The Shareholder Disappearance Incident

Sorry,"The number you have dialed has been turned off..."

Hearing this familiar prompt tone, Ding Xu couldn't help but sigh and threw his cellphone onto the bed.

This was the 41st time Ding Xu had called his father in these three days, but the result was always the same: his father's cellphone was off, and there was no reply. It was as if he had evaporated from the world overnight.

Ding Xu walked around restlessly in the empty dorm room, not knowing what to do. These two days he hadn't had the heart to go to class, so he asked for a three-day leave from school with the excuse of being sick. Fortunately, as he was in his first year of college at Wuling University Law School, the curriculum was not so tight, so it was relatively easy to ask for leave.

These two days Ding Xu had gone to his father's securities company branch and other places to search, but he still couldn't get any news about his father. The holidays were only one day away, and Ding Xu didn't know where to look for the missing father. This aimless feeling made him very uncomfortable, he wished he could yell at the window.

After walking around the dormitory for seven or eight times, Ding Xu unconsciously opened the stock trading software on the computer and saw the balance of 88,000 displayed in the account. He was stunned, and finally let out a sigh and whispered, "Dad, if you had listened to me, escaped in time, it would have been so great. You shouldn't have kept it from me!"

Of the 88,000, 10,000 was Ding Xu's stock trading principal, and the other 78,000 was his profit, nearly eight times as much, which was the first pot of gold Ding Xu had earned in his life.

But when looking at such a glorious result, Ding Xu couldn't be happy at all. At the same time, his father's stock trading had a huge loss, the amount of loss far exceeded Ding Xu's profit.

After pondering for a while, Ding Xu sent a text message to his father with a last-ditch attitude: "It's not shameful to fall in the stock market, millions of stock investors in the country have fallen! The past is over, life must go on! Dad, you have to hold on! Think positively, don't have any accidents, or else Mom and I will collapse!"

It was September 2008, during the bear market of China's A-share market, the index and stocks were in the most violent stage of the crash, and stock investors suffered heavy losses.

Similar to Ding Xu's message, SMSes are now flying around in the sky in China. Behind each message lies the stories of stock investors' families - of couples who quarreled and even divorced due to huge loss in stock trading. But the story of Ding Xu's family, in which he was lost due to stock trading, appears particularly tragic.

Ding Xu's father, Ding Huai-guang, was originally an employee of a state-owned enterprise. Seven years ago he jump-shipped to Heng Fa Electrical Engineering Company Limited in Huai Ren city of Hunan Province, and has been the director of finance department till now. The company is a private enterprise, and its salary is quite well-off, making Ding Huai-guang's income of middle-upper class in the local. With the growing money, he bought a 148-square-meter house with garden in the city area, a car two years ago, and an 12-square-meter small commercial property for 10,000 yuan. They were living a content life with house, car and shop.

However, this all changed in April 2006 when Ding Huai-guang was encouraged by his colleagues to invest in stocks. A few months later, he earned 70,000 yuan, equivalent to one year's salary of his.

On the day when Ding Huai-guang sold his stocks and locked in his profits, he could not help boasting about his stock trading skills to his family at home. Young Ding Xu was very moved by it and wanted to follow his father's suit. Ding Huai-guang was delighted, and generously agreed, taking 10,000 yuan from his profits to open an account in his mother-in-law's name, and allowing his son, who was not even 18 yet, to trade stocks, so as to cultivate his financial awareness and independence.

However, since Ding Xu was in the second year of high school and was preparing for the college entrance exam, Ding Huai-guang did not want his son to waste too much time and energy on stock trading. After discussing with his son, he decided to buy a stock for him and lock it in for long-term.

Ding Xu was most interested in the rare earth stock among the several stocks provided by Ding Huai-guang, believing that the prospects of rare earth were good, and chose the "Baogang Rare Earth" with a small increase at that time.

