Chapter 115

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The trade secret of the major securities firms that shake the world economy lies in information.

Then and now.

The securities market is the same.

Who gets information faster.

That plays a decisive role in future investment strategies.

In that sense, securities firms already knew what measures the US government had prepared to save the collapsing market.

“They said 4 trillion dollars, right?”

“Yes. They plan to spray it into the market in a total of four rounds. To raise the market most quickly and certainly—various stocks, corporate bonds, ETFs, etc. They’ll mass-purchase things that can restore credit spreads.”

That might be the best the US can do right now.

4 trillion dollars.

An astronomical amount.

Spraying that into the market in four rounds.

And their plan was to inject funds all at once each time.

On those days, the entire market would be shaken.

It was a day without brakes.

That’s when investment firms also need to move while gauging carefully.

Because when the market temporarily rebounds from that effect, they need to eat well and get out.

“B-but what is this?”

Every company was sensitively watching the US government’s movements, trying to match their stride accordingly.

But there was a place that suddenly stepped forward first.

“Why are the National Pension and Gwangwoon suddenly doing this?”

The National Pension had been quiet after making a fortune through short selling.

They just kept nearly 1 trillion dollars sitting idle in their account.

Normally for that amount and such an institution, putting it in safe assets would be normal procedure.

But today, out of nowhere, the amount in the National Pension’s account moved all at once.

Into the US market at that.

“Right now the National Pension is scooping up everything in sight like crazy—stocks, corporate bonds, ETFs, derivatives, etc.”

With the National Pension’s financial power, shopping around like this was certainly possible.

The problem was the amount they were spending.

“Is it okay to spray 1 trillion dollars this recklessly? If they spend money freely like this, won’t the SEC take action?”

Spraying large amounts at once is illegal.

Because the possibility of market disruption is high.

That’s why even large companies like Gold Reagan don’t do the stupid thing of spraying large amounts at once.

The National Pension should also have such basic common sense.

Yet they’re spraying money like this?

“Yes. That would be normal, but the SEC isn’t imposing any sanctions.”

Raynold tilted his head.

Who is the SEC?

The devil of the US stock market.

If there’s even a slight problem, they immediately block trading.

Even if that company is a large company like Gold Reagan, there’s no leniency.

If you protest against them, these guys will completely block your other accounts too.

In other words, they’re ones who wield tremendous power.

“Those guys are just leaving this alone?”

He thought maybe even the SEC was flustered at the National Pension’s sudden action.

“I don’t think so. The SEC really isn’t doing anything.”

“Director. Doesn’t this mean the information we received recently was real?”

Raynold had received some absurd information before.

Information that the National Pension and Gwangwoon would inevitably pour massive amounts of money into the US market due to Trent’s threats.

Moreover, word had even come out that the amount was approaching 1 trillion dollars, so the US government had reduced the originally planned 4 trillion dollar bailout to 3 trillion dollars.

So he didn’t believe it.

Because having a foreign institution and company handle US market problems didn’t make sense in the first place.

“But that was real?”

But it seems he thought too conventionally about Trent, the deformed US government currently operating, and Gwangwoon—the real madness among madnesses.

Both Trent and Gwangwoon.

Weren’t both far outside the category of normal?

“Even so, are they sane? Korea’s National Pension doing a bailout on behalf of the US government?!”

“Trent is quite an unpredictable figure.”

“And Gwangwoon and the National Pension who accepted that?”

“Maybe they weren’t confident they could withstand the US government’s blatant threats?”

Who in the world isn’t afraid of the US government?

However, if Gold Reagan had received such a ridiculous proposal, how would they have responded?

They would have definitely filed a massive lawsuit and raised hell.

“But Gwangwoon accepted this proposal. Without putting up a fight even once. What do you think that means?”

“Even Gwangwoon can’t resist the US government?”

“No. It means we’re confident we can make money even in this hellish market.”

“……!”

Right now, if someone gave you 1 trillion dollars and told you to enter the US market, what should you do?

100 out of 100 people would all put it in safe assets.

No. They’d judge just keeping the money sitting in their account is best.

Think about it.

Losing just 1% of 1 trillion dollars is 10 billion dollars.

10 billion dollars is a very large sum that can casually buy a decent company.

But mindlessly pouring 1 trillion dollars in and losing even 10% would be irreversible.

“They say bailouts are supposed to be poured out with the resolve to lose it all, but……”

The opponent is that Gwangwoon.

They absolutely do not participate in games where they lose money.

Such people have dropped into the US market.

With a nuclear bomb called 1 trillion dollars, no less.

In other words, Trent had released a crazed outlaw into the US market.

————————————————————————————————————————

The US government put some restrictions when giving us the free pass.

To summarize roughly, they blocked behaviors that would drop the market.

Their purpose is ultimately to save the market.

“White House experts have measured the amount needed to save the current US market at 3.5 trillion dollars. They set the bailout at 4 trillion dollars to prepare for any possible variables.”

The US government, which had already failed once trying to put out the urgent fire with tens of billions of dollars, was trying to solve it with sheer volume.

Originally, they should have immediately sprayed the first round of aid into the market.

“But by putting our Gwangwoon and National Pension at the front, they temporarily paused their support plan.”

In other words, they meant to judge how much effect our 1 trillion dollar spray shows before entering.

“So… we’re the test server?”

“Pardon?”

In games, don’t they run patch content through test servers before applying to live servers? This was exactly that situation.

“The fortunate thing is none of our investment strategies conflict with the regulations they put out. From the start, the President set a strategy of buying stocks looking at 3 months or more, and for corporate bonds we just need to buy a little out of courtesy.”

It seems the US judged that if we put money in, we would inevitably lose.

In fact, even the US’s plan to inject 4 trillion was an amount calculated knowing that more than half would evaporate into thin air.

They wanted us to pre-emptively spray 1 trillion of that and lose first……

Sorry, but we have no intention of losing even 1 dollar.

Because this isn’t just our Gwangwoon’s money, but money containing the blood and sweat of citizens of the Republic of Korea.

We’d rather take than be taken.

No. We absolutely couldn’t let that happen.

“And we’re actively proceeding with acquiring stakes in ‘Zoom,’ the company you told us to pay most attention to.”

“How’s the situation there?”

“It was a company that originally reached 20 billion dollars in market cap, but with the entire financial market collapsing from this corona crisis, it came down to 15 billion dollars. So we’re injecting 5 trillion won there and pulling volume from institutions currently holding those stakes.”

Zoom’s founder holds 35% of the stake.

That person holds the largest stake.

“The question is what to do with this company. Whether to massively acquire stakes to take control, or just buy stakes without concerning ourselves with management and sell later.”

Right now we’re holding the gun barrel.

A gun given by the US government no less.

At other times, we couldn’t do aggressive M&A by suddenly injecting a large sum like 5 trillion won at once. We’d need to build positions over at least several weeks before starting the work.

Otherwise, we’d be sanctioned for market disruption.

But right now we don’t need to watch anyone’s mood.

If we want that company, we just raise the buy wall all at once.

Then people excited by that buy wall in the already crashing market will dump their holdings, and we become owners of that company in an instant.

“……”

I briefly looked through the report on that company.

Through increasing remote work, Zoom and various other video chat programs are being actively used.

Exact statistics are unknown, but Zoom was also one of the programs many people use.

I brought my hand to the company name.

Should I really take control of this company?

“!”

At that moment, a sharp stabbing sensation rose from my fingertips.

I flinched and quickly withdrew my hand.

A very intense rejection reaction.

That means……

“Let’s inject just 5 trillion won and leave the rest alone. Without taking control, so we can shake it off and leave anytime.”

“Yes. Then should we not acquire aggressively and inject slowly while watching the price somewhat?”

“Yes. Please do that.”

The funds we’re currently holding are 25 trillion won.

The US market is at -32% from the corona crash.

Gwangwoon and National Pension money was being injected into this dangerous hell market.

“Our side is also busy eagerly acquiring stakes, and the National Pension needs no mention. They’re working through the night connecting with our Gwangwoon. But… honestly I don’t know what to call this.”

The department head was still snorting with disbelief.

“As the President well knows, the US market and other countries are particularly sensitive to foreign capital. There’s a lot of interference too.”

“That’s true. Naturally.”

“But this time there are no sanctions and we can pick freely—I guess I should say it’s hard to adapt.”

For traders, overseas markets were troublesome places.

Especially the more money you hold, the more so.

Because financial institutions of those countries keep an eye on foreign capital and immediately block trading at the slightest sign of trouble.

But right now there’s no institution to stop us.

Because the US government released us under the name of bailout.

That’s why it’s hard to adapt.

Isn’t this kind of free market tourism a first?

“Enjoy it a lot at times like this. Who knows when they’ll change their minds.”

“Yes. Since there won’t be another opportunity like this, we need to use it hard. I just hope the market recovers quickly. Looking at the US government’s stance, it seems they absolutely won’t come in until the money we injected all crashes.”

Although we received a free pass, we had to pay the price for it.

The US has no intention of providing support financing until our money becomes worthless.

Because doing otherwise would just be doing us a favor.

But conversely, if the market recovers from the National Pension and our Gwangwoon’s carpet bombing?

“We get to play at the amusement park with the free pass the White House personally issued and happily come out.”

————————————————————————————————————————

As corona hit the entire world, the global economic losses that occurred were difficult to calculate.

Europe couldn’t avoid this aftermath either.

Even though the EU stepped in to hold up the European markets collapsing like dominoes, slowing down that collapse very slightly was all they could do.

“Do you know what hurts the most? Gwangwoon is buying back at dirt cheap the shipping companies that were taken from them by our Europe. And we can’t even check that.”

Well, that’s natural.

What kind of place is Europe?

It’s a welfare paradise.

But due to this incident, more money went out.

Already 800 billion euros had gone out from the EU level as an economic recovery fund, and with emergency support packages, an additional 600 billion euros went out.

What’s serious is this is just the beginning.

“Even after pouring that much money, is there a single financial market in our EU that improved? They’re all devastated. So with what money do we stop Gwangwoon from taking back shipping? We should rather be thankful they’re taking it even for that money.”

Amazingly, those words were true.

Because Gwangwoon took the debt tied to those companies too while taking shipping at dirt cheap, the EU couldn’t check them.

Moreover, Gwangwoon holds the weapon called vaccines.

If they bother Gwangwoon’s feelings and there’s a disruption in vaccine supply, astronomical economic support funds would have to go out again.

“But… what exactly happened with the US market?”

All world markets collapsed partly due to corona’s effect, but the US market collapsing was also major.

Because world financial markets are ultimately connected to the US market.

And for the time being, the US market was expected to continue being a bear market.

But their expectations were completely wrong.

The US market was currently recording a tremendous recovery.

“Thanks to that, our European markets are showing signs of improving somewhat… But I heard the Korean National Pension and Gwangwoon are playing a decisive role in the US market recovery?”

“Yes. They say the National Pension spent 1 trillion dollars that the US was supposed to spray. People naturally thought that money would be incinerated, but it acted as rebound psychology and is now showing a crazy recovery.”

The 1 trillion dollars that suddenly dropped.

The US market was greatly shaken by that incident.

Because unlike a normal aid form, a foreign institution took positions everywhere and literally pulled up stock prices like a manipulation operation.

Normally doing such a thing would get you sanctioned for market disruption, but since the US government permitted it, stock prices started rising on a large scale, and that eased the psychology of intimidated investors, causing a phenomenon of everyone jumping into the stock market.

“Then… rather, the National Pension and Gwangwoon made money?”

“Yes. Because the rebound started from when they took positions massively. They’re probably seeing tremendous profits.”

As a result, the National Pension and Gwangwoon ended up picking up stocks at the lowest point.

In other words, while others could only suck their thumbs, the US gave those two a good deal.

“Of course, the National Pension and Gwangwoon’s strategy was good too. While shocking the market, they selected stocks that would cause investment overheating and proceeded with large-scale investment. It worked properly.”

Is there such a bailout in the world?

Not a country, but another country’s institution and company saving the financial market.

This is blatant market disruption.

“But as a result, it saved the market, so there’s almost no public opinion criticizing the National Pension and Gwangwoon now.”

The heads of state and executives attending the EU meeting were baffled.

Should they call this well done?

Or should they criticize it as reckless?

How dangerous is entrusting a national matter to another country and individuals!

“But it turned out well in the end, didn’t it?”

“That’s true, but……”

The important thing was the result was good.

Europe is collapsing now, but isn’t America coming back to life?

“We have to pour money into the financial market anyway, don’t we?”

“Yes. We’ve been spending money like crazy and have nothing left. And we have to spend more. Sigh.”

Even though the US market recovered, other countries still needed support funds for market recovery.

America is doing so well, so why are we like this—citizens’ complaints were boiling over.

The problem was the EU had already spent astronomical sums multiple times.

They couldn’t even gauge how much more money would have to be spent to save the market.

“Um… then.”

That’s when the Chairman cautiously spoke.

“Should we also try requesting help from them?”

Then heads turned to her all at once.

“Pardon?”