EcoFree Materials.
This monster of a rookie was continuing its brakeless charge again today.
Not content with the feat of two straight limit-ups on Monday and Tuesday, it began climbing vertically again the moment Wednesday’s market opened.
[Current price: 138,500 won (+18.50%)]
[Trading value: 1.2 trillion won]
First in trading value across the KOSPI and KOSDAQ combined.
Every day trader, super-ant, and institution in the country, plus the pocket money of the uncle next door and the grandmother out back who had heard the rumor late and come running.
Every drop of liquidity in the market was being sucked into this one name like a black hole.
The Woojin Securities trading room was likewise at the center of that gale.
It even climbed again in real time.
“Hahaha! Broke it! It broke 140,000!”
A hearty laugh shattered the silence and rang through the office.
The star of the show was Manager Jeong Hanjun.
He had tipped his chair back and spread both arms in a victor’s pose.
His face was flushed scarlet with excitement, and his eyes glistened, pickled in dopamine.
“Assistant Manager Kim! See that? I was right, wasn’t I? What did I tell you! I said it would go further!”
Manager Jeong slapped Taeseong on the back as he shouted.
The wild streak with which he had gone ‘full size’ at the 100,000-won peak yesterday was being rewarded this morning with a glittering return.
Average price 100,500 won. Current price 142,000 won.
A +40% return in a single day.
He had burned 500 million, which meant he had made 200 million without leaving his chair.
“What was it Assistant Manager Kim said yesterday? Suicide? Dishwashing? Pffhaha! Hey, if this is dishwashing, I want to do dishes every day! Isn’t that right?”
Manager Jeong’s momentum went through the roof.
Taeseong looked at his monitor without a word and replied evenly.
“Congratulations, sir. The beast’s heart paid off.”
“Paid off doesn’t begin to cover it! This was a stroke of genius. Stocks come down to experience, I’m telling you. Frightened and cowering like you, you’ll never make real money. Understood?”
Manager Jeong laid out his lecture, then turned his sights on Department Head Park Geonil.
“Sir! You see? Wasn’t I right? This is going to 200,000, no question. 140,000 now? This is still the bottom, the bottom!”
Department Head Park’s eyes wavered.
He had been sucking his fingers for days.
He had sneered when Assistant Manager Kim bought and missed it, and tried to stop Manager Jeong from buying and missed it again.
And the result?
Assistant Manager Kim had made 4 billion, and Manager Jeong had made 200 million in a day.
He felt like the only fool in the room.
“Still...... isn’t it too high now? The divergence has widened too far......”
Department Head Park looked at the chart uneasily.
A chart that had gone beyond steep to nearly ninety degrees looked dangerous to anyone.
But Manager Jeong tempted him in a voice full of conviction.
“Sir. Don’t you remember KG Life & Health? The people who called it expensive at 100,000 and didn’t buy were beating the ground when it hit 150,000. This is exactly the same. Don’t buy now and you’ll regret it for life. Trust me and climb on. Within a week the incentive alone will buy you a Sonata.”
“A S-Sonata......”
You could hear Department Head Park swallow dryly.
Greed, like an epidemic, was paralyzing rational judgment.
The other employees in the office were already murmuring, sizing up their entry timing.
Everyone was drunk.
On the narcotic of a runaway rally.
11 a.m.
The price touched 148,000 won.
Breaking 150,000 was within sight.
‘Buy’ orders poured onto the order book, and sell volume vanished the moment it appeared.
A fireworks display that seemed as if it would climb forever.
That was when.
The smartphone on Taeseong’s desk flashed red.
The vibration was short and intense.
Like an air-raid siren.
[Wopora (WFL) alert]
[Sell signal generated!]
Taeseong’s eyes narrowed.
As if shutting out the racket around him, he quietly checked the message.
[The party is over.]
[Gather your things before the music stops.]
[Target profit achieved. Sell the entire position immediately.]
At last it had come.
The stroke of twelve.
The timing right before Cinderella’s magic breaks and the splendid golden carriage turns back into an old pumpkin.
Taeseong lifted his head and looked at Manager Jeong.
He was still cackling at the colleague beside him: “I’m buying beef tonight!”
The music was still playing, but Taeseong could not hear it.
‘Sorry, sir. I’m getting up first.’
Taeseong opened the HTS sell order window.
[Entire holding.]
[Order price: market.]
[Sellable amount: 7,740,000,000 won]
7.74 billion won.
The order book at this moment was packed with waiting buy volume.
Ants, institutions, foreign day-trading crowds were all clamoring for one another’s shares.
Right now, throwing out 7.74 billion won of stock would not shock the market.
If anything, it would be gobbled up under the delusion that it would climb further.
Taeseong took one deep breath.
The weight of 7.74 billion won rested on his fingertip.
And he clicked without hesitation.
Tap.
[Sell order fully filled.]
It was instantaneous.
The hundreds of thousands of shares Taeseong threw out scattered into the accounts of market participants blinded by greed.
Someone taking his shares had surely cheered, “Yes! I got in!”
Not knowing it was a bomb.
[Final return: +210.5%]
[Realized P&L: +5,240,000,000 won]
Excluding the 2.5 billion in principal, net profit alone was 5.24 billion won.
Taeseong’s company managed assets, 2.5 billion a week ago, were now locked at the enormous figure of 7.74 billion won.
Even after taxes and fees, more than 7 billion won in cash had landed in the account.
Taeseong sank deep into his chair.
Cold sweat ran down his back.
He had done it.
He had escaped from the highest point of this insane gambling table, and escaped safely.
“I need some water......”
Taeseong picked up his tumbler with a trembling hand.
