that much money.

After listening to the funds required to build the website, Zhang Yang couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "It turns out building a website isn't something you just casually whip together; it's insanely expensive."

"The main thing is that you want to do a financial website. Take East Money, the hottest one in recent years, for instance—they use a standalone server cluster combined with CDN acceleration and encrypted transmission. Their functional development alone cost millions," Kong Jie replied with a faint smile.

"Understood."

Zhang Yang already had a clear grasp in his mind.

The reason he consulted on website construction costs was primarily because he lacked familiarity with the specific expenses of building a website in 2009. In his past life, he had never walked this path, making him a pioneer crossing the river by feeling the stones.

If it were twenty years later, building a website wouldn't require this much money; renting cloud servers would instantly slash hardware costs, and various website-building platforms would offer frontend templates ready for one-click application.

Given the current circumstances, Zhang Yang decided he needed to scale up his own capital first before ever considering building an interactive financial website.