When the Middle Eastern powder keg blew, the shrapnel flew straight into the Red Sea.
The news poured out inflammatory headlines day after day.
[Global shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd fully suspend Red Sea operations.]
[Suez Canal traffic plunges...... global logistics chaos on the countdown.]
The sea was turning red.
A red sea stained with blood.
But in the Yeouido financial district, that ‘red’ meant money.
The screens on Taeseong’s monitors were papered over with red candles.
“Limit up! Noah Shipping is limit-up again!”
Gasps mixed with shrieks broke out around the trading room.
[Featured stock: Noah Shipping goes limit-up for a second straight session on fears of prolonged Red Sea risk]
[Featured stock: HMM hits a 52-week high on expectations of a spike in the SCFI (Shanghai Containerized Freight Index)]
Taeseong checked the swollen balance of his managed funds without expression.
[Total valuation: 1,920,000,000 won]
1.92 billion won.
Starting from 1 billion won of principal, he had made close to double in less than a month.
The thrill of passing 1.6 billion only days earlier had not yet faded, and his assets had snowballed to put the 2-billion mark within sight.
This was the payoff for quietly staking out the logistics route while everyone else trembled at the fear of war and dumped.
By now the office staff were openly busy stealing glances at Taeseong’s monitor.
The gazes that had once dismissed him had turned to awe, and then to naked envy.
“Ahem. Assistant Manager Kim.”
A cough came from behind him.
Department Head Park Geonil.
The man who would ordinarily have bellowed loud enough to shake the room approached today in a careful voice, like a new bride fresh from the wedding.
In his hand was not instant coffee but an iced americano from the café on the first floor.
“Ah, yes, sir.”
“Drink this while you work. You’re a freeze-to-death-but-still-iced man, aren’t you? Our Assistant Manager Kim really does work hard.”
Department Head Park quietly set the coffee on Taeseong’s desk.
Taeseong’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
It might only be a 1,000-won cheap coffee, but Department Head Park buying coffee with his own money was the sun rising in the west.
“Thank you.”
“So...... Assistant Manager Kim. About the shipping names. The momentum is frightening, isn’t it? How much further do you think they go?”
Department Head Park asked it casually, eyeing Taeseong’s monitor from the side.
You could see the greedy calculator spinning behind his pupils.
Woojin Securities pays a special performance bonus to every member of a department that exceeds its target return.
Clear the department’s target revenue by 10% and the bonus was quite substantial.
Investment Team 3 was in the red thanks to the other employees’ blundering, but Taeseong alone was producing more than enough profit to fill that hole and then some.
At this rate, with Team 3 pulling the numbers, the year-end departmental bonus was in the bag.
And naturally the one who would benefit most was the department head, Park Geonil.
‘So you want to pocket the bonus?’
Taeseong saw through Department Head Park’s calculation at a glance.
Hold longer and maximize the return, so that my bonus grows.
That was what he was saying in a roundabout way.
Taeseong deliberately took his eyes off the chart and looked at Department Head Park.
And answered with the most indifferent expression in the world.
“Who knows. I’m getting ready to get off, myself.”
“What? Get off?”
Department Head Park’s eyes went round.
“Hold on, look at the chart! The momentum is going through the roof and you’re getting off here? Assistant Manager Kim, this isn’t like you. Sell at the shoulder, you said? This doesn’t even look like the waist yet.”
Department Head Park grabbed Taeseong’s chair urgently and hung on.
If Taeseong sold here and locked in his profit, the cushion for absorbing whatever losses the other team members racked up over the rest of the period would shrink.
He had to drag it out as long as possible and hold this return until the year-end settlement.
“Sir.”
Taeseong cut him off coldly.
“Do you remember the report I gave you? ‘Sell the news.’ This is exactly that moment. Right now, while the crowd cheers and even you are certain it goes higher.”
“No, but still......”
“Getting greedy and grabbing the top is a mistake for amateurs — you taught us that yourself, sir. I’ll do it by the book.”
At Taeseong’s firm attitude, Department Head Park’s lips moved without sound.
Having his own words handed back to him left him no grounds to argue.
Besides, Taeseong was a trader who had already proved his profits with skill.
“Hmm. Right, you do it your way for now, Assistant Manager Kim. I’ll think it over on my end.”
Department Head Park made a pained noise, took one more reluctant look at Taeseong’s monitor, and went back to his office.
***
Thirty minutes before the morning session opened.
Taeseong went up to the roof alone to clear his head.
The autumn wind was fairly cold.
Leaning on the railing, he looked down at Yeouido Park.
