America 1919-Chapter 411 - 170. Short Selling (A Major Chapter with Ten Thousand Characters, still repaying debts~~)_2

This was the result of both internal disorder within the board of directors and the impact of the external environment, which nearly led to Citibank’s collapse!

It was at this time that the Astor Family stepped in, appointing Moses Taylor, a representative of the Astor Family, as a director of Citibank!

After taking over Citibank, Moses Taylor initiated sweeping reforms, introducing more professional directors and elevating Citibank to new heights.

Of course, in this process, Moses Taylor also continually accumulated his own wealth.

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In the end, Moses Taylor had shed the vestiges of the Astor Family and officially adopted the title of the Taylor Family.

After Moses Taylor’s death, he passed Citibank on to his son-in-law, Payne. After two generations of management, Citibank had become a super bank in the United States.

By the end of the last century, Citibank welcomed its most successful president in history, James Stillman!

James Stillman sat as president of Citibank for a full 18 years, and by the time his successor, Frank Vanderlip, took office, Citibank had become a bank controlled by professional managers.

Every person who took the presidency of Citibank would hold a certain share of the bank’s stock and might even be the primary shareholder.

It was precisely because of this mechanism that the presidents of Citibank could always bring new benefits and expansion to the bank.

In 1919, Citibank became the first American company with total assets reaching one billion US dollars!

But no matter what, the help the Astor Family once provided to Citibank ensured they held a portion of the bank’s stock.

This was also the reason why Walker said what he did!

After glancing at Walker, Maholi laughed and said to Helen, "Walker has always told me that Donnie is his best friend, so if Donnie needs cash support, I can arrange for ten million US dollars at any time!"

When the first female billionaire in America speaks, it’s with authority; ten million US dollars in cash!

This amount of money was something only a few people in the entire United States could raise in a short period, although by that time, there were already many millionaires in the country!

Helen first thanked Maholi for the offer and then laughed, "There probably won’t be a need for that cash; Donnie has said that if that much cash was needed, then it wouldn’t be a surprise attack but an outright battle and, in that case, the counterattack would be meaningless!"

Seeing Helen speak like this, both Walker and Maholi could only nod in resignation.

Helen laughed, "I think we should go and see the person who is handling Donnie’s operation!"

"Perhaps that’s the only advantage I originally thought Donnie had to win!" Walker also showed a smile, saying, "I’ll call Jesse right now."

Half an hour later, a thin man in his forties, wearing glasses, arrived at Walker’s apartment.

"Jesse, let me introduce you; this is Miss Helen Taft, the fully authorized representative of Mr. Donnie Block, who is also your client," said Walker as he introduced them.

"Helen, this is Jesse Livermore, the renowned operator on Wall Street. I don’t think I need to tell you about his legendary tales; you must already be aware!"

Helen stood up, politely saying, "Of course I know, otherwise Donnie wouldn’t have spent a fortune to invite Mr. Livermore out of retirement!"

In 1999, The New York Times conducted a poll to elect the "Top Stock Market Figure of the Century."

Even Buffett, Soros, Peter Lynch, and others at their peak did not make the cut, and the one who ultimately won first place was Jesse Livermore, who had been deceased for several decades.

The protagonist of "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator," a book revered as the bible by countless traders!

The life of Jesse Livermore was legendary; born in 1877 into a poor family in Massachusetts, with parents who were farmers.

At the age of 14, his father made him drop out of school to help on the farm, but with his mother’s encouragement, he left home to make his way in the world and started looking for work.

Later, he found a job as a ’chalk boy’ at a brokerage firm.

What is a chalk boy?

At that time, stock trading wasn’t done on computers like it is now. Prices were called out by traders and then chalked onto the board in a trading hall by a designated person. As prices changed, they’d be rewritten, constantly erasing and updating.

A chalk boy was someone who constantly recorded the changes in stock prices.

With a natural sensitivity to the stock market, Jesse Livermore quickly turned 5 US dollars into 2,500 US dollars for himself!

But it was precisely because of such speculative acts that Jesse Livermore was blacklisted by the local bucket shops.

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With no other choice, Jesse Livermore came to New York, but there was still some gap between bucket shop speculation and stock trading, so in less than six months, Jesse Livermore’s 2,500 US dollars had been trimmed down.

At that point, Jesse Livermore could only return to the bucket shops, relying on his abilities to continue speculating, which resulted in both losses and gains, until entering 1901 when the American stock market began its bull run.