Monday, October 9, 2023.
The Korean calendar marked it in red as the Hangul Day holiday, but the Yeouido financial district was stained a bloodier red than ever.
News of the war between Israel and Hamas, which had erupted over the weekend, had driven global financial markets into a cauldron of fear.
U.S. equity futures plunged, and the dollar and gold, the safe havens, shot up.
And the morning air in the Woojin Securities trading room, meeting a Monday that felt like a Tuesday, was heavy and humid, like the eve of a storm.
“All right, everyone, attention!”
8:20 a.m.
Department Head Park Geonil stood at the front and rapped the whiteboard hard.
His face was thoroughly flushed. It was obvious he had slept badly, agonizing all weekend over how to position while the war news broke.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say he had been paralyzed by fear.
“You’ve seen the news, so you know the situation is extremely serious. The Israeli prime minister declared war and Gaza has been flattened. What does that mean? It means that when the market opens today, the KOSPI and the KOSDAQ are both going straight to hell!”
Department Head Park’s voice boomed.
“So my instruction today is exactly one thing. Stand down. Do not hit that buy button carelessly!”
The traders swallowed and stared at him with tense faces.
Some were already chewing their nails, worrying that their holdings would hit the daily lower limit.
“Try to catch a falling knife and you’ll lose your wrist. Secure cash, no exceptions, and manage risk on your existing positions as the situation demands. Understood?”
“Yes! Understood!”
A hearty answer came back from the staff.
Everyone nodded, and the mood was one of pulling in one’s neck.
Cowering before a catastrophe like war was as instinctive as any herbivore’s reflex.
But.
In that herd of herbivores was one bear — no, one enormous man — staring at his monitor with a predator’s eyes.
‘Stand down? Don’t make me laugh.’
Kim Taeseong let Department Head Park’s sermon go in one ear and out the other, checking his monitor screens.
‘The future Wopora showed me is clear. Defense and refining stocks surge at the open. Every eye in the market turns there.’
Taeseong checked once more the memo pad he had left open on one side of his monitor.
His watchlist window already had ‘Victek’, ‘Speco’, ‘Heungbu Petroleum’, and ‘Korea Petroleum’ arranged at the very top.
While everyone else had their fingers hovering over the sell button in fear, Taeseong had his mouse cursor resting on ‘Buy all at market’.
“Hoo......”
He took a deep breath and steadied himself.
This trade was on a different scale from the Rainbow Robotics one.
That time he had simply targeted good news at a single company. This time he was making use of a worldwide catastrophe.
But a trader must set emotion aside and speak only with returns.
8:55 a.m.
Pre-open order matching closed and expected execution prices began to appear.
As expected, the KOSPI and KOSDAQ were signaled to open sharply lower, down in the -2% range.
Large caps like Saseong Electronics and SL Hynix were blue in the face too.
But.
‘There it is.’
A faint smile spread across Taeseong’s lips.
Victek, the flagship defense name, showed an expected execution price up 12% from the previous day.
The refining name Heungbu Petroleum, up 15%.
Proof that the hyenas had already caught the scent of money in the market.
“Huh? Hey, look at Victek gapping. That’s no joke.”
“Heungbu Petroleum’s gone crazy too. Hey, shouldn’t we be getting on this?”
Murmurs rose all around.
Assistant Manager Seong Gihyeon swallowed and glared at the order book.
But with Department Head Park’s edict hanging over them, nobody could step forward, and they only watched one another.
8:59:50.
51 seconds, 52 seconds......
The countdown had begun.
Taeseong had 1.2 billion won in managed funds, and he was ready to bet 600 million on Victek and 600 million on Heungbu Petroleum.
Split buying? No such thing.
On any other day he would have spread small amounts across at least five or six names.
But for a man who knows the future for certain, that kind of diversification is nothing but an idiotic way to shave down returns.
58 seconds, 59.
Ding!
