Tag: short-selling

Swamped

On By vequinoxIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Excerpt

“Let’s go Susan, I’m hungry,” he said, taking her by the hand. They
walked past Logan and Helena into the hallway. Alone with Susan in
the elevator, he rewarded her expectations with a kiss, to which she
responded as eagerly as he had hoped. They said nothing until they
reached the ground floor and crossed the street to Da Carlo’s, an Italian
eatery and one of the best spots for lunch in downtown Vancouver.
The place was already packed, but he was known to the manager,
who escorted them straight to a table. When they had settled down,
he gazed wordlessly at Susan. Her brown eyes were brighter now than
earlier, even in the dim light of the restaurant.
“You look beautiful today, Susan,” he said, taking her hand in his.
“Thank you.” Her answer echoed so loudly in his ears.
He called the server, and they each ordered a pasta dish with
chicken. He suggested half a litre of red wine to go with the pasta and
tomato sauce. Susan agreed and added with a smile, “You plan to get
me drunk?”
“You want me to, sweet Susan?” he answered with a question.
She enjoyed being with this man. Since they had met and gone
out a few times, she had gotten used to drinking wine. Canadian born
and raised, Susan had grown up with beer and pubs rather than
restaurants and wine, but he had had an effect on her in that department
and Susan now appreciated the European ways he had kept
after all his years in Canada. He still spoke with an accent, and Susan
sometimes had trouble following everything he said. But other than
that, she loved his ways and in particular his romantic touch, often
expressed unexpectedly on the spur of the moment. She felt very attracted
to him and didn’t shy away from showing her affection. He
felt the same way. She had sensed this as soon as they started dating.
His only concern was what other people in the company might say.
He extended his arm to the middle of their table, where a few
seasonal flowers were placed in a small vase. He took a rosebud and
gave it to her.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

Swamped

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Excerpt

known how to handle the new reality at first, but he was a fast learner,
and he had stayed afloat despite all the rough spots along the way.
Like the night Logan had come home late with a bunch of his high
school friends and while his father, brother, and cousin were asleep,
one of those friends had stolen all his credit cards. Luckily, he had
found out the next day when the credit card company called inquiring
about some unusual purchases.
Yes, there had been a few rough spots, but he had faced up to
them. He had stood tall and made things work. Logan was doing well
in the office as a junior stockbroker, and he had already made plans
for Alexander after he graduated in a couple of years. As for Jonathan,
he was due to graduate soon with a first-class degree and a bright future
awaiting him back in Greece.
His attention was caught by the green leaves of the gardenia plant
in the office. A flower had bloomed and the fragrance filled the room.
He got up and walked over to the pot, leaned in a little, and savored
the aroma. He remembered how his mother had always kept a couple
of gardenia plants in the house. Back then they used to plant them
in rectangular metal containers; it was said the metal was good for
the plant, especially after the container had rusted due to the watering.
He touched the soil and noticed that it was dry. He called Helena
in from the outside office where her desk and Logan’s were located.
“It feels dry, Helena” he said, pointing to the plant.
“I’ll take care of it,” Helena said and went to get water.
Helena Poulos was the daughter of a Greek family that he didn’t
know personally but of whom he had heard. Her family was in the
food business, with two restaurants, one in North Vancouver and one
in Kitsilano, but Helena hadn’t been interested in that, and when the
opportunity arrived to work for a stockbroker downtown, she had
jumped at the chance. He had been very happy with her work ethic
and commitment, and she had also brought all her family members
and a few friends in as new clients.
The rest of the morning flowed uneventfully, but when the time
came for lunch, his mind ran to Susan. He dialed her internal number.
“Want to go a catch a bite?” he asked her.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

