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The first wave began exactly one week after Olive's announcement of their new product.
I had been enjoying a nice omelette, topped with plenty of ketchup, for lunch when it happened. Such a blissful moment. If it had been possible, I would have loved for Alice to draw me a ketchup heart on the top of my omelette, but I hadn't sunk so low as to ask a hologram to do something she couldn't.
The stock market had seemed a bit rough ever since that morning. On the whole, the market was up, but a few companies had begun to crash, pushing the average down as well. Some were even Olive affiliates that had been rumored to start going up. Looks like the professionals have started harvesting their crop. I could see the chain reaction that was about to begin. One stock dropping in price will induce other stocks to do the same and as soon as a few traders begin to liquidate their shares, others will follow suit. The amateurs out there who couldn't yet decide whether or not to sell were no doubt so frustrated by then that they couldn't even enjoy their lunch.
That was, of course, not my problem. I had just uploaded an article titled "Today's Market Expectations" onto my personal media space. I'd written it whilst enjoying my lunch. After reaching its peak, it all comes crashing down. It was as common as the plot of every Shakespearean tragedy ever written.
I wrapped up the article with a blunt statement: "The foundations of the market have been shaken and severely weakened by repeated storms. It's time to let go of optimism and get out with whatever profit you can, no matter how small. If that is no longer possible, cut your losses now before things get worse than they already are."
My article quickly reached 1,000 page hits, then 10,000 by the 10-minute mark. By the 20-minute mark, it had exceeded 100,000 hits.
It was even making rounds on the headliner, the various reposts going viral. Without a doubt, the market would take another dive this afternoon. Anyone who read my article would act as I recommended, so what I wrote was, in a sense, a self-fulfilling prophecy. What an easy job this was.
The price of 5421A4381 continued to gradually creep up, as though a master fisherman were slowly reeling in a big catch. It was still cheap compared to other stocks, but there was no doubt that it was going up. If somebody were to ask me if I recommended investing, I would answer, "It's not bad, but you won't make a huge profit from it." It was rising on a gentle, yet constant, slope. The line on the graph could have been drawn with a ruler. It hadn't faltered once the entire week, just kept climbing upward. Ever upward.
It was an abnormality, but it was one that not even a single person other than myself seemed to have noticed.
I had been carefully adding shares of 5421A4381 to my portfolio for the past week. Strangely, whenever I placed an order, it would be executed almost instantly. It was as if it were just waiting for somebody to come along and buy it. Typically in the past, whenever I bought unpopular stocks in hopes of making a large profit, trading volume was still very low and it took time for my trade to be executed, so it felt a little strange that all my orders were being filled so swiftly. But it was too late now. The game had already begun.
The moment before the market as a whole begins to drop sharply will be the last chance to place a large order to buy. If things continue as they have been, with this stock being the only one steadily rising, others will begin to take notice of it.
Any stock that continues to rise while the rest of the market sags will immediately attract a lot of popularity. When that happens, it'll be a buying frenzy. I had been quietly making small purchases during the build up in order to avoid just that.
This might stand out a bit, but it looked like it was time to start buying in earnest while the price was still low.
"Alice," I began. "When the afternoon session begins, we're going to buy as much as possible."
"Understood," she answered. "Preparations for your order are finished. Would you like to make the order yourself?"
"No, I want to buy it up as fast as possible. I'll let you handle it."
"Very well. I will place as many purchase orders as possible for stock 5421A4381."
"Once you do that, make preparations to turn around and sell. I have a feeling we're going to need to get rid of it quickly this time."
"Understood. I will make the proper arrangements."
Humans can't possibly react as fast as an A.I., but an A.I. can't read the feel of the market like a person can. Cooperation allows us to take advantage of the synergy between our talents to the best possible effect.
"I'm going to get back to watching the news feeds," I told Alice. "Make sure you're still monitoring the headliner for me."
"Understood, Master," Alice responded.
Reassured by my partner's voice, I dove back into the news space. The clock read three minutes until the beginning of the afternoon trading session.