The cold water going down his throat cooled the heat inside him.
As if he had left his own body, he contemplated the scene in the office.
Department Head Park had finally failed to resist temptation and was pressing the buy button, and Manager Jeong was busy screenshotting his return to post in a group chat.
They did not know.
That a giant had just left the market.
Five minutes later.
11:15 a.m.
The change came without warning.
The bid volume on the order book began to develop holes.
Like an ebbing tide, the volume that had been holding it up disappeared.
And then.
Thud!
An enormous blue bar drove into the chart.
Someone had thrown out a huge market sell.
It was not Taeseong.
It was profit-taking volume from a major player, or from a foreign desk, that had confirmed Taeseong’s exit.
The price, at 148,000 won, slumped to 140,000 in an instant.
A -5% plunge.
“Huh? Huh? What is this?”
Manager Jeong looked up from fiddling with his phone.
The red pillar on his screen had buckled.
“Who dumped? Is this a shakeout?”
He tried to stay calm.
A correction of this size on a runaway stock was common enough.
But this was not a correction.
It was a collapse.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Sell bombs went off one after another.
Institutions dumped, and foreigners dumped.
Quick-witted day traders shrieked and hit the escape button.
A panic sell, selling begetting selling.
The price began to fall vertically, like a dump truck with failed brakes.
135,000 won...... 130,000 won...... 125,000 won......
“Huh? Hey! Stop! Stop!”
Manager Jeong screamed.
The blood drained clean out of his face.
The +40% return of moments ago was melting to +30%, +20%, +10%.
Tens of millions of won evaporated into thin air by the second.
“What is this! Is it a system error? Why is it doing this!”
Department Head Park went ashen and shouted too.
He had gone in at 145,000 won only moments before.
He had been hit with -15% the instant he bought.
“Cut? Do I cut? Or average down?”
“What’s wrong with the server! My order won’t go through!”
The trading room turned into a scene of carnage in an instant.
A VI (volatility interruption) triggered.
But this time it was not an upside VI. It was a downside VI.
[Static VI triggered]
[Current price: 118,000 won]
Down 20% from the high.
Manager Jeong’s average price was 100,500 won.
He was still in the money.
If he sold even now, he could take a profit.
But human greed is not so simple.
‘It was 148,000 a minute ago......’
‘Selling now feels like losing 40 million won.’
‘It’ll come back. Right, this is a shakeout. There’ll be a technical rebound.’
For the two minutes the VI held, Manager Jeong could not press the sell button.
He stared blankly at the screen and prayed.
Please, go back up.
But the market is a place that cuts the throat of the man who prays first of all.
The VI lifted.
And the gates of hell opened.
Rattattat!
Starting from 118,000 won, the price plunged again without a rebound.
Dumping begat dumping.
Terrified ants threw market sells trying to escape ahead of one another.
110,000 won...... 105,000 won...... 100,000 won!
“No! Not below 100,000! Nooo!”
Manager Jeong wailed.
The instant his average price broke.
His psychological last line of defense collapsed.
From here it was no longer giving back profit — it was losing principal.
95,000 won...... 90,000 won......
The price did not know how to stop.
The people who had bought at the peak were already down 40% and on the verge of fainting, and Manager Jeong’s account had begun to bruise blue as well.
An account that had been +40% went to -10%.
The time it took to fall from heaven to hell was all of ten minutes.
“Ughhh......”
Manager Jeong clutched his head and collapsed onto his desk.
He could not even sell.
Selling now meant a confirmed loss.
He had spent all yesterday going around announcing “I’m a genius”, and he could not admit that he had emptied the can in a single day.
In the end he made the worst possible choice.
Diamond-handing it.
He had become a long-term investor by force.
The classic case of being stuck at the very peak.
Taeseong watched the entire process with cold eyes.
An office where screaming, cursing, and sighing mixed together.
In that noise, Taeseong alone was still.
‘Cruel, but this is the stock market.’
For someone to walk away with 5.2 billion, someone has to lose 5.2 billion.
Money does not fall from the sky.
It merely moves from a greedy man’s pocket into a cool-headed man’s pocket.
This time, Manager Jeong and Department Head Park had faithfully played the part of the ‘greedy sucker’.
“Assistant Manager Kim......”
A weak voice came from behind.
It was Manager Jeong.
He looked at Taeseong with unfocused eyes.
“Did you...... sell?”
Taeseong nodded slowly.
“Yes. I sold the whole position at 148,000 earlier.”
“One hundred forty-...... eight thousand......”
Manager Jeong’s mouth fell open.
Exactly the top of the head.
A sale at the absolute peak.
Timing impossible for anyone short of a god.
“How...... how on earth do you sell there? You knew it would fall?”
“I told you, didn’t I. That the party was over.”
Taeseong said it evenly.
“That you have to gather your things before the music stops. You were still dancing after it had stopped, sir.”
Manager Jeong could not say a word.
He could not argue, and he could not be angry.
Because his own greed and his own arrogance had brought it on.
He staggered off toward the smoking room.
He would no doubt chain-smoke his way through bitter regret today, but his account had already melted.
Taeseong opened the Excel file he kept in a corner of his monitor.
His diet calendar.
The weight he had measured that morning: [132.5kg].
And beside it, today’s profit: [5.24 billion won].
‘The money got heavier, and the body got lighter.’
Perfect balance.
Taeseong finished the rest of the water in his tumbler.
The lukewarm water tasted sweet today.
12 o’clock.
The bell rang for lunch hour.
But the only person in the Woojin Securities trading room capable of eating today was, in all likelihood, Kim Taeseong alone.