Due to Ding Huai-guang's frequent talks about stocks at home in the past half year, Ding Xu also had a strong interest in stocks, which could quickly generate substantial profits. During the summer vacation and weekends, he often went online to look at some stock websites and had some knowledge of stock trading, so he could talk about stock trading equally with his father.

After discussing with his father, Ding Xu thought that this stock had a large increase of 7.5% on November 21, 2006, which was a sign of the main force starting and funds entering. Although there was a pullback for two days after the big rise, it should be washing the board, and it could rise again, which was the opportunity to buy.

On November 23, 2006, Ding Huai-guang helped Ding Xu buy 1,400 shares of Baogang Rare Earth at the price of 7 yuan. After that, Ding Huai-guang's wife, Fang Qing, modified and kept the account password, allowing Ding Xu to trade the long-term and sell it after the college entrance examination.

At the same time, Ding Huai-guang also bought more than 100,000 yuan of Baogang Rare Earth. With good luck, it rose to more than 9 yuan just a few days after the purchase. On December 4, Baogang Rare Earth rose to the limit, and then corrected for two days. Ding Huai-guang cleared the position on December 6 at the price of 8.9 yuan, earning 27%, which was more than 40,000 profits, and Ding Huai-guang was already very satisfied.

Ding Huai-guang originally wanted to take Ding Xu's account password and sell his 1,400 shares of Baogang Rare Earth, but Fang Qing refused to agree, saying that since it was agreed to do long-term beforehand, don't move around to avoid splitting his son's heart.

Ding Huai-guang didn't take the 10,000 yuan seriously, so he gave up.

After hearing the news at the dinner table, Ding Xuan shook his head and said: "The pullback after hitting the circuit-breaker probably resembles the last one, when the big surge was followed by a pullback that was a massive washout by the big players. Dad, you sold too soon, this is a bull market now, you have to do long-term investments. Long-term is gold, short-term is silver, you have to watch it more and move less, and let the profits run!"

"What do you know? This time is different from last time, the big players are selling out!" Ding Huai-guang dismissed his son's stock market knowledge he had acquired online and was about to express his own opinion, only to be kicked under the table by his wife, thus no more was said.

Unexpectedly, the next day BaoGang Rare Earth surged again by 7.74%, closing at 9.47 yuan. This made Ding Huai-guang somewhat regretful. But on December 8th, BaoGang Rare Earth crashed by 4.86%, closing at 9.01 yuan. This made Ding Huai-guang somewhat proud of himself, believing this steep volatility was proof of the big players' selling out.

Surprisingly, BaoGang Rare Earth kept climbing from then on, reaching 10 yuan, 15 yuan, 20 yuan, 25 yuan... Ding Huai-guang had completely submitted to his son, and was regretful, but luckily his other stocks had also risen, which gave him some consolation, so he stopped paying attention to BaoGang Rare Earth.

By this time, Ding Huai-guang, who had tasted the sweetness of the stock market, had already invested his 230,000 yuan of savings in the stock market. During this bull market, by early May of 2007, he had made a total of 510,000 yuan in profits.

Ding Huai-guang was ecstatic, believing making money in the stock market was as easy as picking up money, and in his excitement, borrowed 500,000 yuan to dive into the stock market, ready to make huge profits again.

Ding Huai-guang borrowed 50 million from his family and friends with a loan period of one year. With full of confidence, he said to his wife, Fang Qing, that Chinese A-share had entered a super bull market and the Shanghai Composite Index would rise to more than 10,000 points, the 50 million would become one or two hundred million or even more within a year, so that their son would have enough money for overseas study if he wanted.

Fang Qing was delighted and nodded with a smile, her heart filled with the dream of getting rich. But she still reminded him with caution: "Be careful when borrowing so much money, don't let any problem happen. And don't tell our son, he shouldn't worry about it."

"Absolutely no problem!" Ding Huai-guang said as he patted his chest.

