Chapter 3

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Ah. What do you do if you suddenly press the buy button!”

“Ah.”

Damn.

I messed up on the first day.

Led by that impulsive feeling, I pressed the buy button like I was playing a game.

“You even pressed it as a market order, so it executed immediately. Plus, do you see this? What color does it look like?”

“Blue light.”

“That’s right. Blue light! It’s hitting the lower limit.”

“Then what should I do?”

“Well, what can we do? It’s not like you lost real money. This is mock investment, right?”

That was a relief.

She shouted in surprise, so I thought real money was going out.

“But there’s a problem. Did I tell you earlier? The reason we junior traders do mock investment is to get evaluated by superiors. You have to get good results in mock investment to move to the next level. But you bought all of this.”

Lee Hye-rin was muttering about what to do and was genuinely worried.

“Still, it’s okay. The mock investment amount, well, you can get a new one anytime. Who knows? The blue light on right now might turn red again. You can quickly sell it then. But this will probably take a while to turn red. Did you hear earlier? US interest rate hike. That’s why all the insurance stocks are falling right now.”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“No. When you’re a new employee, you’re bound to make many mistakes from nervousness. I was like that at first too. Of course, you might get a bad evaluation from superiors because of this, but Jin-ho, you’re just starting, right? Cheer up.”

Lee Hye-rin.

Is this person an angel?

How can a person be this kind?

Somehow a halo seems to shine from her.

Plus, with her pure beauty, being with her feels like being in a flower garden.

Ah. Get a grip.

I came here to work.

Normally, I wouldn’t even have imagined having a one-on-one conversation with such a beauty.

Plus, I made a mistake on my first day at work.

‘But that feeling was really intense.’

The emotion I felt in the game.

That feeling like my special ability was activating.

Drawn by that, I pressed the buy button.

‘In the game, I got immediate feedback of success or failure.’

But the stock market was completely incomprehensible.

From what I’ve seen so far, it’s still blue light, so I must have felt something wrong.

Or maybe this ability and stocks are unrelated to begin with.

Maybe I don’t have any special ability, and I just got lucky a few times.

“Excuse me. Jin-ho? I’m teaching you hard, but you’re not thinking about other things, are you?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Hmm. Just looking at your face, it seems like you are thinking about other things.”

“..”

Let me focus on work for now.

This is a jungle full of things I don’t know.

But. Learning from such a beauty, I can’t concentrate at all.

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

The stock market opening time is 9 o’clock.

However, because of simultaneous bidding, 8:30 AM is the real start.

And although the market closes at 3:30, there’s also simultaneous bidding then, so the final closing price is at 3:40.

7 hours and 10 minutes.

The time a war without gunfire continues throughout the day.

Especially the prop trading department was the busiest in the company.

Scalping.

This is where they trade within seconds or minutes through ultra-short-term trading methods, creating profits by following sudden quote fluctuations.

At most, they hold stocks for a week, but usually securing funds by selling everything before closing was the top priority.

If you wanted long-term investment that others talk about, or to hold stocks longer than short-term, you wouldn’t fit with this department.

For that, you’d go to the asset management team or research team.

Those departments are places that target value investing and growth investing that people love so much. But Team Leader Park Hong-seo didn’t want to be in such a petty, boring place.

Day by day, every single minute and second, red and blue candles wrestling with each other, reading each other through psychological warfare, this giant casino floor where they suck away each other’s money.

Truly, this place where dopamine and rage charge up every moment was his source of vitality.

If there were no stock market in this world, he surely would have headed to a casino.

Or he would’ve lived clutching his phone every day with illegal online gambling.

That’s why dopamine-packed SNS or shorts that everyone else watches these days didn’t even catch his eye.

Because this was the place that could fully charge human dopamine.

For that reason, Team Leader Park stayed at this company.

Why not do it with personal money?

That won’t do.

When you have the awareness that it’s someone else’s money, not your own, you can make slightly more rational judgments. But the moment you’re obsessed with the thought that it’s your own money, judgment becomes clouded.

The reason those who excel as company traders collapse the moment they switch to individual trading is probably exactly that.

“Team Leader. You worked hard today too.”

“The real work starts now. Have the employees compile today’s trading results and calculate profit and loss. And Assistant Manager Kim, write up the position report. Did you check for anything unusual?”

“Ah, yes. I was planning to submit it with the report anyway.”

