Hyun-joo seemed puzzled as she asked,
“What?”
“I didn’t hear? Sell pounds with 50 times leverage right away.”
“For now, calm down and…”
I shouted at Hyun-joo.
“Just do as you’re told!”
After shouting, even I was startled.
Trying to calm my excitement, I said,
“Sis, I must seem crazy, right? It’s natural to think that way. But right now, I’m completely fine. No, I’ve never been clearer in my mind than now. I know it sounds insane, but one thing is certain. Brexit is going to happen. Time is running out!”
It took a while before I heard a response.
“Just spoke with Taek-gyu, he said to follow your instructions only.”
The fact that he trusts me in such a situation…
Hyun-joo let out a sigh and said,
“I’ll do as instructed.”
The call ended.
The hologram that was in front of me disappeared.
I couldn’t tell if what I just saw was a vision or just a delusion.
Nothing else was visible.
***
Golden Gate’s Asia branch.
Amidst everyone processing work frantically, whenever a bit of time was available, they glanced at the TV. The screens of CNN and BBC were showing in various places around the office.
Though the sound was muted due to work hours, just by looking at the screens, one could understand how the vote count was progressing.
For once, some feared a sudden change could occur, but nothing happened.
Asian markets, including China and Hong Kong, rose together, easing the worries of fund managers. Analysts reported that Brexit concerns had eased and forecasted a period of relief in the global economy.
Ellie asked Hyun-joo, “What does Jinhoo say?”
Hyun-joo shook her head. “I plan to see it through till the end.”
“What, what do you mean? Why…?” Ellie was taken aback.
Hyun-joo took out a bottle of vodka from under the desk and poured a glass full, then gulped it down at once.
Ellie looked at Hyun-joo with a perplexed expression.
Hyun-joo’s determination was clear. Drinking during work hours was never a norm unless work was finished.
“Why are you doing this?” Ellie asked.
“Because I’m about to do something irrational from now on,” replied Hyun-joo.
Following the CEO’s instructions, Hyun-joo placed the order. The $3.2 billion held by OTK Company until the end was poured into the foreign exchange market, turning into $15 billion.
Ellie was amazed at what she had done.
“What have you done?” she asked.
“Jinhoo said to do it this way.”
Unable to remain composed, she, too, was in the same state of mind.
Ellie grabbed the bottle of vodka and drank it down in big gulps.
***
Ding!
A text message confirming that the order had been placed arrived.
It was truly over now. There was nothing more I could do. All that was left was to wait for the outcome.
Once again, my phone rang.
I reluctantly answered the call.
“Yes, senior,” I said.
Senior Sang-yeop urgently spoke, “The situation is not good, Jinhoo. The Asian market is practically done. Stop for now and salvage whatever money is left for the next opportunity…”
“It’s already too late.”
“What?”
“I just poured it all into the foreign exchange market.”
Senior Sang-yeop seemed at a loss for words.
I muttered, “Buy cheap, bet your life on selling high.”
These were the words of Korekawa Ginjo, known as the god of Japanese stocks.
Buying cheap and selling high is the principle of investing. Even without a guarantee of selling high, if you buy low, there won’t be any more losses because the price won’t drop further. Therefore, buying as cheaply as possible is crucial.
However, being cheap means facing rejection from everyone, and choosing to buy implies thinking differently from others.
In other words, you have to stand alone against the world.
“Just think of it as dying. Did you start without preparing for that?”
Anyone can analyze or predict, but courage is needed to pull the trigger.
*Sigh*
Even if things go wrong, you don’t actually lose your life. You just lose all your money.
“If we fail this time, let’s start over from the beginning.”
After a moment, Senior Sang-yeop said with a trembling voice,
“If I come to you like that time, will you accept me again?”
“No.”
I forced a smile as I replied,
“I’ll succeed quickly and come to you first, senior.”
“Thank you, Jinhoo.”
Click!
The call ended.
