Translator: Dreamscribe
“Deputy Manager Lee. Do you know what the total return rate was yesterday?”
Han Saet-byul, the newly assigned deputy manager to the Pri Departnt, spoke in an excited voice.
“How much was it?”
“A whopping 5%! Isn’t that seriously crazy? I an, how do you earn 5% on 500 billion won in just one day? I haven’t been with the company for long, but I’ve never seen a 5% return in a single day before!”
5%.......
Yeah. That’s a perfectly normal reaction.
Usually, the average daily return for the Prop Trade Departnt is about 0.1%.
But suddenly 5%.
And not just that, earning 5% on 500 billion won is enough to make anyone lose their mind.
“The Departnt Head must’ve been a bit disappointed.”
"Huh? Uh, about what?"
“Oh. It’s nothing.”
She had blurted out nonsense without even realizing it.
‘But maybe I’ve gone crazy too.’
Now 5% didn’t even seem that high anymore.
If soone in the Prop Trade Departnt earned 5% in a day, they’d be called an ace, but in the Pri Departnt where Jung Jin-ho worked, 5% was just an ordinary figure.
‘Maybe I got infected by the Departnt Head too.’
This isn’t good.
5% is actually an incredible achievent.
What’s going to happen later!
“Oh, Departnt Head. You’re here?”
“Good morning, Departnt Head!”
At last, Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho arrived at the office.
“Ah, yes. Hello, everyone.”
He lightly acknowledged the greetings from the team mbers and entered the departnt head’s office.
“But the Departnt Head… did sothing happen? His expression didn’t seem so good.”
“I know, right? With a 5% return rate, if it were , I’d be grinning from ear to ear.”
Manager Seo shook his head as he watched the newbies.
“You still don’t really know our Departnt Head.”
"Huh?"
“Didn’t you hear before you ca? He got promoted to Departnt Head in no ti after joining as a regular employee.”
“Oh. I heard about that too. They said he achieved a legendary return rate that will go down in history.”
“Exactly. But you only heard the rumors, not the actual figures, right? In that short ti, his return rate exceeded several hundred percent.”
“!?”
Even before joining the Pri Departnt, they had heard various things.
So said he was a parachute hire.
Others said his performance was phenonal.
One thing was certain: no matter how well-connected or competent a parachute hire might be, no company would entrust 500 billion won to them.
Moreover, 500 billion won amounts to nearly half of the assets currently managed by Kwangwoon Securities.
If that 500 billion won were to incur losses, it would affect the entire company.
It was essentially the sa as entrusting the fate of the company to a single person.
In other words, that’s how valuable Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho was to the company.
“Se-several hundred percent?!”
“Just how much did he make!”
“Huhu. That’s why soone like him can’t be satisfied with just 5%. And that’s not all. Do you know what kind of feats our Departnt Head has accomplished…?”
Manager Seo proudly recounted the heroic tales of Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho.
So of them were stories he had seen and experienced himself, and the rest were things he had heard from Deputy Manager Lee Hye-rin.
But this man.
Was he perhaps a storyteller who dominated the capital in a past life? His storytelling ability was downright vivid and captivating.
Thanks to that, the respect of the already-loyal team mbers toward Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho only grew deeper.
‘He was just like that when the team was first created.’
Those mories and Manager Seo’s current self overlapped in Deputy Manager Lee Hye-rin's mind, and she let out a quiet laugh.
‘But I heard he was investing until almost 4 a.m. yesterday.’
Isn’t he pushing himself too hard?
***
“Ugh. My stomach hurts.”
Guess eating late-night snacks yesterday was a bad idea after all.
Anyone who’s played a ga, especially an RPG, would relate to this:
After a hard raid and defeating a boss, you get really hungry.
So after everything was done, he ordered delivery from a 24-hour restaurant.
But he made the mistake of eating sothing spicy and ended up with a stomachache all day.
It feels like flas are shooting out from the back.
"Yesterday's return rate was 5%......."
It was a return rate achieved by grinding from the morning until the next day’s dawn.
Until now, the funds had been on hold, so there was no opportunity to put the money to work, but since the FX account opened yesterday, he had been running wild like an unbridled colt.
“It was fun, though.”
Indeed, it was a bit disappointing that the market was frozen and remained stuck in a box range.
Even the FX market, which boasts a daily trading volu of several hundred trillion won, had been quiet, showing just how stiff the current economic market was.
If the volatility had been greater, he probably could’ve earned more than 5%.
“It’s a bit of a letdown, but for a first start, this is fine.”
Let's not be impatient.
One thing he had realized while studying investnt was that the market doesn’t stay frozen as long as people think.
Sowhere in the world, an incident always breaks out, causing the global market to shake. Of course, the Korean stock market is often an exception.
But right now, he wasn’t only dealing with the dostic stock market, so he just needed to keep an eye on the global situation.
