Chapter 28

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

“Deputy. Do you know yesterday’s total return rate?”

Deputy Han Saet-byeol who newly entered the prime department had a highly excited voice.

“How much was it?”

“A whopping 5%! Isn’t this really crazy? No. How do you earn 5% in one day with 500 billion? Though I haven’t been at the company long, first time seeing 5% earned in a day!”

5%.

Right. An extremely normal reaction.

Since prop trade teams earning 0.1% daily is average.

But suddenly 5%.

Plus earning 5% with 500 billion would make eyes spin.

“The department head must be a bit disappointed.”

“What? Wh-what about?”

“Ah. Nothing.”

She unknowingly said nonsense.

‘But I must be crazy too.’

5% doesn’t look very high anymore.

When prop trade teams earn 5% daily, they’re called aces, but in this prime department where Jeong Jin-ho is, 5% was an ordinary number.

‘Did I also get infected by the department head?’

This shouldn’t happen.

5% is also really tremendous.

What to do later!

“Ah. Department Head. You came?”

“Hello, Department Head!”

Soon Department Head Jeong Jin-ho came to work.

“Ah, yes. Hello everyone.”

He lightly received department people’s greetings then entered the department head’s office.

“But Department Head. Is something wrong? Your expression seems a bit off.”

“Well. Daily return rate is 5%? Then if it were me, I’d walk around smiling ear to ear.”

Section Chief Seo shook his head at such newcomers.

“You don’t know our department head well yet.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you hear before coming? Department Head entered as employee and super-fast promoted to department head.”

“Ah. I heard too. Really recorded legendary return rates that’ll remain in history.”

“Right. But you only heard words, didn’t hear exact figures. Return rate alone exceeded several hundred percent in that short time.”

“!?”

They also heard various things before entering the prime department.

Someone saying parachute.

Someone else saying performance is tremendous.

One certain thing is, no matter how good the background and how great the parachute, no company would entrust a whopping 500 billion.

Even 500 billion is a figure that’s half the assets Gwangwoon Securities handles.

If losses occur with this 500 billion, it would affect the entire company.

Almost entrusting the company’s fate to one person.

Meaning, Department Head Jeong Jin-ho’s value to the company is that high.

“S-several hundred percent?!”

“Exactly how much did he earn!”

“Hehe. That’s why he’s not satisfied with 5%. Not only that. What achievements did our department head accomplish.”

Section Chief Seo proudly laid out Department Head Jeong Jin-ho’s heroic tales.

Among them were experiences he directly saw and lived through, and the other half were stories heard from Deputy Lee Hye-rin.

But this ahjussi.

Whether he was a storyteller who ruled the capital in a past life, his story-telling ability was very delicious.

Thanks to that, employees already highly loyal toward Department Head Jeong Jin-ho were raising their awe even more.

‘I was exactly like that when the team was newly made.’

That memory and Section Chief’s appearance seemed to overlap for no reason, making me burst into laughter.

‘But they said he only invested until almost 4 AM yesterday.’

Isn’t he overworking too much?

“Ugh. Stomach hurts.”

Eating late-night snacks at dawn yesterday was definitely wrong.

If you’re someone who games, especially if you’ve played RPG games, there’s something you can relate to.

That after struggling through raids and catching bosses, you get extremely hungry.

So after work ended, I ordered delivery from a 24-hour restaurant.

But I unnecessarily ate spicy food so my stomach hurts all day.

Like flames shooting out behind.

“Yesterday’s return rate was 5%.”

Return rate made by running from morning until next dawn.

Since I’d been holding funds, there was no work rolling money, but after the FX account opened yesterday, I ran excitedly like an unbridled colt.

“It was fun though.”

Definitely regrettable that the market was frozen staying only in box range.

Seeing even the FX market with average daily trading volume exceeding hundreds of trillions was quiet, you could tell how rigid the current economic market is.

If volatility had been high, seems I would’ve earned more than 5%.

“A bit regrettable. But for a first start, this much is fine.”

Let’s not be impatient.

One thing I learned while studying investment is that markets aren’t frozen as long as expected.

Incidents definitely burst somewhere in the world, and global markets sway from that. Of course, our country’s stock market is often an exception.