Unexpectedly, soon the situation changed drastically. On 29 May 2007, the Ministry of Finance announced an increase of stamp duty on securities in the middle of the night, which caused the infamous "530 Massacre", with thousands of stocks hitting the daily limit and continued plunging for several days. Ding Huai-guang suffered heavy losses in stocks and had to sell at a loss in desperation.

Afterwards, however, the stock market rose again not only recovering its loss but also creating a new high. Hence, Ding Huai-guang rushed into the stock market again. In this round of sprint from 4,000 points to 6,000 points, the main momentum was the strong surge of blue-chip stocks which was referred to as the elephant dancing, while the small-cap stocks mostly stayed flat or even declined. Therefore, the few small-cap stocks which Ding Huai-guang had invested heavily in did not bring him much return, as he earned the index but not the money.

At the same time, the rare earth stocks owned by his son Ding Xun shone brightly, soaring continuously. On October 15, 2007, Bao Gang Rare Earths reached its highest point at 63.98 yuan, resulting in 8-fold returns based on Ding Xun's purchase price of 7 yuan. Calculated from the lowest price on July 12, 2005 at 3.20 yuan, it even rose 20 times!

Ding Huai-guang regretted deeply at this moment, as he finally realized how correct his son's words were: "Long-term is gold, short-term is silver". Had he stop clenching the more than one hundred thousand shares of Bao Gang Rare Earths until now, he would have earned more than one million.

Ding Xu suddenly heard his father's lament at the dinner table, but he acutely realized the problem and said, "A stock can go up 20 times in two or three years, and it's not even the one with the biggest increase. Even my classmates are discussing that you don't have to go to college anymore and make a living by speculating stocks. This shows that the stock market has completely gone mad and entered the last fool phase. The government has intervened in the stock market, and the last increase in stamp duty is only one of the measures. There will be follow-up measures in the future, and the risk is now very high! Dad, help me sell the stocks quickly, and you should also clear your positions! We have made so much, we should be satisfied and not be greedy, otherwise, something bad will happen!"

Ding Huai-guang chuckled helplessly.

Fang Qing, however, kicked her husband under the dinner table and glared at him, saying, "My son is about to take the college entrance exam. You are not allowed to talk about stocks. Don't divide his attention. Otherwise, he will only think about making money, not studying! Listen to your son and clear your positions!"

Ding Huai-guang had to surrender and pretend to agree with his son and wife to clear all of his stocks.

Later, Ding Huai-guang followed his son's suggestion and hung the package steel and rare earth at the price of 63 yuan every day. Because his son thought that since it was only two points away from 20 times, there would surely be another action to rush to 64 yuan, and the head should be double-headed, so it should be safe to sell near 63 yuan.

Ding Huaiguang was surprised to find that, although the price of Baogang rare earth had been falling all the way, down to 48.8 yuan, it had actually rebounded above 60 yuan. On the opening of October 30th, 2007, Baogang rare earth opened higher and Ding Huaiguang's pre-hanging sell order was traded at the highest price of the day 63.49 yuan.

When he saw the transaction amount, Ding Huaiguang was surprised and amused because the 1400 shares of Baogang rare earth multiplied by 63.49 yuan was exactly 88,886 yuan. Does this mean that his son's decision was correct?

The cost of seven yuan, less than a year, rose to more than 63 yuan, which is an impressive eight-fold return, once again proving the truth of the long-term gold.

Of course, because the capital invested was too small, and only 9,800 yuan of stocks were bought one year ago, after deducting 0.3% of the stamp duty and 0.3% of the commission, the balance of Ding Huaiguang's account was only 88,550 yuan. If Ding Huaiguang had bought all the stock of Baogang rare earth at that time and hold it to this day, he would have earned at least millions.

At this time, Ding Huaiguang finally decided to learn from his son and take a long-term stockholding. Added to the fact that the stock market rose from 4000 points to 6000 points, Ding Huaiguang basically did not make money, so he was not willing to be as decisive as Ding Yu to clear the warehouse, and still stayed in the stock market.

