AQUA Reddit Mentions | ChartExchange

**TL;DR:** I lost my house, so I live on Avanti West Coast trains. I open a fake 36pt font PowerPoint about "Project Aqua" firing 25% of staff to bait nosy train passengers into buying stock in a dying UK retailer so I can short their top and pay for a flat.
Guys, I need to get this off my chest before my laptop battery dies. I don't have a charger, and the outlet under seat 34B on the 08:14 Avanti West Coast line to Manchester Piccadilly is dead.
Three months ago, my wife took the house, the dog, and my remaining self-respect. I was left with £400 in my trading account, a 2017 MacBook Air with a peeling screen protector, and a dream.
Instead of paying for an overpriced room in a moldy sharehouse, I bought an Off-Peak Flexi-Season pass. I now live on the UK rail network. TransPennine Express is my bedroom. CrossCountry is my living room. Avanti is where I conduct hostiles-only corporate warfare.
Here is the play:
Every morning, I crank the screen brightness on my laptop to 100%, set the font size to 36pt, and open a PowerPoint titled ⁠PROJECT AQUA: RESTRUCTURING & SYNERGY OPTIMIZATION \[CONFIDENTIAL\]⁠.
I make sure the text is huge enough that whatever mid-tier retail investor sitting in the row behind me can read it through the gap in the seats. Slide 3 is the kicker: **"Phase 2: 25% Reduction in Global Headcount to Drive £40M Annualized Margin Expansion."**
I spend 8 hours a day slowly cycling through these slides, pretending to be a high-powered corporate restructuring consultant stressed out of my mind. I even sigh loudly and tap on my phone calculator like I'm crunching the final numbers on a massive buyout.
The second someone behind me gasps, starts aggressively typing on their phone, or frantically opens the Trading 212 app, I open my shorts.
**I am shorting the stock.**
There is no Project Aqua. "Project Aqua" is just a folder of stock photos of water coolers and arbitrary pie charts I downloaded using McDonald's Wi-Fi. I don't even work in corporate strategy; I used to manage a Krispy Kreme.
The stock is a legacy UK high-street retailer that’s already down 40% YTD. When these train-gazers rush to buy the "leak" thinking they’re insider trading a massive cost-cutting turnaround, they drive the price up just enough to fill my short positions before the inevitable quarterly earnings dump craters it.
I've been riding the rails non-stop for 22 days. I wash my hair in the sink at Birmingham New Street. I survive on discarded Marks & Spencer meal-deal sandwiches and sheer leverage.
This short position is my last bet. Either Project Aqua pays off and I can afford a deposit on a studio flat, or ticket inspection is going to catch me in the quiet coach with no battery and an expired Railcard.
To the guy who was peeking over my left shoulder near Crewe yesterday: I saw you. Enjoy the bags.