Just as Yeouido’s street trees were shedding their red garments entirely and beginning to bare their stripped branches.
Taeseong’s body was following that season, growing lighter little by little — very little.
[Current loss: -6.5kg]
[Current weight: 137.5 kg]
Whether the hellish high-intensity interval training (HIIT) had begun to pay off, or the plateau had simply broken.
The number on the scale had settled steadily into the 137kg range.
There was still a long way to go, but the fact that he was at least no longer stalled was a great comfort to Taeseong.
And at the very point his weight broke through the plateau and started falling.
The stock market’s enormous wave was likewise preparing to crest and come down.
9:30 a.m.
Taeseong stared hard at the reports on the shipping freight index (SCFI) on his monitor.
‘The climb is slowing.’
The timeline Wopora had shown him, and the flow of the market.
Every signal pointed to one place.
‘The party is over.’
The music had stopped, and the lights would go out.
Now it was time to leave the drunks behind, quietly open the door, and walk out.
Taeseong took the mouse without hesitation.
The fate of 2.5 billion won hung on his fingertips.
Tap.
[Sell order filled.]
He threw out the entire HMM position at market first.
Return: +55%.
A miraculous performance from a large cap that normally moved like a heavy backside.
Tap.
[Sell order filled.]
Then he shook off Noah Shipping without a trace of regret.
True to a lighter name, its volatility was greater and the return higher.
Return: +72%.
Taeseong sank deep into the back of his chair.
The tension drained out of him and a languid sigh escaped.
His eyes were fixed on the total valuation of his account.
[Cash balance: 2,534,000,000 won]
“Two and a half billion......”
Saying it aloud made it feel even more unreal.
Barely a month ago, this had been a fund of 1 billion won.
Three consecutive home runs: defense, oil, and then shipping.
2.5 times his principal. Net profit alone was past 1.5 billion won.
Taeseong quickly ran the calculator in his head.
Seven percent of 1,530,000,000 won in profit.
Rounding down, somewhere around 160,000,000 won.
The incentive alone would put more than a year’s salary into this month’s pay account.
‘It would have been even better if he’d renegotiated the rate.’
Regrettable as that was, the corners of his mouth were on the verge of climbing beyond his control when.
“Hey, Assistant Manager Kim!”
Department Head Park Geonil came running to Taeseong’s desk with an urgent shout.
His eyes were bloodshot and his tie was crooked.
The very picture of an ant blinded by the urge to chase a rally.
“What did you just do? You’ve already sold HMM? There was a big block on the order book — was that you?”
Department Head Park demanded, jabbing a finger at Taeseong’s monitor.
Taeseong nodded calmly.
“Yes. Took profit on the whole position. I told you, sir. That I was getting ready to get off.”
“Didn’t you just see the news? They’re saying the freight index keeps climbing! The analysts are all putting out target-price upgrades, it’s a madhouse out there!”
Department Head Park pounded his chest and shouted as if he were about to lose his mind.
Certainly the market mood at this moment was at its peak.
‘Isn’t the Department Head’s pattern getting tired by now? The man really is consistent.’
Brokerage reports were racing one another to proclaim ‘the arrival of the supercycle’ and raise their targets, and the news was pouring out analysis that the shipping crisis would drag on.
But Taeseong knew.
That the moment everyone shouts ‘YES’ is the most dangerous moment of all.
And Wopora’s information had already told him the peak was past and the line would start bending down.
“Sir.”
Taeseong put on a deliberately concerned expression and looked at Department Head Park.
“This is the top. There may well be a technical rebound, but the good news is entirely priced in already. The risk is too great.”
“Ah, I don’t care! What do you know? Why on earth would you sell that! The way I see it, this is the shoulder. Now we eat all the way to the top of the head!”
Department Head Park did not hear a word Taeseong said.
He was convinced Taeseong had sold far too early, that he was a coward who could not stomach a big gain.
He seemed to have completely forgotten the 1.5 billion won in profit Taeseong had produced so far.
“Hey, everyone listen up! Buy HMM and Noah Shipping right now! We’re taking every share Assistant Manager Kim sold! Got it?”
Department Head Park bellowed it across the whole trading room.
The order sounded like an officer commanding a suicide squad to charge.
“Yes, sir! Understood!”
Manager Jeong answered first and started hammering his keyboard.
Assistant Manager Seong sneered along too: “That’s our Department Head! Decisive. Assistant Manager Kim’s problem is that he’s too timid. There’s further to go and he’s already off.”
Like moths, they hurled themselves at a chart that had reached its absolute peak.