[The market is open.]
9:00 a.m. exactly.
Along with the bright chime, the numbers in the order book began to dance.
At the same moment, Taeseong’s index finger struck the mouse.
Click! Click!
[Buy order filled.]
[Buy order filled.]
Market buys, without hesitation.
In an instant, 1.2 billion won — a colossal sum — was sucked into two names.
The vast volume coming in through Woojin Securities’ corporate account devoured the order book in a single bite and launched the price upward.
Victek’s price blew past +15% in an instant and raced toward +18%.
“Huh? Hey! Who scraped up Victek?”
Someone shouted from somewhere in the trading room.
Department Head Park, watching the monitoring system, went wide-eyed.
“What? What lunatic is buying at market right off the opening price? Who is it!”
Department Head Park’s gaze plunged downward, sweeping the monitor that displayed the traders’ status.
Then he shot up from his seat and glared at the enormous back calmly facing a monitor.
It was Kim Taeseong.
Department Head Park’s face went red and purple by turns.
“Hey! Kim Taeseong! What did you just do!”
Department Head Park was about to come striding over to Taeseong’s desk when.
The phone on Taeseong’s desk rang shrilly.
Brrring! Brrring!
Risk Management.
The direct line of Manager Gwak Seongyeon, who had grilled Taeseong during the Rainbow Robotics affair.
Wearing the expression of a man who had expected this, Taeseong did not pick up the receiver. Instead he rapidly tapped out a message on the internal messenger.
Recipient: Department Head Park Geonil.
[Assistant Manager Kim Taeseong: Sir, it’s the risk team. You can take it now.]
[Assistant Manager Kim Taeseong: This is the same as last time. If it makes a loss, I’ll resign and repay the full amount. But if it makes a profit, log it as your instruction. The scale is different this time. Your annual numbers, sir — this alone will more than cover them.]
Having sent the message, Taeseong looked at Department Head Park.
His eyes went back and forth between Taeseong’s monitor and his own phone.
The word ‘numbers’ dilated his greedy pupils.
A brief instant of calculation.
Last time this fat assistant manager had bought robotics stocks at an impossible moment and brought in 200 million won.
And this time? War?
Well, in a war defense stocks do go up, that much is true......
Brrring! Brrring!
The ringing continued, insistent.
The eyes of the nearby traders converged on Taeseong and Department Head Park.
Taeseong silently lifted the receiver and immediately transferred the call to Department Head Park.
Department Head Park bit his lip hard, then roughly picked up the handset and, in the end, took the call routed to him.
“Yeah, hello. It’s Department Head Park.”
Taeseong let out an inward sigh of relief.
He had taken the bait.
“Ah, Manager Gwak. Why are you calling first thing in the morning?...... No, that’s my instruction. Yes. I ordered it. Come on, look at the market. There’s a war on. This isn’t a matter of risk, you have to approach it in terms of opportunity cost...... All right. I’ll send up a report after the close, so hang up for now. I’m swamped here, honestly.”
Clack!
Department Head Park slammed the receiver down irritably.
The risk team’s barrier was breached with that.
But Department Head Park’s anger had not gone anywhere.
The moment he hung up, he strode over to Taeseong’s desk and cracked him across the back with a smack.
“Agh!”
“You lunatic! No — you pig! Are you some kind of war expert? Are you Warren Buffett? You shove 1.2 billion won of company money onto a gambling table on the strength of something you overheard?”
At Department Head Park’s bellowing, the trading room went dead silent.
Beside him, Associate Kang Hyeona looked at Taeseong with the wide eyes of a startled rabbit.
Manager Jeong was snickering, delighted at his misfortune.
His back stung, but Taeseong did not let the pain show.
Instead, he calmly swiveled his chair and looked up at Department Head Park.
His eyes were no longer those of the cowed Assistant Manager Kim of old.
In them lay the venom he had summoned running 3km with everything he had, and the certainty of a man who knows the future.