“Good. We have to plan tomorrow’s market strategy, so as quickly as possible.”

“Yes.”

After giving instructions to the team members, Team Leader Park Hong-seo took out the dumbbells from under his desk during the break.

After the market closed, his routine was to reduce muscle loss a little with dumbbells like this while drinking protein.

And for dinner tonight, as always, with refreshing chicken breast.

“..”

At that moment, he saw someone watching his beast-like routine activities, wondering whether to speak or not.

“Assistant Manager Lee. Do you have something to say?”

“Ah, yes. Team Leader. Sorry to bother you while you’re working out.”

“No. I’m just loosening up. What is it?”

“Well, Team Leader.”

Lee Hye-rin explained what happened while teaching the new employee.

“So the new employee who came today ‘accidentally’ bought an entire stock? And at market price?”

“Yes. It seems like he accidentally bought while I was teaching him. Since it hit the lower limit today, I was worried he might get too negative an evaluation.”

“I understand what you mean. Go and prepare the briefing. And educate the new employee.”

“Ah, yes.”

Lee Hye-rin.

They say people live as they look, and that seemed to describe exactly that woman.

An angelic appearance with a kind heart.

She seemed like someone who didn’t fit well with this cold world that only evaluates people by numbers.

‘But he bought the entire stock?’

Honestly, can that even be called a mistake? He tried not to care, but his curiosity kept going toward that parachute’s unexpected action.

“Why did he buy this?”

The stock that Jeong Jin-ho slammed with a full buy was none other than an insurance stock.

A company called Jungang Insurance, but insurance stocks aren’t actually that attractive.

What’s more, today insurance stocks were all showing blue lights due to interest rate hike concerns.

“Was it really a mistake?”

Anyway, it was just mock investment with fake money, not real money.

If it had been company money, it would have been a problem, but this much was, well.

But an uncomfortable feeling remained.

‘Buying the entire stock was a mistake?’

No matter how much he bought at market price, he would have directly pressed the buy button himself.

As those thoughts began to trail, Team Leader Park closed his eyes.

‘Let’s stop thinking about it.’

Anyway, he’s just a parachute passing through briefly.

He had no intention of assigning a senior position to someone who doesn’t know the first thing about investing, and the company would feel the same.

So let’s just watch whatever that guy does.

He’s someone who’ll leave for another place on his own.

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

“Ugh. The time already.”

Before I knew it, it was 7 o’clock.

I arrived at work at 5 AM and was trapped at the company for 14 hours.

But the day passed really in an instant.

“When you’re here, time really flows fast. Maybe because it’s a place where speed is life, so we move busily.”

At the beginning of opening, we two didn’t have much to do.

But when trading was proceeding actively and errands poured in from here and there asking to bring this and that.

Naturally, since I didn’t know anything, I just followed Lee Hye-rin around and learned.

“Still, Jin-ho. You did very well for your first day. Of course, there was one small mistake.”

“It is small, right?”

“Well. Would they reflect a mock investment mistake in the evaluation for a new employee who just came in today? Wait. Team Leader Park might. He’s such a strict person.”

Ah. Team Leader Park.

With muscles that look like they’ll burst his shirt, and his expression is, how should I put it.

He resembled the by-the-book officer I saw in the military.

If Team Leader Park had been my mentor instead of Assistant Manager Lee Hye-rin here.

‘Ugh. Just thinking about it gives me chills.’

Thank you, Hye-rin nim nim nim!

“Then see you tomorrow, Jin-ho.”

“Ah, yes. See you tomorrow.”

I stared blankly at the retreating figure of Assistant Manager Lee Hye-rin.

Actually, the work intensity was stronger than I thought.

That’s inevitable.

Isn’t this a wannabe securities firm for promising young talent?

I can’t complain that just this much is hard.

Because my mom and dad, who are working outside today to feed this unemployed son, must be more tired.

Plus, I gained more strength from the thought that Assistant Manager Lee Hye-rin is my mentor.

As I was walking to the subway station to head home.

“Oh.”

I got a call from my benefactor.

I answered the phone with a very enthusiastic voice.

“I answered the phone, President!”

[Sheesh. When it’s just the two of us, I told you to just call me hyung-nim.]

“But this isn’t easy.”

[You brat. After working just one day. So, how was work? Harder than you thought, right? No matter how junior you are, you must’ve been out of it trying to learn this and that.]

