Life at the Top

Time ticked by and it was now only three more minutes until the market opened and Sena went public. Jasper had been invited onto the temporarily built stage.

The stage was right under the largest main screen in Nasdaq Exchange Center, which was at the center of the room.

Under everyone’s attentive gaze, Jasper and Jack got on stage.

In the middle of the stage was a large bell.

Since Nasdaq Exchange’s founding, every business that went public would have its legal personality ring this bell.

It was a tradition as much as it was a symbol.

The electronic screen continued to display worlds of welcome like ‘Nasdaq welcomes Sena’ while hundreds of traders had already gotten into position. There were a few dozen reporters holding their cameras, waiting to take a picture of this historical moment.

Jasper accepted a wooden hammer from a manager in the exchange center and was just about to invite Jack to ring the bell with him when he saw the other shake his head with a smile.

“You should ring the bell yourself, Mr. Laine,” Jack spoke.

Although he was stunned, Jasper saw the shine in Jack’s eyes and did not insist. “Alright then.”

Everyone looked up and focused on the electronic screen that covered the entire wall. It displayed both Nasdaq’s and Sena’s logo, as well as an analog clock.

The second hand of the clock ticked continuously until it was almost racing to 9:30 a.m.

“5…

“4…

“3…

“2…

“1…”

Hundreds of people counted down at the same time in the exchange Center.

9:30 a.m. in the United States, and Jasper knocked the wooden hammer against the bell, signifying

Ring!

of the bell rang throughout the entire

cameras flashed maddeningly as they tried

first internet enterprise from Somerland had moved on from the bursting of the dot-com bubble and registered itself at Nasdaq

Its ticker—SENA!

down from the stage after they rang the bell. They began to pay attention to the changes in share

little nerve-wracking.” A senior executive sucked in a

smiled and said, “The share market in the United States has different rules compared to the markets back home. New shares here normally pay more attention to the pre-IPO on the first day of trading and the more shares bought pre-IPO make for a higher share price. It’ll take some

the United States, most investors tended to

of 25 US dollars with 96 million US dollars worth of

shares bought by investors through pre-IPO, the higher the

there was not a 10%

if Sena was formidable enough, its prices could rise

difficult would that

Impossibly hard.

share market was no longer as crazy as it used to be before the burst of the

decreased in large exchange centers like Nasdaq,

investors were getting less enthusiastic and there was

be more rational and

calm facade was

center, Jasper watched the scene

ways to interview Sena’s senior executives, and traders had already begun receiving phone calls while starting a new

filled with the scent of money and

added to the

US dollars had to grow at

to make such a bet, let alone

long face?” Celine interrupted Jasper’s

“And here I am, worried about whether the share price will meet the

what if it doesn’t hit the target we set? The point of Sena going public was to help contribute to your cash flow. From the hype we’ve garnered over the past few days, I’m pretty sure we’ve already met the