Chapter 2
Translator: Dreamscribe
<Kwangwoon Securities>
"......Crazy."
I gulped down my saliva as I stared at the towering, grand building.
Kwangwoon Securities.
One of the top 10 securities firms in the country.
A company so high up that someone who barely made it into a Seoul university like me wouldn’t even dare to look at.
But now I was daring to step foot into that very place.
"I haven't even told my parents yet."
I couldn't believe that I was about to work at such a big and good company, and I was afraid I might just be a nuisance and get kicked out, so I only told them I was going for an interview and left the house.
"This suit feels a bit tight."
Still, since I was living under the watchful eyes of my parents, I hadn't been eating late-night snacks or even touching any junk food, so I hadn’t gained much weight.
But now it seemed like I should start working out a bit.
Just climbing the subway stairs had me totally out of breath.
"Is it really okay to start work this early?"
I received a text telling me to arrive by 6 a.m., so I rushed out to catch the first subway train.
I had a brief worry that I might be the only one there and that the company wouldn't even be open yet, but that seemed to be an unnecessary concern.
When I left home, the streets in my neighborhood were completely empty, but here in Yeouido, it was packed with office workers in suits.
‘Everyone’s heading to work.’
It’s common for securities firms to start work at 6 a.m.
They kind of have to, since the stock market opens at 9.
To get ready before that, early arrival is unavoidable.
Brrr-.
Who would be calling at this hour?
I checked the number, and of course.
It was the Guild Master who had gotten me this job.
“Oh. hyung. No, I mean, C-CEO nim?”
[Hahaha. Hearing you call me CEO nim is weird. When it's just the two of us, just call me hyung like usual.]
He gave off a chill vibe like a cold winter breeze.
[So, have you arrived at work?]
“Yes. I'm in front of the building now. But... is this really okay? I feel like I'm just going to be a burden.”
[Hey. If one guy like you could tank the whole company, it’s better to just shut it down. It’s fine. I checked, and it looks like the HR Team placed you in the Trading Department, so as a junior trader, you probably won’t have much to do.]
“That’s basically just being a salary thief.”
[Still, do your best. Just like you did in the guild, treat your seniors well. You know what I mean, right?]
Even if I didn’t do anything, I should at least make it look like I was trying hard.
“Yes, hyung. I’ll give it my all.”
[Good. Welcome aboard. Our company doesn’t do OT or anything for new hires. So don’t expect that. You should use that time to analyze even one more piece of data.]
“Yes. I’ll work hard.”
[Right. I sent you your employment gift through your character’s mail.]
“Huh? Could it be… the item I said I wanted before?”
[Sharp guy. Hurry up and get inside. Oh, right! If people ask how you got in, don’t say anything. No game talk or anything like that. Got it? Just say you don’t know.]
“Ah, yes. hyung.”
[Okay, really hanging up now.]
After hanging up, I felt a bit dazed.
The Guild Master I had played games, laughed, and joked with for so long was actually a CEO in the financial world.
And that person had hired me.
Just because I was someone he played games with.
It was a story no one would believe if I told them.
I even had a flashback of how he used to scold me for failing to dodge basic patterns during raids.
“What am I supposed to do once I get inside? Should I bow my head and greet everyone?”
I had seen in dramas where people shout very loudly announcing who they are!
“No... let’s not do anything stupid.”
Just go quietly and try not to stand out at all.
And definitely, don’t cause any trouble!
***
Each securities firm is different, but the Trading Department is divided in various ways.
There is the Prop Trading Department, which seeks high profits through short-term trading using stocks, bonds, derivatives, and the like, taking on risk by utilizing market volatility.
Then there’s the Quant Trading Department, which builds trading strategies based on algorithms and data analysis and carries out thousands of trades at once through AI using high-frequency trading.
In addition, there are teams for market making, FX Trading, Bond Trading, and so on.
There were many different teams.
People usually think that these teams are working frantically from early morning, but in fact, they can still manage to have a brief tea time.
The truly chaotic time typically starts at 8:30 a.m. when the pre-opening session begins.
From then until 4 p.m., it’s a nonstop frenzy with no time even to go to the bathroom.
“Did you hear we’re getting a new recruit?”
“Come on, it’s not the first time. Some guys leave because they can’t take the performance pressure, others leave because they get high on their own success.”
The stock market is a giant casino legalized by the government.
And employees there face constant performance pressure.
Some can’t withstand that burden and end up leaving, while others just happened to have a few lucky breaks and think it’s all their skill, so they quit to become individual traders.
That’s why securities firms, especially Trading Departments, recruit new employees more frequently than other departments.