“Haha. How could I dare say I’m dying? Plus, seeing everyone work made me respect them. You must have been extremely busy too, hyung-nim, so how did you even play games?”

[Thanks to you too. You managed the guild well when I was on business trips or busy. Even when we went to raids, you took raid leader and gave us orders, so it was comfortable.]

“Oh my. I don’t think I could do it like you, hyung-nim. I feel like I’ll faint as soon as I get home.”

[Look at this guy. So you’re saying you won’t log into the game now? I’m already logged in and waiting.]

“Gasp. I’ll run there right away.”

[Yeah. Everyone’s worried. Saying the youngest who used to haunt the game like a ghost is gone.]

“Then I should go faster. Please wait a moment!”

I hurried and ran to the subway station.

I’m busy, busy.

Modern life!

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

Around 6-7 AM, you can hear wailing sounds here and there.

A harmony made by the sighs of office workers about to go to work.

But there are those who aren’t like that.

Traders.

They’re the ones whose hands shake on weekends when the market is closed.

They were no different from gambling addicts wanting to hurry to the casino.

Well, there might be some who aren’t like that.

But more than half of the traders Team Leader Park Hong-seo had seen so far were like that.

They’re all crazy about dopamine.

“..”

Team Leader Park came to work early today too and checked documents.

What happened overseas again today?

He checked various things and drank morning coffee. No. Morning protein.

“Good morning, Team Leader.”

As he did that, team members started arriving one by one.

“Everyone, meeting in 15 minutes, so prepare.”

“Yes!”

After holding the morning briefing and modifying the strategy set up yesterday in advance and giving instructions, Team Leader Park returned to his seat.

“..”

1 minute before the market opens.

Even though he’s worked in this field for a long time, this time is the most nerve-wracking and exciting.

Will my strategy work?

Can I win again this time?

My fingertips are itching, driving me crazy.

Trrring!

When the signal announcing the opening rings like that, Team Leader Park moved his hands busily.

He looked back and forth at the multiple monitors in front of him, observing the market, and his brain spun like crazy.

When his strategy fits, indescribable achievement and dopamine, and in the opposite case, anxiety enough to make the hand holding the cup tremble.

Lost in a world where you go between hell and heaven in just a few minutes, before you know it, closing time comes.

“Ah.”

At times like this, he feels like a young child who can’t leave his seat due to regret and emptiness when the amusement park he was enjoying closes.

“Team Leader. Should I send you the materials now?”

But there’s no time to space out.

Since today passed, we have to prepare for tomorrow.

“Yeah. Anything unusual?”

“Today, several stocks rose to quite high levels. I sent materials about that in a file.”

“Thanks.”

Team Leader Park Hong-seo checked which stocks suddenly rode a big upward trend and rose, and which stocks faced unexpected downward trends.

Finding out why these stocks had big fluctuations was their main task.

As he scrolled down the mouse wheel checking the list.

“..?”

One particular stock caught his attention. A very familiar stock.

“Wait. This.”

Just in case, he checked the mock investment results of the new employee he saw yesterday.

Sure enough.

[Jungang Insurance + 15%]

“Huh.”

Team Leader Park let out a chuckle without realizing it.

15%?

In one day?

The sudden rise in Jungang Insurance stock price was none other than due to dollar bond weight.

Usually, insurance companies invest a significant portion of their assets in overseas bonds, and due to interest rate hike concerns, they faced bad news and most insurance companies had to experience declines.

But today, only this Jungang Insurance shot up.

The reason was that their US Treasury bond ratio was a whopping three times higher than other competitors. Even their floating rate bond ratio was high.

So in yesterday’s case, all insurance stocks fell together, but only Jungang Insurance hit a high point today thanks to its unique strength.

But that parachute has this stock.

And he went all in.

It’s a shame it’s mock investment, but somehow he had this thought.

‘Could he have listened to yesterday’s meeting and made his own judgment?’

Yesterday, Team Leader Park Hong-seo’s team had a meeting about the favorable NFP, CPI, and strong dollar situation.

Probably every trader in the company expected insurance stocks to fall.

The pouring data said so, and it was actually right.

But the parachute discovered the pearl hidden inside alone.

‘They said it was a mistake.’

No matter how he thought about it, it was strange.

One stock, and out of all those stocks, he found Jungang Insurance and went all in at market price?

‘.Was it really a mistake?’