Then inevitably, an event would occur sowhere.
That would be the beginning of a highly volatile market.
“Departnt Head. The eting preparations are all done.”
“Ah, yes. I’ll be there shortly.”
In the past, we used to hold cramped etings in the Team Leader’s Office.
Now that the departnt had been ford, we had a dedicated eting room.
“Anything is fine. If there’s sothing noteworthy, feel free to ntion it.”
Honestly, it might be better to jump into the FX market imdiately rather than hold a eting, but sothing he had learned from using this ability frequently was that his intuition was triggered by the information that ca to him.
So skipping even a single day of etings was not an option.
Through the information compiled by the departnt staff in these etings, he could enhance his intuition significantly.
“The Chinese governnt is enforcing sell-side restrictions and aggressively trying to stabilize the market, but that’s actually having the opposite effect and making the Shanghai Index even more unstable, Departnt Head.”
“Above all, the issue is the ice age of the global stock market. Everyone is too scared to buy or sell anything.”
“That’s probably why money is flowing into safe assets. Gold prices are gradually rising, and so is the dollar. The problem is that even safe assets aren’t withstanding this freeze in trading volu.”
“Already, not just in the dostic market but in overseas stock markets too, trading volus are so low that delisting discussions are happening for quite a few stocks.”
When the market freezes, stocks that already have low trading volus get delisted.
One of the rules of KOSPI and other overseas stock exchanges is to delist stocks with no trading volu, and people were taking hits because of it.
“So right now, everyone is just looking for safe assets?”
He had a habit during etings, writing down only the key words from the discussion in a notebook.
“Yes. Gold, dollar, yen, U.S. treasury bonds, German treasury bonds, and also the franc. All the money is flowing into safe assets. I expect even more funds to move in that direction.”
As I was jotting down what Deputy Manager Lee Hye-rin was reporting in my notebook,
I suddenly flinched at a certain part, and my handwriting twisted.
‘What was that just now?’
I looked up at Deputy Manager Lee Hye-rin.
“Deputy Manager. Could you repeat what you just said?”
“Huh? Oh. Money is flowing into safe assets like gold, dollar, yen, U.S. treasury bonds, German treasury bonds, and the franc…”
That was it.
Franc.
The mont that word ca up, my hand trembled so much I couldn’t even write the letters properly.
“If it’s the franc... isn’t that the most trusted safe asset in finance?”
“Yes. Since Switzerland remained safe even during the world wars. And during the global financial crisis, the franc consistently held strong. Most of all, there’s no political risk.”
“Also, the main reason the franc is evaluated as the top safe asset is because of the ceiling limit.”
Swiss currency, franc.
It’s the currency people consider the top safe asset during financial crises or economic freezes like now.
Isn’t it the global neutral country that always cos up when people talk about Swiss banks online? On top of that, it’s a place with very low political corruption, so the risk was minimal.
And the biggest reason of all was the ceiling limit.
There’s a system that mandates a ceiling where no matter how high the euro rises, 1 euro must not exceed 1.20 francs. In other words, if it tries to fall below that price, the Swiss governnt will inject money to prevent it.
It was essentially an artificial suppression of the franc’s strength, eliminating volatility itself.
Thanks to this ceiling system, the Swiss franc beca the world’s most secure safe asset.
“.......”
But why?
Why am I getting a signal here?
Is it telling to buy a safe asset now and just hold it long-term?
Or is there sothing else?
Why do we even call it a safe asset?
Because its volatility is low, it’s categorized as a safe asset.
Which ans, to a dopamine-driven investor like , the franc was not an attractive asset.
However, the fact that I’m getting such a strong signal now.......
"Everyone go back right now and dump all the volu you're holding."
“Yes, sir!!”
The mont I finished speaking, the staff mbers jumped up and ran toward their computers, and I barely managed to stop them.
“Wait a mont!”
“Yes?”
I honestly thought at least one person would question .
I was about to explain what to buy next, but none of them ever asks why I issue a certain order or what the intention behind it is.
They just move the mont a directive is given.
“After dumping your current positions, buy Swiss francs.”
“Ah, yes!”
Once again, not a single question.
Like robots following programd commands, they sprinted toward their computers.
***
“He apparently made a 5% profit. On the very first day, at that. I heard he was stirring up the exchange until 4 in the morning.”
“What? 4 a.m.?!”
The 5% return didn’t even register.
What struck CEO Hwang Dae-woon was the fact that it went on until 4 a.m.
“Isn’t that incredible? Especially considering the FX market has been dead lately due to low trading volu. And he still managed to make a 5% profit there.”
“Wait. You’re saying he worked straight through from the morning to 4 a.m. without rest?”
“Yes. Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho stayed until 4 a.m. working, while the team mbers rotated in shifts.”