But this new recruit seemed different.
“I heard from the HR Team that he was placed here by someone up top.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yeah. They told us not to make a big deal about it. It’ll be a headache if the whole department finds out.”
“Wait. If he was placed by someone up top... you mean the CEO’s family?”
“Probably.”
It was as if a tactical nuke had dropped into the quiet Trading Department.
At a securities firm where performance is everything.
But in the end, it’s still a company, so social rules apply.
And in any company, there are inevitably parachute hires.
In fact, it was stranger that there hadn't been any until now.
"Does the Team Leader know about this too?"
“I just found out yesterday.”
Team Leader Park Hong-seo answered briefly as he poured a large amount of coffee into a cup.
He usually didn’t drink coffee, so seeing him fill a whole cup like that was a rare sight.
The employees in the break room sensed they shouldn’t say anything and remained silent until Team Leader Park left.
“Whew. Why does Team Leader Park look so cranky today?”
“Wouldn’t you be pissed too? The Trading Department is already insanely busy, and now we have to deal with some parachute hire. I’ve never seen that guy drink so much coffee.”
He was someone who liked sports, didn’t smoke or drink, and avoided even soft drinks and coffee.
But today, it seemed like something had really gotten to him.
"What if that parachute hire starts acting like a prince and causes trouble as soon as they arrive?"
"What can we do? We'll just have to grin and bear it. Or are you going to confront him? Only Team Leader Park will suffer in silence."
That’s what’s scary about a parachute hire.
If they rely on their backing and act arrogant, all you can do is endure it and watch.
“Wonder what he looks like. If he’s hot, maybe I’ll try to seduce him.”
“Ha. Go ahead and give it a shot.”
As they left the break room, curious about the identity of the parachute hire.
“Hmm?”
They saw a man near the office entrance looking restless and lost.
***
“.......”
Team Leader Park Hong-seo glanced at Jung Jin-ho, who was standing with his hands neatly clasped.
He should have been analyzing data and checking the international news and market changes that had occurred overnight, but he had to deal with this new recruit that had suddenly dropped in.
He didn’t like the situation.
Everyone has their own routine, after all.
“Is this your first time working in finance?”
“Ah, yes. It is.”
“Have you done any mock investing? Do you have any investment experience?”
“No... but if you teach me, I’ll do my best!”
“.......”
This was a complete newbie who would need to be taught everything from A to Z.
But now he understood why the HR Team had placed that parachute hire here.
Though there's truly a lot of work to be done from early dawn, a junior trader doesn’t have much to do.
It’s a position mainly for running small errands, practicing through mock trading, and gradually learning from the senior traders.
That’s why they stuck the parachute hire here.
Let them keep him and train him slowly however they want.
‘Once he gets a bit used to things, they’ll probably try to transfer him to another department.’
Let him build a little experience as a staff member, then promote him directly to a team leader position.
It was the textbook parachute route.
In other words, he wasn’t someone meant to stay in this department for long.
“Senior Staff Lee.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
"Jung Jin-ho here is a new employee who will be a junior trader from now on, so Senior Staff Lee, please teach him well from the side."
"Yes, understood."
Senior Staff Lee Hye-rin, who was still unaware of the terrifying identity of the new hire, was beaming with a bright smile. Likely because she was finally freed from her role as the youngest on the team.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Senior Staff Lee Hye-rin. If you have any questions going forward, feel free to ask me.”
“Yes. I’m Jung Jin-ho. I look forward to working with you.”
In truth, this wasn’t Lee Hye-rin’s first time training a newcomer.
There had already been several new recruits, but none of them lasted long and all ended up running away.
It was understandable.
You had to arrive no later than 5:30 in the morning to prepare for the briefing and set everything up for meetings.
And as time went on, the workload intensity only increased.
Since this was a place where trades were made down to the second, you had to bring the materials the seniors needed immediately, and if you hesitated even slightly, you’d be bombarded with curses for losing money because of your delay.
This was a massive casino floor where billions of won exchanged hands in a single day.
And that wasn’t all.
After surviving the junior stage, the performance pressure begans, making it nearly impossible to endure with a clear mind.
“We start with coffee. Traders live on coffee. We have to get the coffee ready for them right before the meeting. Oh, and Team Leader Park doesn’t drink coffee, so exclude his!”
“Got it!”
Thankfully, this new recruit was enthusiastic.
He was jotting down everything she said in a small notebook.
Her first impression of him was positive.
“There’s also material prep work. Though they won’t ask you to analyze or make something on your own at the start. As a junior trader, you’re here more to learn than to do. So, you have to study all the briefing documents that come out every day.”
“Yes!”
Even his responses were crisp and clear, and she liked that too.
As she continued explaining this and that, a small pause came.
“By the way, Jin-ho ssi, which university did you attend?”
“Ah... university?”
“Yes. It must be one of the SKY universities. Maybe we went to the same one?” (TL Note: The top three universities are called by the SKY acronym, taken from their first letters: Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University)
“......Jinseon University.”
“Jinseon?”
Lee Hye-rin blinked, momentarily frozen.
First came the question, where even is that?
“It is in Seoul.”
“Ahh. I-I see.”
How did someone who graduated from such a university get in here?
Did that university have any connection with this company?
“The meeting’s starting, so let’s head in.”
“Ah, yes.”
***
“This time the U.S. NFP figures came out much higher than expected, right? Plus, with the CPI announcement, the volatility’s grown even more. What’s the situation in FX?”
“The dollar index is holding strong above the 105 mark. Since the Fed hinted at a rate hike, it’ll likely go even higher. In contrast, the yen is sticking to its dovish policies, so the yen is expected to weaken.”
“And foreign investors?”
“This round of foreign buying is concentrated in electronics. It’s starting to look overbought. For Kangseong Electronics, for example, the PER has exceeded 12x, so there might be short-term valuation pressure.”
“If foreign buying continues, it’ll cause losses on the opposing positions. We’ll need to do some risk management. Let’s take a short position and prepare a hedge. Consider ways to cover using ETFs or futures.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
They were clearly speaking Korean.
But I didn’t understand a single thing they were talking about.
Even so, I pretended to listen intently and jotted down all the unfamiliar terms in my notebook.
In the conference room, the team members were actively briefing and reporting, and the Team Leader gave instructions on how to time buys and sells based on those reports.
How should I put it?
It felt like watching a game.
Like a raid leader giving detailed instructions to each raid member before a raid begins.
It was oddly familiar.
"Good. Then let's survive today too."
With that, everyone quickly scattered.
I tried to follow Senior Staff Lee Hye-rin quietly, but the Team Leader called us both over.
“Senior Staff Lee. Teach Employee Jung the basics of mock trading today.”
“Yes, understood.”
Senior Staff Lee came over to the desk assigned to me and opened the program together with me.
“You’ve done a lot of mock trading before, right? I actually won a mock trading competition held by this company when I was in college. It helped build a strong resume. Have you done it too, Jin-ho ssi?”
“......No.”
“Aha~. Then you must be a real hands-on type. Someone who skips mock trading entirely.”
“.......”
I couldn’t bring myself to say I had never invested at all.
If I did, she might get another shock after already being stunned by my university background, two strikes in a row.
“Why do we do mock trading? Great question. We can’t just hand company money to a junior trader and have them invest right away, right? So we give them different tasks to build experience until they become seniors. And mock trading serves as an evaluation tool.”
I hadn’t even asked, but she was already answering on her own.
Still, thanks to her, I now understood why they made us do mock trading.
“If you do well in mock trading, do you get promoted to senior?”
“Yes. At the end of the day, nothing else matters in a securities firm. Performance is everything. It doesn’t matter how well someone analyzes data, speaks, or handles social life, whoever makes the most money is the best.”
That was both the strength and the flaw of performance-based systems.
Trrrr~!
At that moment, a loud signal rang through the office.
It was the announcement that the market had opened.
“Whoa......”
Just moments ago, the office had been calm, but now it was in chaos as everyone rushed to move.
Phones were ringing from every direction, the sounds of clicking and keyboards clattering filled the room, and the monitors all around looked like an artistic display of concentrated human madness.
“This is the most awkward time for people like us at the bottom. Until a senior calls you to fetch materials, there’s nothing to do. So we use this time to practice through mock trading. Let me walk you through it step by step.”
In the midst of that frenzied scene, Lee Hye-rin began teaching me how to use the program from the very beginning.
But at some point, her voice stopped registering in my ears.
‘Uh, wh-what’s this?’
Charts I didn’t understand.
A stock list I’d never seen before.
Red and blue indicators flashing endlessly.
And then, a tingling sensation at my fingertips that sent chills through my whole body.
‘Why is this happening all of a sudden?’
The "feeling" was clouding my head and creating a strong impulse.
Toward a particular stock that Lee Hye-rin was showing as an example, currently glowing blue.
If this were a box for drawing items, it felt like I would absolutely pull a good item.
If it were item enhancement, I was sure it would succeed.
That powerful intuition had taken hold of me.
‘W-wait a second.’
In the end, as if in a trance, my hand reached for the mouse.
Click.
The buy button was pressed.