Despite the high level signalling many interventions to regulate the stock market, Ding Huai-guang still held out hope that the stock market could withstand the bad news and continue to surge, driving the small stocks he held to bring himself huge profits.

"Ideal is abundant, reality is bony"; this sentence was best suited to the stock market. In October 2007, the Shanghai Stock Exchange shot to 6124 points before rapidly plummeting three thousand feet. Ding Huai-guang misjudged the situation and trusted the words of stock pundits, believing that the market was only undergoing a temporary adjustment before soaring again to surpass the 10,000 mark. As a result, the SSE kept falling and eventually dropped to around 2,000 points, leading to a devastating stock crash in which both retail and institutional investors suffered great losses.

Unfortunately, Ding Huai-guang was not spared in this avalanche of stock market losses. Due to his failure in selling his stocks in time, he had to helplessly witness the shrinking of his stocks' market value. It was not until September 2008, when the SSE dropped below 2,000 points, that he realized the horrendous losses he made: of the 1.24 million yuan he had owned in May 2007, only 310,000 yuan was left. Not only had he lost his 230,000 yuan capital and 510,000 yuan profits, but the 310,000 yuan remaining was not even enough to repay his 500,000 yuan debt.

All in all, including the borrowed 500,000 yuan, Ding Huai-guang had invested a total of 730,000 yuan with only 310,000 yuan remaining, resulting in a loss of 420,000 yuan. Compared to the joyful times when he had earned 510,000 yuan, it was truly like being in heaven one moment and in hell the next, having taken a roller coaster ride.

Infuriated, Ding Huai-guang's plan to hold on to the stocks and wait for them to be sold off was also dashed — most of the creditors were aware that he had borrowed money to speculate in the stock market, and seeing how dismal the market was, they were worried about the safety of their principal and kept pressing him for payment. They no longer wanted the interest payments and instead demanded that he pay off the loan ahead of time, or else they would take him to court, freeze his assets, and put his house up for sale.

Faced with no other choice, Ding Huai-guang had to bite the bullet and clear out all of his stocks, as well as sell off a property shop with a 70 percent new car for a cheap price in order to raise 50,000 yuan to pay the creditors back.

Afterwards, Ding Huai-guang suddenly disappeared, not attending classes and his phone not connecting either. To this day, he has been missing for three days.

Out of fear of affecting his son's college entrance exams and studies, Ding Huai-guang had kept his borrowing money to speculate in the stock market and selling off the stocks to pay off the debt from his son, only telling his wife, Fang Qing. It was only after his father had gone missing that Ding Xu found out all these stories from his mother.

After learning about the big changes in his family, Ding Xu felt as if he had been struck by lightning and couldn't utter a single word for half a day.

His father had always been the bright and sunny sky above his head, and now that sky had collapsed.

For three days, Ding Xu often panicked and wondered if his father, like in the TV dramas, would become dejected and helpless due to the sudden loss of his savings, and take his own life.

Whenever he thought of this awful possibility, Ding Xu would be filled with angst and wanted to call the police for help. But when he discussed it with his mother, she refused to let him do so, citing his father's text message before his disappearance as a warning.

"Did Dad not tell Mom the truth? Did he borrow more than 500,000, or take out a loan with high interest? Is he afraid of being tracked down by the debtors, so he doesn't want me to call the police?" Ding Xu suspected that his parents were hiding something from him. He solemnly told his mother that if his father hadn't been found by the end of the day, he'd have to call the police, because a life was at stake, and they couldn't just wait here like this any longer.

The reason why Ding Xu said this was because he had a feeling that his parents were hiding something from him. Otherwise, his mother wouldn't have been so hesitant over the phone...

Suddenly, the cell phone in his hand rang, and Ding Xu picked it up to find out that it was a strange long-distance fixed-line number.

"Hello?" As soon as Ding Xu pressed the answer button, his eyes suddenly widened.