Tsk. This guy.
That gaming habit of his is showing again.
During large-scale raids, the raid leader manages nearly 100 players and rotates them in and out.
It’s fine to apply that experience here, but...
What if the raid leader collapses from accumulated fatigue?
All 100 players would go down with him.
“I’ll need to call him in for a talk before I leave on my business trip. So what about now? What’s he doing? Still grinding away at it?”
“No. It seems Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho determined that the current market is hopeless, so he suddenly dumped all his funds into the franc.”
“Franc?”
“Yes. He put everything into the world’s safest asset.”
That was sowhat unexpected.
Judging by Jin-ho’s investnt style so far, this was beyond wild, it was almost feral.
Anyone else watching would have said he was no different from a beast.
But what’s truly astonishing is that he’s never lost. Not once. Every move has been a win.
Which is probably how he grew that tiny seed fund into 500 billion won.
In short, Jin-ho always enjoyed risky investnts.
He’s got the heart of a beast who earns money by taking roads others don’t dare to tread.
And now he bought francs?
That supposedly safest of all assets?
“That’s odd.”
“I agree. It’s definitely strange.”
“Any major developnts out of Switzerland?”
“I looked into it out of curiosity, but nothing in particular. The Swiss governnt did recently intervene with monetary easing due to euro volatility to stabilize things.”
So basically, the franc is behaving as it always has.
But now Jin-ho suddenly went all-in on it?
“You said you’re calling him in later. Maybe try to casually ask him about it...”
“No need. What kind of authority did we give Jin-ho? The whole point was that upper managent wouldn’t intervene. Even if that guy invests in the mountain behind the building, we don’t interfere.”
That was the rule CEO Hwang had set.
Not questioning or interfering with Jung Jin-ho’s investnts.
“Oh. But CEO-nim, you’re flying out tomorrow, right? Are you all packed and ready?”
“I’ve got it all done. I have to leave on an early morning flight tomorrow, so I’ll be heading out of the office early today.”
“I should be going with you to assist.”
“Hey. If the CEO is away, the Vice President needs to hold down the fort. What if sothing happens? Don’t you know CEOs and Vice Presidents aren’t even supposed to be on the sa flight?”
***
The Guild Master hardly ever calls to the CEO’s office.
If he wants to talk, he usually just ets over so grilled pork belly, or we et up in the ga.
But today, he summoned directly to the CEO’s office.
“You punk. Didn’t I tell you last ti during the ga? Don’t stay up all night gaming just because you’re young. And now you’ve done it again. Your team rotates shifts, but you keep working nonstop, what the hell are you doing?”
“But I earned a 5% return...”
“Is profit the issue here!? If you collapse, your whole departnt goes down with you. Don’t you ever run yourself into the ground like that again. You’re making billions, what’s the point if you end up sick?”
My hyung.
He’s never going to be an evil CEO.
If it were soone else, they’d ignore how much I was grinding my body as long as the returns were good.
I was honestly touched.
“Do that one more ti, and I’ll shut down the FX account on the spot.”
“Understood, CEO-nim.”
“When it’s just the two of us, just call hyung.”
“Co on. We’re at work. How could I? I’ll stick to CEO-nim here.”
“You little... Ah, and take the rest of the day off. Go get so sleep. I heard you’ve been trading without rest. Since I’m leaving early today too, why don’t we head out together? I’ll give you a ride ho.”
I waved him off.
“No need. I still have a lot to do. By the way, are you all set for the business trip?”
“Yeah. Just about done.”
“You said last ti you had a rough ti with water when you were overseas.”
I rembered him complaining during a raid once.
“You still rember that?”
“Of course. You described it so vividly that I still haven’t forgotten. But why are you going to Saudi Arabia this ti?”
“Isn’t Saudi the land of oil? Lots of money there. And this ti, Saudi Arabia is opening its stock market for the first ti. It reeks of money, so I need to check it out myself.”
Saudi Arabia is the second-largest oil-producing country in the world.
Thanks to its insanely advantageous geography, it's swimming in massive amounts of cash.
But like many countries in the Middle East, it tends to be closed off.
However, the Saudi governnt was making efforts to break away from its closed nature in order to further develop the country, and one such move was opening its stock market.
“Still, don’t worry. I packed plenty of dicine this ti. I’ve located nearby hospitals in case of ergency. Plus, I’ve got aides coming with ...”
CEO-nim was reassuring , explaining how thoroughly he had prepared.
“......?”
And then it happened.
‘Huh?’
Right as he was talking, sothing so intense hit that my vision blurred and my entire body shook.
Drawn by that feeling, I instinctively grabbed the CEO’s arm.
“Huh? W-What’s wrong all of a sudden?”
“CEO-nim. No... hyung.”
Flustered, hyung flinched.
“The Middle East... Can you not go?”
*****
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