April 10th, 2000
A month had passed since the crash of the markets.
Wall Street fell silent with the picture of a nine-year-old kid plastered on every wall and screen.
The genius whose strategies had saved the market from a trillion-dollar loss and complete collapse when the dot-com bubble burst.
Not even in their dreams could they have known that the kid had played them. That Samuel James Witwicky was the sole winner of the entire financial collapse.
The rapid advancement of information technology and telecommunications sharply reduced the cost of storing and transmitting data, while the en-masse adoption of personal computers and the rise of the World Wide Web fundamentally reshaped industries, trade, finance, and services during the 1990s.
This environment created fertile ground for ambitious entrepreneurs to launch online ventures, with venture capital flowing in at unprecedented levels, given the high expectations of profitability.
Ambitious, yes, but ambition alone isn't enough to survive!
The dot-com boom coincided with the longest U.S. economic expansion since World War II. Key macroeconomic indicators—declining inflation, falling unemployment, and strong gains in growth and productivity—reinforced investor confidence.
Beginning in late 1998, equity markets enthusiastically welcomed wave after wave of dot-com IPOs, often ignoring the weak or nonexistent business models underpinning these firms. Market valuations soared, but in reality, many of these startups had no sustainable path to revenue or profitability.
Investor behavior was strongly shaped by analyst recommendations and the expectation of rapid price appreciation. Both retail and institutional investors poured capital into over-the-counter internet stocks, betting on momentum rather than fundamentals.
Liquidity conditions further amplified the bubble, as the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts in response to the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management crisis made capital cheaper and more abundant.
The scale of the shift was striking: in 1990, Nasdaq equities represented just 11% of the trading value on the New York Stock Exchange; by December 1999, Nasdaq had swelled to nearly 80% of NYSE trading value, highlighting the extraordinary reallocation of capital into the technology sector.
The Nasdaq index rose 86% in 1999 alone, and peaked on March 10, 2000, at 5,048 units. The mega-merger of AOL with TimeWarner seemed to validate investors' expectations about the "new economy". Then the bubble imploded.
As the value of tech stocks plummeted, cash-strapped internet startups became worthless in months and collapsed. The market for new IPOs froze. On October 4, 2002, the Nasdaq index fell to 1,139.90 units, a fall of 77% from its peak.
The reversal spilled over to stocks in other sectors and international technology markets like Tokyo's Mothers Market, Seoul's Kosdaq, Frankfurt's Neuer Markt, London techMARK, and Paris's Nouveau Marché.
So, how much were Witwicky's investments worth?
That was the question that everyone waited eagerly and wall street was pouring in days to understand Witwicky's transactions, however such information could never be disclosed for right now, Witwicky was sitting at such wealth that could either create or destroy the economy.
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Sam's POV, 2005
'How should I deal with Sector Seven?' That was the only thought I had in mind. I had no trust in the government and those incompetents. Who in their right minds would think that negotiating with a killer robot from a futuristic race would be a good idea? Well, it was rhetoric.
Four years ago, the Government tried to coerce and intimidate me into funding something truly heinous; however, a few days later, when they lost the information war by numerous scandals being reported anonymously and a lot of secret sources of funds being listed overnight, their change in attitude was hilarious!
Today, Infinite Industries, a private firm that I own, has become a pillar of employment, innovation, and technology for millions.
Meanwhile, I had sent out millions of feelers transformed through energon. Some embedded deep within the servers of organizations that if people knew, they would freak out.
In two years, the decepticons would take out the US SOCCENT base at Qatar, and that would bring a disruptive chain of events.
I still had two years to choose, whether I would be taking the side of teh Autobots or will I have to create a new faction.
Perhaps seeking out allies would be the best move to be played right now.