‘Haa...... in the end they don’t listen to me again.’
Taeseong watched and swallowed a short sigh.
This was the chronic problem of Woojin Securities’ trading department — no, of failing traders everywhere.
Greed.
And pressure over results.
Department Head Park in particular was forever anxious about his numbers being poor compared to other departments.
The closer the year-end came, the further that pressure pushed him from rational judgment, and it always ended in reckless chasing of theme stocks.
This time was no different.
If he had been satisfied with the profit Taeseong had brought in and wrapped it up, they might have been named the fastest-growing department of the year.
He did not know satisfaction.
‘Should I stop him?’
Taeseong deliberated for a moment.
For the team’s numbers — no, to protect the company’s managed funds — he ought to grab the man by the collar and stop him.
But Taeseong kept his mouth shut.
He had already given the warning.
He had clearly said the risk was large, that this was the top.
And in spite of that, they were the ones who had ignored him and mocked him.
‘Since it’s come to this, experiencing it firsthand won’t hurt them.’
It is not my money, after all.
Taeseong decided to think about it coldly.
If it had been his own funds, he would have wrestled them down out of sheer pity, but these people were professional traders.
They drew salaries and incentives in exchange for running the company’s money.
The responsibility for their own judgment was theirs to carry.
Professional error carries professional consequences.
These were people who would only come to their senses watching their accounts melt with their own eyes.
“Ha! It’s going up the second we bought in! The Department Head’s instincts are alive and well!”
Manager Jeong made a great fuss.
He was evidently thrilled that HMM’s price had climbed 100, then 200 won above where Taeseong had sold.
Department Head Park glanced at Taeseong with a triumphant look.
The look said, ‘See that? This is the vibe that comes from experience.’
Taeseong said nothing and looked at the clock at the bottom of his monitor.
1:20 p.m.
Selling volume from foreign investors was beginning to show up bit by bit.
There were signs that program selling was about to kick in.
The countdown had started.
‘Three...... two...... one......’
1:30 p.m.
The instant lunch hour ended and the afternoon session got going in earnest, the market’s mood changed abruptly.
As if by a lie, a bomb of sell orders rained down on the shipping names.
Institutions and foreigners had moved to take profits as though they had agreed on it beforehand.
Rattattattat!
The bid-side volume on the order book evaporated in an instant.
The chart that had been surging red buckled, carved out a sheer cliff, and turned blue.
“-2%...... -3%......”
“Huh? Wha— what is this?”
Manager Jeong’s voice began to shake.
But the fall did not stop.
A panic sell had begun, dumping begetting dumping.
“-5%...... -7%......”
“Agh! What is this! Why is there so much selling volume!”
“S-sir! What do we do? Do we cut? Sir?”
Assistant Manager Seong shrieked.
The office turned into a scene of carnage in an instant.
The delighted mood of moments ago was gone without a trace, leaving only fear and screaming.
HMM -8%, Noah Shipping -12%.
Their accounts, stuck at the peak, were melting in real time.
“Hey...... what is this? Assistant Manager Kim! Assistant Manager Kim!”
Department Head Park went ashen and came looking for Taeseong.
His face had turned the color of clay and his lips were trembling.
The bluster with which he had dismissed Taeseong moments ago was gone; he was a drowning man grabbing at straws.
“Why is it falling? It’ll go back up, right? Huh? It’s just a correction, isn’t it? Right?”
Taeseong watched the catastrophe coldly from behind his monitor.
There was no agitation in his expression.
He was as serene as a man watching someone else’s house burn.
“Who knows......”
Taeseong slowly adjusted his glasses.
“Supply and demand look tangled. It seems foreigners and institutions are dumping deliberately.”
“Th-then what do we do! Do we sell even now?”
“I warned you clearly, sir.”
Taeseong’s voice cut coolly across the office.
“I told you this was the top. I said the risk was large.”
“Ugghh......”
Department Head Park clutched his chest and staggered.
It was a disaster his own greed had summoned.
He had effectively thrown a substantial portion of the profit Taeseong had earned into thin air in barely an hour.
Had it not been for Taeseong’s 1.5 billion in profit, the entire department could have been wiped out in a single day — a dizzying thought.
“Aaargh! My incentive!”
Manager Jeong tore at his hair and wailed.
Watching them, Taeseong recited to himself.
‘Well, I did say leave while they’re applauding. That the party was over.’
The blue numbers on the monitors poured down like rain.
He could only hope that cold rain would cool their greed-soaked heads.
Though of course, Taeseong’s account had already evacuated somewhere warm.