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.

a.m. in the United States, and Jasper knocked the wooden hammer against the bell, signifying the opening of the

Ring!

deep and strong sound of the bell

flashed maddeningly as they tried to commemorate this

this moment, shares for the first internet enterprise from Somerland had moved on from the bursting of the dot-com bubble and registered itself at Nasdaq Exchange

Its ticker—SENA!

the

sucked in a

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

most investors tended to buy shares

with an issue price of 25 US dollars

through pre-IPO, the higher the price

not a 10% rise limit when it came to

meant if Sena was formidable enough, its prices could rise instantly

would

Impossibly hard.

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

also decreased in large exchange centers like Nasdaq, the Dow

investors were getting less enthusiastic and there was also less hot money in the markets compared to

to be more rational and

Jasper’s calm facade was

center, Jasper

were still thinking of ways to interview Sena’s senior executives, and traders had already begun

room was filled with the scent of money and

to the pressure on Jasper’s

issue price of 25 US dollars had to grow at

Benett would dare to make such a bet,

face?” Celine

relaxed expression and laughed. “And here I am, worried about whether the share price will meet the requirements when

worry about it. So 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