But since I’m not doing only domestic markets now, I just need to observe global situations.

Then incidents inevitably occur somewhere.

That’s exactly when high-volatility markets begin.

“Department Head. Meeting preparation is finished.”

“Ah, yes. Coming soon.”

Before, we held meetings narrowly in the team leader’s office.

Now with the department created, there’s a separate conference room.

“Anything is fine. If there are special issues, you can say anything.”

Honestly, rather than holding meetings, jumping into FX markets immediately might be right, but what I learned using this ability frequently is that intuition activates based on information coming to me.

That’s why holding meetings can’t be skipped even one day.

Because through information organized by department people here, I can display my intuition even greater.

“The Chinese government applied selling regulations and forcibly stabilized the market, but that’s having reverse effects making the Shanghai index more unstable, Department Head.”

“Above all, the problem is the global market ice age. Everyone’s scared stiff not selling or buying.”

“That’s why money’s flocking to safe assets. Gold prices are slowly rising, dollars too. The problem is safe assets also can’t sustain trading volume in this ice age.”

“Already including domestic markets, quite a few stocks in overseas markets too are discussing delisting because trading volume is almost none.”

When markets freeze, stocks with little trading volume get delisted.

One rule of KOSPI and other overseas markets is exactly delisting stocks without trading volume, and they were taking damage from this.

“So everyone’s seeking only safe assets now?”

I have one habit during meetings, exactly writing only key words from content in a notebook.

“Yes. Gold, dollars, yen, US bonds, German bonds, and francs etc. Money’s flocking to all safe assets. Probably even more money will flock.”

I was writing content Deputy Lee Hye-rin was reporting in my notebook.

Suddenly flinched at a certain part and letters twisted.

‘What just now?’

I raised my head and looked at Deputy Lee Hye-rin.

“Deputy. Could you repeat what you just said?”

“What? Ah. Money’s flocking to safe assets like gold, dollars, yen, US bonds, German bonds, and francs.”

Right there.

Francs.

At that word, trembling came enough that letters couldn’t be written properly.

“Francs. Aren’t they the most trusted safe asset in finance?”

“Yes. Since Switzerland was safe even during world wars. Even during the global financial crisis, only francs always firmly held their position. Above all, no political risk.”

“Plus the biggest reason francs are evaluated as the greatest safe asset is the upper limit.”

Swiss currency francs.

The currency people pick as the best safe asset during financial crises or when the economy freezes like now.

Isn’t it a world neutral country where the internet mentions Swiss banks whatever happens? Plus political corruption is extremely low so risk was also low.

And the biggest reason is the upper limit.

There’s a system that no matter how much euros rise, 1 euro is definitely 1.20 francs maintaining that upper limit. Meaning, if it tries to drop below that price, the Swiss government releases money to block it.

They artificially prevent francs from strengthening, eliminating volatility itself.

Thanks to this upper limit system, Swiss francs became the world’s best safe asset.

“..”

But why?

Why is a signal coming here?

Are they telling me to buy safe assets and just hold?

Or is there something else?

Why would safe assets be safe assets?

Because volatility is low, they’re safe assets.

Meaning, for a dopamine investor like me, francs were unattractive assets.

However, such a strong signal coming means.

“Everyone go back right now and dump all volume you’re holding.”

“Yes!”

The moment my words dropped, employees tried to jump up and rush to computers but I barely stopped them.

“Wait!”

“Yes?”

I naturally thought at least one person would ask back.

So I tried to tell them what to buy, but no one asks why I’m giving such orders or intentions when I give instructions.

They just run when instructions drop.

“After dumping volume, everyone purchase francs.”

“Ah, yes!”

This time too, everyone had no questions.

Like robots moving according to input commands, they quickly ran toward computers.

“They earned a whopping 5%. On the first day. Heard they stirred up the exchange until 4 AM.”

“What? 4 AM?!”

Return rate of 5% didn’t register.

What stuck to President Hwang Dae-woon was 4 AM.

“Really isn’t it tremendous? The FX market also has almost no trading volume causing chaos. But earning 5% profit there.”

“No. But they did it until 4 AM? Jin-ho went from morning without rest until dawn?”

“Ah, yes. Department Head Jeong Jin-ho stayed and worked until 4 AM, and team members rotated.”

Hmm. This guy.

Gaming habits coming out again.

Usually when running large raids, raid leaders manage nearly 100 raid members while rotating.

Using that experience is good.

But what if the raid leader bursts from accumulated fatigue?

The 100 raid members also fly together.

“I need to call him before going on business trip and talk. So what now? What’s he doing? Grinding his body again?”

“No. Whether Department Head Jeong also thought the current market has no answer, he suddenly put all held funds entirely into francs.”

“Francs?”

“Yes. Put everything into the world’s best safe asset.”

That was a bit unexpected.

Looking at Jin-ho’s investment style so far, this was something beyond wildness.

If others saw, they’d say this is no different from a beast.

But amazing thing is, he only won with not a single defeat until now.

That’s why he probably grew money to 500 billion already with that small seed.

Meaning, Jin-ho always enjoys risky investment.

A beast’s heart that goes paths others rarely take and earns money.

That guy purchased francs?

That supposedly safest asset?

“Strange.”

“Even I think it’s strange.”

“Any particular issues in Switzerland?”

“I also wondered and looked into it, nothing particularly. The Swiss government did release money last time and stabilized because of euro price volatility.”

Meaning francs have always been like that.

But Jin-ho suddenly fully bought this.

“You said you’re calling him later. Try casually asking.”

“No. What authority did we give Jin-ho? No intervention from above. Even if that guy invested in the back mountain there, we don’t interfere.”

That was the rule President Hwang set.

Not doubting or interfering with Jeong Jin-ho’s investment.

“Ah. But President. You have to take the plane tomorrow. Did you prepare everything?”

“I already did. Have to leave by dawn flight tomorrow so leaving work early today.”

“I should go with you.”

“Hey. When the president’s absent, the vice president must guard the company. What if something happens? Don’t you know presidents and vice presidents don’t even take the same plane?”

The guild master almost never calls me to the president’s office.

If there’s something to say, we occasionally meet eating pork belly, or meet in games.

But today he directly called to the president’s office.

“You punk. I told you last time when gaming too. Don’t trust being young and game all night. Same this time. What if team members all rotate and you just trade without rest?”

“But I raised 5% profit.”

“Is profit important now!? If you alone collapse like that, your department collapses together. From next time, don’t grind your body. What use earning hundreds of billions if you’re sick?”

Our hyung-nim.

Failed at becoming an evil president.

If it was another person, they would’ve pretended not to know as long as return rates are good no matter how much I’m grinding my body.

A bit touching.

“Do it one more time and I’ll just close FX.”

“Understood, President.”

“When just us two, just call me hyung-nim.”

“Hey. Still, it’s the company. How dare I? I’ll call you President here.”

“You punk. Ah. And just leave work early today. Go sleep. Didn’t you trade without rest? Take this chance to leave work with me? I’m also leaving early today. Worked out well. I’ll drive you home.”

I waved my hand.

“Oh. It’s okay. Still have much to do. By the way, did you finish trip preparations?”

“Yeah. Roughly finished.”

“Last time you went overseas and suffered from water change.”

I heard him complain during raids before.

“You still remember that?”

“Of course. How vividly you spoke then. Still remember. But why are you going to Saudi?”

“Saudi is the land of oil. Lots of money too. Plus this time Saudi is opening securities markets for the first time. Money smell is really wafting, I have to go directly.”

Saudi is the world’s second largest oil-producing country in production volume.

With such cheat-like geographical elements, they were handling tremendous bundles of money.

However, aren’t many Middle Eastern countries characteristically closed?

But the Saudi government was trying to escape closed tendencies to develop the country more, and one of those was exactly securities market opening.

“But don’t worry. This time I packed emergency medicine well too. Prepared hospitals well for possible emergencies. Plus attendants too.”

The president was saying he prepared very thoroughly to reassure me.

“.?”

Right then.

‘Huh?’

While the president was talking, suddenly something intense enough to blur vision was shaking my body.

Led by that feeling, I instinctively grabbed the president’s arm.

“Hmm? Wh-why suddenly?”

“President. No. Hyung-nim.”

Surprised hyung-nim flinched.

“The Middle East. Couldn’t you not go?”