I tried to appear calm, but I was truly terrified. Losing all my money was a level of fear that made me think it would be better to die instead.
My hand holding the phone was trembling.
The water that had been under my nose had risen to the top of my head.
***
Britain was truly engulfed in excitement.
The pro-EU and pro-Brexit camps poured into the streets and squares. From the beginning of the vote count to well past the halfway mark, the Remain side was dominating.
The Remain camp declared victory.
The flag of the European Union fluttered, and the pro-Brexit voters bowed their heads.
Even immigrants in janitor or laborer attire raised their arms and cheered alongside British voters.
“Europe is one! Europe is one!”
***
London Foreign Exchange.
Attacking the foreign exchange market meant fighting against that country’s government.
The British government didn’t need to intervene directly against the pound sellers. Many hedge funds and financial companies had joined as allies.
Instead, they showered bullets on the enemy. The British government only needed to observe and command the fight from behind.
With concerns about Brexit fading, buy orders kept coming in and the pound gradually rose.
Senior dealer David shouted, “Sell orders are pouring in!”
“What?”
Although briefly shocked by the strong selling pressure, the pound did not turn back down. This was because hedge funds and financial companies absorbed all the selling volume pouring in.
Josh confirmed it was OTK Company’s doing.
Once the accumulated orders were processed, there were no more sell orders.
‘Was this their final stand?’
As Josh predicted, at this point, OTK Company had exhausted all its ammunition. They were essentially standing bare in the midst of enemy lines.
If someone pulled the trigger, causing the pound to move slightly higher, OTK Company would bleed and die right there.
Josh sneered.
“Those otaku guys are heading for bankruptcy.”
Even if they now liquidated their positions, they would already have incurred astronomical losses.
They dared to pick a fight with the UK without fear, but it ended disgracefully.
***
I sat down in the hallway, lost in thought.
What was it that I had seen?
Is it withdrawal or staying?
Approval or rejection?
What is the truth, and what is the lie?
Did I make the right choice, or the wrong one?
What have I done to the world?
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t bring myself to face the results. I wished time would just stop right there.
Ring!
My phone rang. It was Taekgyu.
With trembling hands, I pressed the call button.
“Speak.”
Instead of words, I heard sobbing.
[Sob.]
“Are you there?”
[Sobbing!]
Taekgyu cried for a long time, and I listened to his weeping without saying a word.
[Sobbing! Jinhoo, what do we do now? Sobbing!]
“…”
Is this the end?
Is everything over?
At that moment, someone appeared in front of me.
When I looked up, Seon-ah was standing there. She looked down at me and asked, “What are you doing here?”
I didn’t know what I was doing here either.
As if something had occurred to her, Seon-ah said, “You won.”
“Win?” I asked.
“I made a bet with the guys earlier.”
Seon-ah calmly said, “The voting results just flipped. The UK has withdrawn from the EU.”
“What?”
Taekgyu’s shout came through the phone.
“We did it, Jinhoo! The UK has withdrawn! Sobbing!”
As I came to my senses, the water that had risen above my head had completely drained away, leaving nothing.
***
London Foreign Exchange.
At one moment, buying stopped, and selling ceased as well. No one moved. It could only be described as a revolution.
Suddenly, a different current flowed, and the keen observers sensed the anomaly first. And it quickly spread throughout.
At that moment, the pound’s selling pressure surged like a tidal wave.
Josh was astounded.
“Could it be that there’s still capital left?”
Unbeknownst to him, it was no longer OTK Company flooding the market.
Without anyone prompting them, financial companies turned the barrels they had aimed at OTK Company toward the UK, and started firing.
The forces that had been buying pounds suddenly turned to selling, causing the pound, which had been rising gently, to plummet in an instant.
“0.68 pounds has been breached!”
In the blink of an eye, the exchange rate that had been trading at 0.65 pounds to the dollar rose to 0.68 pounds. That was just the beginning.
