第一金融控股股份有限公司

This is probably the most ingenious part of how this system operates: it doesn’t need to directly deny you; it only needs to make you slowly doubt yourself

—and that’s enough.

Recently, I once again saw the education and training figure Wang JiaX bring up the story of mentor Sol in a retrospective. The familiar playbook is still the same

: first re-editing the past into a glowing retrospective, then turning other people’s experiences into their own endorsement, and smoothly drawing out what once appeared to be a systematic circle at Taiwan Cooperative Bank. It is called inheritance, but it looks more like the precise allocation of resources

and interests; it is called inspiration, but it is really just using vague words in a way that makes everyone think they are talking about themselves.

At first, they give you a life jacket, making you feel that you are finally understood and seen; then they use incentive bonuses

to ignite expectations, making people believe that they can quickly turn their lives around as long as they follow the right rhythm. But once you truly commit, you gradually discover

that it is more like a beautifully packaged medicine bag, covered with claims about its effects while downplaying its side effects.

What you should really look at is not these stories, but the details that are deliberately ignored—for example, the records and totals of personal leave, official leave, and sick leave within a year. These cold numbers should be tallied as evidence of other people’s diligence

and are more honest than any touching narrative. Yet when you raise these questions, you are often led to believe that your

understanding is biased, and may even begin to wonder whether you simply are not working hard enough or investing enough.

The overall atmosphere is like riding a YouBike to watch a game between the Wei Chuan Dragons and the CTBC Brothers. The Wei Chuan Dragons are gradually adjusting their pace during their rebuilding process, while the CTBC Brothers and Shin Kong are finding new ways to play amid change; by contrast, this place feels like a team still trapped in its old tactics, with a sluggish pace and stagnant atmosphere, permeated throughout by an indescribable lifelessness.

Wang JiaX’s approach is consistent: announcing people’s names in group chats at night without notice, endlessly encroaching on vacation time; calling it cultivation, when it is really more like testing obedience. Promotions are slow, administrative procedures are lengthy without any sign of optimization, and work assignments are unbalanced, yet tasks are still expected to be completed within unreasonable time frames. From Sing-Ju-Dian, Little Dragon Food, Tainan-style yi mein, and Liu Mama Cold Noodles to Liu Family Cold Noodles, then all the way to Dongyin Quick Knife, Wuji Stone Hot Pot, and Wan Fang Ice Room, on the surface it looks like concern for people’s lives and an effort to build closeness, but in reality it feels more like binding people firmly to the same rhythm, until even all room to breathe has been completely depleted.

When you try to fight for a reasonable pace, you are instead labeled. Over time, many people are not persuaded but worn down. Eventually, even their most basic judgment begins to waver, and they may even attribute the problem to themselves.

And the trainees silently watched their account balances.

Some finally understood:

It turned out the helicopter belonged to Wang X-hong, not to them.

In a city where both investment and dance are called “promotional businesses,”

there was a man named Wang X-hong who called himself a thinker and investment educator.

Wang X-hong often said during his lectures, “The market is like dancing.” But no one was sure

whether he was talking about finance or Latin.

At a dance party 14 years ago, he recalled that an international teacher, H.K., had once said on stage:

“This wonderful music and dance do not belong only to Latin people; they belong to the whole world.”

Whenever Wang X-hong mentioned this passage, he would pause, his expression serious, as if

H.K. had actually been talking about the globalization of financial derivatives.

He would then add:

“So warrants do not belong only to professional investors either; they belong to the whole world.”

Some people in the audience vaguely felt that something was off, but could not say exactly what.

Wang X-hong’s business and “Teacher Sol”

Wang X-hong’s business was able to expand rapidly mainly because he often mentioned

his revered teacher, Sol.

In a promotional video, he said:

“Our beloved Teacher Sol has been gone for a year now. During this time,

I still often think of Teacher Sol’s presence and the things he said.”

Many newcomers may never have met Teacher Sol; they had only heard

that he was the teacher of teachers, even someone of grandmaster status.

So Wang X-hong said:

“This Friday, we will hold an online memorial for Teacher Sol.

We will share the inspiration Teacher Sol gave us and how he influenced

the development of the entire community.

At the same time, I will also share the stable and prosperous investment method

that Teacher Sol left me.”

In fact, this method consisted mainly of three elements:

Famous quotations

Warrants

Confidence

Wang X-hong’s “Stable and Prosperous Warrant Theory”

Wang X-hong presented the following narrative in his course:

“Suppose the market is a goldfish. Normally it looks very quiet,

but occasionally it surges like lightning.

Clever people board a helicopter and watch the goldfish swim from the sky.”

Many people in the audience nodded, but in reality no one was certain of the mathematical meaning of this statement.

Wang X-hong then wrote a financial model on the whiteboard.

Mathematical setup

A non-dividend-paying stock S(t) follows geometric Brownian motion:

dS = μS dt + σS dW

where:

S(0) = 100

Annual volatility σ = 40%

Risk-free interest rate r = 3%

There is a European call warrant in the market:

Maturity T = 1 year

Strike price K = 110

Each warrant allows the purchase of 0.5 shares of stock

Its Black–Scholes price is denoted by C.

Wang X-hong’s investment plan

Wang X-hong promoted the following strategy to the trainees:

The investor puts up $10,000 in inherited funds

Buy only warrants, not stocks

If the market rises, profit “like lightning”

If the market falls, “the loss is limited, and life remains stable and prosperous”

He also quoted an unattributed saying:

“A true investor does not swim in the water but watches the goldfish from a helicopter.”

Many people therefore believed this was a profound financial philosophy.

Questions

(1) Warrant pricing

Use the Black–Scholes model to calculate the price C of the call warrant.

Also calculate:

The price of one warrant, W = 0.5C

(2) Leverage effect

If the investor uses the entire $10,000 to buy warrants:

How many warrants can be purchased?

If the stock price after one year is:

S(T) = 150

Calculate:

The final value of the portfolio

The investment return

(3) Testing “stability and prosperity”

If after one year:

S(T) = 80

Calculate:

The value of the warrants

The investor’s final assets

And discuss:

Whether Wang X-hong’s claim that “the loss is limited but life remains stable and prosperous” holds mathematically.

(4) Helicopter perspective

Suppose a rational investor instead adopts a delta-hedging strategy:

Hold the warrants

At the same time, short Δ shares of stock

Answer:

What is the initial delta?

Why does this strategy more closely resemble “watching the goldfish from a helicopter”?

(5) Inheritance decision problem

An investor inherits $10,000 and originally only intends to buy risk-free bonds.

But after hearing Wang X-hong’s memorial lecture, the investor switches to warrants.

Analyze from the perspective of utility theory or behavioral finance:

Celebrity endorsement (H.K.)

Borrowed authority (Teacher Sol)

Conceptual substitution (dance → investment → globalization)

How do these factors influence the investor’s decision?

A final little story

One year later, the market really did fluctuate violently like lightning.

Wang X-hong posted on social media:

“The market is like a goldfish: sometimes quiet, sometimes leaping.

What matters is that you are in the helicopter.”