“Sir.”
Taeseong’s voice was low but distinct.
“This isn’t gambling. It’s investment.”
“What? You dare talk back......”
“Buy on fear, sell on euphoria. You know the saying, sir. The market is gripped by fear right now. But the war has already happened, and the money has lost its destination. So where will it go?”
Taeseong pointed at his monitor.
“The surest shelter, and the strongest momentum. Right here.”
Department Head Park was dumbfounded.
The man who would ordinarily have bowed and scraped, saying ‘I’m sorry, I’ll correct it,’ was looking him straight in the eye and lecturing him.
Apparently losing a bit of weight (still a pig, mind you) had made him blind to his own place.
“Ha, unbelievable. Y-you little...... Hey, you said it clearly. You’re taking responsibility. If this loses money, you are genuinely fired! Get your resignation ready!”
“Yes, sir, understood.”
Taeseong answered briefly and turned back to his monitor.
Department Head Park went back to his seat, huffing.
Still not over it as he went, he muttered, “Look at that. Completely insane. He’s out of his mind.”
Beside him, Associate Kang Hyeona leaned toward Taeseong and whispered quietly.
Her voice was full of worry.
“Assistant Manager...... are you all right? The Department Head looks genuinely furious...... what will you do if this really goes wrong?”
Kang Hyeona was worried about him sincerely.
Over the past month they had grown closer, eating lunch together and talking about training.
To her eyes, the Kim Taeseong of late seemed like a different person.
The listless, timid man was gone, replaced by someone bold and strong to the point of looking dangerous.
That looked impressive, but it made her uneasy at the same time.
Taeseong gave Kang Hyeona a small smile.
There was a curious ease in it.
“Don’t worry, Hyeona. Nothing’s going to go wrong. If anything......”
Before Taeseong could finish.
A bright ‘Ding-dong!’ chimed from the large status board mounted in the center of the trading room.
[VI triggered: Victek (upside)]
[VI triggered: Heungbu Petroleum (upside)]
VI (Volatility Interruption).
A system that halts trading for two minutes to protect investors when a price moves sharply in a short span.
An upside VI meant the price was climbing that explosively.
“Huh? Wha— hey! Victek triggered a VI!”
“Heungbu Petroleum too! Whoa, what is this?”
The quiet trading room began buzzing in an instant.
On the monitors, Victek’s price read +23%. Barely ten minutes after Taeseong bought in.
Heungbu Petroleum had likewise broken +20% and was charging upward with terrifying force.
The KOSPI was diving toward -2.5%, and yet only the defense and refining sectors were throwing up scarlet pillars of fire.
Literally, on a battlefield without gunfire, only Taeseong’s position was sounding the trumpets of victory.
“Wow...... that’s insane.”
Someone let out a gasp.
Woojin Securities’ real-time return status board.
At the very top of it, a familiar name rose up as if mounted for display.
[1st. Investment Team 3, Assistant Manager Kim Taeseong / Daily return: +18.5% / Estimated P&L: +222,000,000 won]
Ten minutes.
220 million won in ten minutes.
Money earned in ten minutes by an assistant manager whose annual salary was under 100 million.
“Hurk......”
Department Head Park Geonil’s mouth fell open.
The momentum with which he had smacked Taeseong’s back and thrown around the word ‘fired’ had vanished without a trace.
He stared blankly at the number on the board and rubbed his eyes.
He seemed to be doubting what he saw.
“Is this...... even possible?”
Manager Jeong’s face had gone ashen.
He had been watching his semiconductor holdings sink 5% apiece, agonizing over whether to cut them.
And right beside him, the Assistant Manager Kim he had so thoroughly disdained had just made 200 million won.
It was past envy — it was giving him stomach cramps.
“It’s luck. That’s pure luck! It only looks like that because he dumped everything in like a madman. He’ll get wiped out in one shot, watch.”