Swamped

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Excerpt

He switched over to the local news: a serious accident on the road
down to the Second Narrows Bridge. He had better take Lions Gate
Bridge this morning. The pileup on the approach to Second Narrows
would make it impossible for traffic to resume for at least two hours,
according to the news anchor.
The phone rang. It was Herb on the other end. After the briefest
of greetings, he brought up today’s buy order. He told him that a man
he knew, someone who seemed to have good connections in Europe
and other places, had assured him this was a good one, Platinum
Properties Inc, to play with for the next few months. Eteo listened to
Herbert Swanson attentively, but when he expressed some skepticism,
Herb said he would pass by the office around ten to talk about
it. He smiled. Herb always had a link to someone with information,
and in the Vancouver Stock Exchange in those days, with its mining
fliers and dubious promoters, information was of great value. Even
if the information was often questionable at best, decisions were
based on it, and today’s bet that Herb had placed on this new company,
Platinum Properties, wasn’t any different from many others. For
years, Herb had worked his way around each and every regulation in
order to survive the debacle called investing in V.S.E. listed companies.
In most cases, they lacked anything of substance, yet they could
fly high for a few days, even a few months, before sinking into nothingness
or simply going out of fashion. Sometimes they were still at
the reorganizing stage, a lengthy process that provided a second
chance for companies that had been unsuccessful in proving the
value of their first mining asset and raising funds on that basis. This
involved a reverse split of their shares, or consolidation, in other
words, issuing new shares to raise new capital. It was usually an opportunity
to turn their focus to a new asset, sometimes even to
change course and concentrate on a new line of business. When a
company was in that reorganizing stage, it wasn’t unusual for it to
take a good twelve months to achieve its goal, and investors who
didn’t like to wait that long rarely invested in such a company.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

Swamped

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Excerpt

“What do you have for me?” he asked as soon as Richard answered the phone.

“Hi, Eteo. What do you mean? I haven’t heard anything since we talked earlier today”

“That’s what I was afraid of, Richard. Think about it. They would have been on the phone day or night if they had any news. It tells me they lost the hole, that’s what it tells me.”

Richard was silent for a few seconds. Finally, he reacted, almost shouting.

“You always think negative, Eteo. Look, as soon as I have something, I’ll call you.”

“I talked to the middleman, Richard,” Eteo replied. “He confirmed it. They lost the hole.”

“Why didn’t the assholes answer my calls then?”

With that, Richard put the phone down, leaving Eteo with a broad smile on his face. At least he wouldn’t hear anything more from him for a while.

Just as he was getting ready to go out to meet Mario for lunch, Helena rang to say Frances was there again to see him. She came in, closed the door, and without any words, embraced Eteo, and put her lips to his. After a long, sensual kiss, she handed her card to Eteo, said, “Later today. Don’t say no,” turned, and left. Eteo looked at the card. She had added her home address in purple ink. She lived in an apartment block on West Georgia just south of the Bayshore Inn Hotel.

Eteo went for lunch with Mario, and as soon as they finished, around two thirty, Eteo rang Frances’s doorbell. The door was unlocked at once, and as soon as he exited the elevator, he saw her standing by her open door. Below her short blonde hair and blue eyes, her plush breasts and delicate body trembled in a light robe that felt very soft to Eteo’s hands. She quickly made it clear there was an erotic fire in her body that wanted nothing else but Eteo inside it. And he did indeed let himself be guided by the sexual hunger of the young blonde woman with her roots somewhere in Wales. She was still a true Brit but now with extra North American zest and bodily exuberance.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

Swamped

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Excerpt

With that, the meeting was over. Eteo walked back to his office and called Mario at once to propose that Pacific Trends keep all the offering in house. On return he promised to give the guy at Wolverton something else in the future, or even get him in on this after the broker’s warrants were out. That sealed the deal. Mario agreed, and Eteo went back to watching his screen. Platinum Properties was doing great, Golden Veins the opposite. He called Richard Walden.

“Have you heard anything?” Eteo asked him

“No, nothing so far,” Richard admitted.

“When did you call last?”

“Yesterday afternoon. I guess they must still be working on it.”

“I wouldn’t assume that. I don’t like this at all. Why don’t you take a quick flight down there and check things out for yourself?”

“Go to Texas?” Richard’s voice sounded alarmed.

“Why not? It’s your money they’re spending.”

There was an uncomfortable silence at the other end of the line before Richard said, hesitantly, “I’m actually not that fond of airplanes and flying.”

“Okay, send one of your directors.”

“There must be another way,” Richard replied. “Let me call the finder, the man who brought me this deal. I’ll talk to him.”

“All right, but let me know what you find out. Who is it anyway? Do I know him?”

“It’s Walter Cooper.”

“I know Walter. I could talk to him. Yes, it might be better that way. Leave it to me. I’ll call him and get back to you,” Eteo said and put the phone down. He noticed he was breathing fast. It upset him.

Then he saw the big trades of Platinum stock, big chunks all bought by Nomura. He smiled and relaxed. The market looked clean even beyond the three dollar mark. He had hit a good one, he knew, and if Mario’s Nostra is agreed on by this group, he had better keep as much stock as he could for his accounts and give lots of it to his key people, the ones who did most of his business. Eteo had a large number of accounts, but only about fifteen percent of them traded often. Those were the clients he needed to reward when a good issue came along. Mario’s Nostra Ventures was beginning to look like it could be one of them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX