Chapter 7
Translator: Dreamscribe
‘Should I seriously consider buying a car?’
Some might ask, what kind of car is a guy who hasn’t even received his first paycheck thinking of buying?
But now I understand why securities company employees prefer to drive.
Since work starts so early, if you miss the first train, you’re late, and even if you catch the first train, the timing is extremely tight.
The only saving grace is that the seniors don’t come in that early, so at least I don’t have to worry too much about appearances.
‘Huh?’
But for some reason today, from juniors to seniors to even Team Leaders, everyone was gathered in the office.
‘Did the market open early today or something?’
Everyone was rushing around like crazy, which felt unusual.
“Jin-ho ssi. You’re here?”
“Ah. I’m sorry. I’m a bit late, right? I didn’t know everyone would be in this early.”
“It’s okay. We all came in earlier than usual. And it’s because a major issue broke out yesterday.”
“A major issue?”
“Yes. The Indonesian government suddenly made a bombshell announcement that they’re cutting nickel production by 30%.”
“Ah.......”
I didn’t quite understand why the Indonesian government reducing nickel production was such a big issue, but I nodded for now.
The great blessing here is that angelic Lee Hye-rin sunbae always gives additional explanation generously.
“Just yesterday, the battery sector was in a slump, so we expected stock prices to drop for a while, right? But with this, the situation changes. Companies holding a lot of nickel will benefit and their stock prices are bound to get pumped. There were quite a few teams that went short yesterday, you know? If you get a short position wrong, the losses can be massive.”
Lately, I’ve been studying stocks pretty diligently.
So I started to understand some of the terms.
When an institution takes a short position, it usually means they’ve done short selling.
It’s a strategy to profit by predicting the decline of a particular stock’s price, and many institutions use it for risk management.
The problem is, if you bet on a stock to fall but it unexpectedly rises, the losses can be enormous.
That’s why everyone was rushing to the office at dawn and starting emergency operations.
They had expected battery stocks to fall and went short, but with this incident, they were all busy checking which stocks others were buying.
“The scariest part is, no one can predict which stock will rise and by how much, or which stock will fall and by how much.”
They say no matter how hard humans struggle, they can’t beat nature.
The same goes for the stock market.
No matter how thoroughly you analyze and prepare, you can’t overcome the volatility that hits like a natural disaster.
“Didn’t our team also deal a lot with battery stocks yesterday?”
“Luckily, our Team Leader told us to go moderate, so I don’t think the damage will be big. The other teams are in chaos.”
Thank goodness for our Team Leader’s good instincts.
But wait.
'Wasn't the stock I bought yesterday also battery-related?'
So what happens to that?
“Senior Staff Lee, Staff Jung. This is no time to be standing around! Get those reports out now! Quickly!”
“Ah, yes! Jin-ho ssi. Let’s go quickly!”
Yeah. It was just mock trading anyway.
Let’s not worry about it.
I just need to do my job faithfully here.
***
“.......”
Team Leader Park and his team members were watching the stock market with especially grave expressions today.
The stock market bombarded by Indonesia's sudden bombshell announcement.
You might ask, why make such a fuss over something like that?
But it is scary.
Because this is the K-stock market.
The Korean market is unique.
When a Noru Typhoon hits, Noru Paint stocks rise, and if there’s a surge in avian influenza (AI), unrelated artificial intelligence (AI) stocks go up.
This is what’s called ‘keyword investing’, and while it’s hard to find examples like this in other countries, it happens all the time in Korea’s stock market.
The reason this is possible is because individual investor participation in the Korean market is high, and the theme stock culture is firmly rooted.
In Korea, crowd psychology plays a very strong role, so when others buy, you feel like you have to buy too, and that’s what causes stock prices to surge.
This is why they say that if you just read the market trends well, you're already halfway to success.
And that was exactly the problem.
How would this crowd psychology interpret the Indonesian announcement?
“Ahh. It’s going up.”
“This is driving me crazy.”
As the stock market opened, groans could be heard from all around.
"Please buy! Please!"
“How high is this price going to go?!”
Senior members from other teams were getting furious.
In times like this, even team leaders don't interfere.
When money is flying away before your eyes, how can you hold onto the thread of reason?
Even if it’s company money, all of it ends up reflecting in your personal performance, and for traders, whose incentives are basically their salary, it was enough to drive them mad.
“Team Leader. All the battery-related stocks are going up right now.”
“That’s just for now. But they’ll gradually drop. Soon the word will spread that only companies with the most nickel reserves will benefit in the long term. What’s our loss looking like?”
“Luckily, the places on our side that took short positions cut their losses quickly. The problem is the stocks other teams are holding... it looks like a short squeeze has really hit.”
Short squeeze.
It’s the term securities traders fear the most.
To the point that even mentioning it casually is avoided.
“It’s not just us. Other securities firms also went short heavily, so the Korea Exchange is going crazy with margin calls.”
A short squeeze is when investors who shorted the market are forced to buy due to a sharp rise in stock prices, which pushes the price even higher.
In other words, securities companies like Kwangwoon Securities that had taken short positions expecting battery stocks to fall suddenly see stock prices rising and try to cut losses quickly, but because there are no selling orders, prices naturally rise and the losses from short positions grow even larger in a vicious cycle.
The only small relief is that Korea has a daily price fluctuation limit.
Upper limit maximum 15%
Lower limit maximum 15%
But that doesn’t mean you can relax.
When transactions pour in like crazy, there can be no supply for several days, and in that case, those holding short positions just keep taking losses.
And there was one stock in that exact situation right now.
[Daehan Solution +15%]
Daehan Solution, which hit the 15% upper limit in a short time.
Although trading isn’t halted, the price cannot go up any further today, so buy orders just kept piling up endlessly.
“.......”
Team Leader Park Hong-seo, who always poured all his focus into the stock market when it opened.
But today, he couldn’t concentrate at all.
Eventually, he closed all trading early.
At this point, money was concentrated in a single sector and no sell volume was coming out, so all he could do was sit there doing nothing.
“But how did he know about this?”
Do he have connections in the Indonesian government or something?
Otherwise, how could he go all-in on a stock that other institutions weren’t even paying attention to?
“.......”
Team Leader Park stared intently at Jung Jin-ho, who was running around busily doing errands outside. Maybe he felt the sharp gaze, as Jung Jin-ho glanced briefly in this direction and then quickly turned his head away.
‘Should I ask? No. He probably wouldn’t answer anyway.’
He hadn’t said what his relationship with the CEO was either, and just like with the JoongAng Insurance incident, he’d probably brush it off as being lucky again.
In other words, he wasn’t willing to share his investment methods...
'But he's diligent about menial tasks.'
Jung Jin-ho.
What exactly is his identity?
Could he be some kind of ultra-elite talent the CEO brought in from somewhere?
But his qualifications don't seem to support that.......
‘No, this won’t do.’
If the other party has no intention of answering, he won’t force it.
Also, Team Leader Park doesn’t want someone with no skills on his team.
On the other hand, he doesn’t want to waste someone with great ability either.
‘I’ll just have to drag him out myself, even if I have to force it.’
The market hadn’t closed yet, but Team Leader Park, having made up his mind, stood up from his seat and headed somewhere.
***
Bang-!
Team Leader Park Hong-seo slammed the desk hard as he stormed out.
I was worried that the desk might have broken from those muscles.
“Team Leader must be really angry.”
“Who wouldn’t be? On a day like this, you know what to do, right, Jin-ho ssi?”
“Yes. Don’t smile. Keep shoulders down. Head down. Right?”
“Good. You remember very well.”
"After getting a special lecture while eating a bowl of udon yesterday. Haha."
“Shh. Don’t laugh!”
Everyone at the securities firm today was on edge.
It really felt like even a slight nudge could trigger a bloodbath.
On top of that, curse words were flying from all directions, and the atmosphere was downright dangerous.
“Before Team Leader went out, he glared at me like crazy. Did I do something wrong?”
“Maybe it’s because you have a face that looks like you’re smiling.”
“Ugh. I’ll be careful.”
We powerless juniors, always the punching bags, could only hope this storm would pass quickly.
“I want to be a senior soon too. Oh right! My stocks!”
“You had something invested? I thought our company banned personal investments.”
“It’s not a total ban. It’s just that the pre-approval process is so complicated, nobody really bothers. Anyway, I meant the mock trading stocks.”
“Oh!”
Senior Staff Lee Hye-rin hurriedly checked the mock trading stocks she had placed.
Her face quickly crumpled.
“No way. I’ve been so busy I couldn’t check... everything went into battery stocks, so the little profit I made yesterday is all gone.”
I checked the stocks I’d bought in mock trading too.
“Gasp...!”
I covered my mouth in shock at the chart that looked like it was about to pierce the sky.
“Jin-ho ssi, you’re shocked by the drop too, huh? Don’t be too discouraged. It’s just mock trading anyway, right? Let me see.”
“Ah, you probably shouldn’t look...”
“It’s fine. I won’t tease you, I promise... wha-?!”
Even Lee Hye-rin, who came over to console me, freaked out when she saw the graph.
“W-wait a second. 15%? Jin-ho ssi, you were holding today’s hottest stock? No way. H-how?!”
“I told you not to look.”
“Jin-ho ssi. Are you a genius investor or something?”
“No.......”
Then, sunbae covered her face with both hands.
“Ahh, this is so embarrassing. Yesterday I gave a dumb little stock lecture to a prodigy over a bowl of udon.”
“No, not at all. The tips you gave yesterday were truly valuable. And you even treated me to shrimp tempura along with the udon...”
“Ughhh. I bet you were secretly laughing at me inside.”
“No, seriously, I wasn’t.”
“From now on, I’ll serve you as my mentor. Mentor Jung Jin-ho nim.”
“Oh come on!”
She really was an unstoppable mentor.
***
“Department Head. Do you have a minute?”
“What. Market’s not even closed yet, what’s going on?”
“You know how it is. Everyone’s just sitting idle anyway. I’ve taken care of the urgent stuff already.”
“Jeez. Fine. Sit down.”
As soon as he sat down, Team Leader Park brought up the point.
“I’d like to promote a junior to senior.”
“I was going to offer you something to drink, but you’re in a hurry? And suddenly a senior promotion? I thought you came because of the nickel situation.”
“Fortunately, our team didn’t take a big hit.”
“Yeah. It’s the other guys that are in trouble. Who knows how much they’re gonna lose this time. Ugh, it’s driving me crazy. I told those bastards to play it safe, but they went nuts trying to scrape up small profits.”
“They say many drops make a mighty ocean.”
“Yeah, like it's our fault. It’s all because of those Indonesian bastards pulling this bullshit.”
Department Head Lee Tae-ho chugged down a glass of water, clearly burning up inside.
Who knows how many glasses of cold water he’s had today alone.
“So, who do you want to promote? Do we even have a junior with that much experience?”
“He’s a new hire. Hasn’t been here long.”
“Wait. You’re not talking about that parachute hire, are you?”
“Yes.”
At those words, Department Head Lee’s expression changed strangely.
“Park Hong-seo, you bastard. I didn’t think you were like this. Are you playing the political game now too?”
It was understandable that he’d misunderstand.
Promoting a junior who hasn’t even been here a week to senior?
That would be unprecedented in the history of Kwangwoon Securities.
“I understand the misunderstanding. But that’s not the reason.”
“Then what? You’re saying that parachute hire is some kind of investment genius, so you want to promote him to senior?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“He’s someone with talent in investing.”
Department Head Lee Tae-ho stared blankly at Team Leader Park.
Team Leader Park has absolutely zero sense of humor.
He’s always serious about everything.
“What exactly did you see?”
“He’s done mock trading only twice since joining. This is the report of the results.”
"What? JoongAng Insurance and Daehan Solution? He picked both of these himself?”
“Yes. He says it was just luck, but you used to tell us back when we were juniors, didn’t you? That if luck strikes more than once, it’s no longer just luck.”
This bastard has a way of bringing back old memories with a few words.
“Can you take responsibility for this? What if he ends up losing the company’s money?”
“He’s a parachute hire sent by the CEO. Wouldn’t the CEO cover for him himself?”
“What?”
“Just as you taught us back then, I’ve only invested in safe assets.”
“You crazy bastard.”
Saying that kind of thing with such a straight face, Department Head Lee couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh from disbelief.
Park Hong-seo.
Just as always, he was a man serious about everything.
*****
For 30 or more extra chapters, you can check out my Patreon here --> patreon.com/dreamscribe
If you enjoy this novel, please review and rate it at Novelupdates. Thanks! 😊
To receive the latest update notifications or report mistakes, join our Discord server linked below.