Manager Jeong muttered it as if consoling himself, but there was no strength in his voice.
Because the result was saying everything.
Paying no mind to the commotion around him, Taeseong calmly opened the sell order window.
‘Don’t get greedy. No need to wait for the daily limit.’
Wopora’s prophecy had been ‘surge at the open’.
But the sentence that followed mattered more.
‘Every eye in the market turns there.’
Once the ants start swarming, volatility grows.
Day-trading crowds would come in and shake the price around.
He had made enough already.
And more than anything, Taeseong had a next step.
‘On the 10th, war-risk premium insurance starts being levied on tankers and merchant ships passing through the Red Sea — that was it.’
Tomorrow.
From tomorrow, shipping stocks would start to move.
Today’s earnings had to become tomorrow’s seed.
“Sir.”
Taeseong rose from his seat and called to Department Head Park, who was standing there dazed.
Department Head Park startled and looked at Taeseong.
By now, in his eyes, Taeseong was no longer a lazy pig.
He looked like a goose that laid golden eggs — no, one carrying golden eggs inside it.
“Uh, huh? Assistant Manager Kim. What, what is it?”
Department Head Park’s voice rose an octave.
Taeseong held back a snort and spoke.
“Once the VI lifts I’ll sell half and lock in the profit. The other half I’ll carry to tomorrow’s open. Is that all right with you?”
“Ah, of course! Good! Very good! That’s our Assistant Manager Kim. What did I say? Assistant Manager Kim is a hero for troubled times. You saw me take that risk team call and cover for you, right? I’m behind you, so don’t you worry. Hahaha!”
Department Head Park kneaded Taeseong’s shoulders and laughed heartily.
The same hand that had been striking his back moments ago was now giving him a massage.
Taeseong clicked his tongue inwardly.
Truly, a human being — no, a workplace superior — was a weightless creature in the face of a return.
‘Go ahead, laugh all you like, sir.’
Leaving Department Head Park’s performative laughter behind him, Taeseong sat back down.
The chair creaked.
His thighs still ached and he was still hungry.
His stomach, empty since morning, was clamoring for food.
Growl.
It was a fairly loud sound.
Associate Kang Hyeona beside him must have heard it, because she burst out with a small laugh.
“Assistant Manager, you’re hungry, aren’t you?”
She rummaged in her desk drawer, pulled something out, and held it out to Taeseong.
A protein bar.
“Have this. It didn’t look like you’d had breakfast either. If you’re going to fight a war, supply lines matter.”
Kang Hyeona’s eyes curved into half-moons.
Taeseong took the protein bar without quite meaning to.
The cold wrapper touched his hand.
In a trading room like a battlefield, it was the one moment where warmth could be felt.
“...... Thank you.”
Taeseong peeled the bar open and took a bite.
It was dry and tasted like bad protein, but strangely it tasted sweet.
He chewed and stared at his monitor.
The VI lifted and trading resumed.
Victek +25%, Heungbu Petroleum +24%.
Taeseong’s assets were swelling in real time.
But his head was already sketching out tomorrow.
‘Defense and oil are bait.’
While people were drunk on the pillar of fire in front of them.
Taeseong was watching the real wave rolling quietly beneath the sea.
The waters off Israel, and the Red Sea.
The instant that narrow sea lane closed, global logistics would be paralyzed.
And freight indices would explode like mad.
‘Noah Shipping, Daehan Shipping......’
Taeseong quietly typed his next targets into the search bar.
For now they were quiet names with no volume.
But Taeseong could see it.
Tomorrow, and the day after.
A future in which those blue charts erupted like scarlet lava.
“Right, let’s get ready for round two.”
Taeseong wiped the protein crumbs from his lips and gripped the mouse.
His hand no longer trembled.
Kim Taeseong’s war had only just begun.
And at the end of this war, he would win without fail.
For a life that would grow as light as his lightened body.