“0.70 pounds!”
“0.72 pounds!”
“0.75 pounds!”
Shouts erupted from all directions. Foreign exchange dealers were at a loss watching the plunging pound.
Why did this happen?
Why did the situation suddenly change?
What on earth has happened?
Josh’s gaze fixed on the TV screen. It was only then that he realized the reason.
The graph that had just indicated 52 remain, 48 leave had suddenly changed to 50-50… no, 49.9-50.1. Those who were allies just a moment ago had turned into enemies.
Financial companies that had been buying pounds until just before slashed their losses by pouring the pounds they bought back into the market in full force.
Sell-offs led to more sell-offs, and the pound plummeted.
“This, this is unbelievable…”
Am I dreaming right now?
The pound was falling like a waterfall.
It was not a currency of a developing country but a quasi-reserve currency. The pound showing such a drastic change is unprecedented.
Did OTK Company know this would happen? Is that why they poured their final shares at the last moment?
Josh recalled a nightmare from the past.
A single investor destroying the UK, the worst event that bankrupted the central bank.
“George Soros…”
Josh couldn’t hold back any longer and shouted, “Stop selling, you bastards!”
The UK Treasury’s prediction that the pound would depreciate by 10% within two years if Brexit occurred turned out to be completely off the mark.
It didn’t even take a few hours for the pound to drop by 20%.
That day, the pound recorded its largest decline in history.
***
The vote counting in other regions had already concluded. Scotland leaned towards Remain, Northern Ireland and Wales slightly favored Remain and Leave respectively.
However, the results in England were still pending. Due to the largest number of voters, the counting in England continued until the early morning. In the latter part of the count, only English votes were practically tallied.
The graph, which initially leaned towards Remain at 52 to 48, gradually shifted towards Leave as more votes were counted. The surge in Leave votes in England led to this shift opposite to the initial trend.
As the global stock markets started a synchronized plummet, witnessing falling prices left everyone in shock. Investors rushed to sell risky assets and seek refuge in safe havens, causing unexpected repercussions.
Prime Minister Okazaki was in a meeting with business leaders when his secretary hurriedly approached and whispered, “A crisis has occurred. Brexit has happened.”
Okazaki’s expression hardened, “Is this true?”
Just this news was alarming enough, but what followed was even more astonishing, “The yen is surging. It broke 100 yen to the dollar.”
“What?” The exchange rate, which was 110 yen to a dollar, plummeted to 99 yen.
The yen intervention was a crucial policy of the current government. They had tirelessly depreciated yen by unlimited bond purchases, only to see it revert suddenly in a single moment.
“This is insane…” With such a sharp depreciation in the exchange rate, it was evident that export companies would face severe repercussions.
Okazaki realized it was no time for leisure; he swiftly rose from his seat.
“Call an emergency cabinet meeting immediately!”
***
Seon-ah asked me with a worried expression, “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“What’s going on,” I replied.
Disappointment overwhelmed me more than joy.
What was I so afraid of?
It was nothing, really.
“Thanks for telling me,” I said.
“Hmm?”
I walked past Seon-ah and headed outside. The campus was bathed in strong sunlight.
My phone had been ringing like crazy.
Taek-gyu, Ellie, Senior Sang-yeop, and others.
Instead of answering the calls, I turned off my phone.
How much did I really earn?
I would have to liquidate my positions to find out, but I must have made billions of dollars, even if I held back. It was like I had completely stripped the world financial market.
After standing still for a while, I found a payphone in the corner and entered it. Then I picked up the receiver and made a call somewhere.
“Hello.”
“It’s me.”
“Jin-hoo? Why did you call me on this phone?”
“I hope you’re doing well.”
“I am. I hope you’re doing well too.”
I felt like tears would come streaming down the moment I heard his voice.
“Why? What’s wrong with our son?”
Holding back my bursting sobs, I said, “I just… I just called because I missed you.”
T T
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