Chapter 5

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

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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

“Heave-ho. Heave-ho.”

“What are you doing, Jin-ho?”

“Ah, yes. I’m warming up.”

When the market opens, I have to pull this cart around everywhere.

Lee Hye-rin told me that.

“You said the two most important things in the stock market are mental strength and speed, right?”

The seniors who are directly trading need to take care of the mental part, and we just need to be responsible for speed. Just yesterday I ran around so much I got cramps in my calves, so I desperately felt the need for exercise.

Ah. But when am I supposed to exercise?

Exercise after work. How terrifying.

Office workers all do it these days after leaving work.

Does that make any sense?

Especially Team Leader Park.

“Ugh.”

I shook my head.

How could a body that never exercised even once while living as a game addict exercise after work?

“Jin-ho. But I don’t think we’ll need the cart today.”

“Huh?”

“At least today, we won’t be touching the cart.”

If the most junior ones like us don’t pull the cart around, who will?

“The team leader already told the other teams. So today, the juniors from other teams will probably run around even more in our place.”

Suddenly?

If he was going to do that, he should’ve done it yesterday. I shouldn’t say something bad like that, but it was somehow strange that he took such measures.

I don’t think it’s because I’m a parachute.

“Instead, today we’ll be doing mock investment until the market closes. The team leader told us to do that. I think he’s giving us an opportunity because of that insurance stock.”

“Ah.”

“Thanks to you, Jin-ho, I also got an opportunity. Thank you.”

“No. I was just lucky.”

“But was it really luck? Hmm. No, wait. It must be a trade secret, so it would be rude to keep asking, right?”

It wasn’t really a trade secret.

Because I don’t have any amazing analysis skills.

‘So today I can just do mock investment all day?’

It seemed like it would be a very important time to test my ability.

“The meeting’s starting soon. You should listen carefully with your ears perked up. Securities firms like ours, we clearly identify the meta.”

“Meta?”

“Yes. Hot stocks, theme stocks, stocks of interest, skyrocketing stocks, etc. They don’t come from various fields, they usually overlap in one field, you know? That’s why we call it meta.”

It’s interesting to hear gaming terminology here.

In games too, don’t they call what becomes trendy meta?

It seemed like securities firms also call what’s most likely to be trendy today meta, and focus intensively on that field.

“Who will play the role of the leading stock today, and who will profit behind it. We check those things during the meeting. Prop trading is the most sensitive place to such things.”

We prepare the materials, but it’s really more like receiving them.

There’s a research department within the company.

They scrape together information from both domestic and overseas daily and analyze how it will affect the stock market.

When we receive reports that have been filtered once there, we take them, distribute them to team members, and create briefing materials for the meeting.

“It still looks like alien language to me.”

Global, by industry, corporate, market trends.

These are crazy reports analyzing all this with numbers.

What could I possibly understand from looking at that?

“Hoho. Why are you being so negative again? You must have learned it all in school. Plus, you must’ve seen it to death while studying for certifications.”

“..”

I just didn’t respond.

“Oh. Everyone will gather soon. Let’s hurry in.”

“Yes.”

Meta awareness.

Meta awareness is important.

I perked up my ears, ruminating on Lee Hye-rin’s words.

Because I could hear on the spot what today’s meta is, based on trend reports made by elites who graduated from prestigious universities.

This was amazing information you couldn’t hear even with money outside.

“You all read the report, right? The issue that’s currently emerging the most is the EV sector. Especially, risks across the entire value chain are growing. Everyone say one thing you know.”

Ah. I don’t understand what they’re saying from the start.

“After the electric bus fire, global OEMs’ safety standard reviews seem inevitable. Especially, nickel prices among battery materials have plummeted 45% compared to six months ago, weakening overall sector momentum. It’s dropped more than expected, Team Leader.”

“Oversupply is also serious. In the case of China’s LYD, despite lowering the operating rate to 60% compared to last year, inventory exceeded 400,000 units. ASP for entry models has also fallen more than 30% year-over-year. This is basically telling them not to do business.”

“But the EU and US stance is still firm, right? The bill prohibiting the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles from 2035 has passed.”

I followed the flow of conversation tactfully with my mouth closed.

I listened with my ears and quickly read the report again with my eyes.

Today’s meta was electric vehicles.

Even though Europe and America passed super-strong bills preventing the future sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles, internal combustion vehicles are still selling well.

Also, America is offering subsidy policies, and so is our country domestically.

However, there are battery fire incidents happening around the world, and because of the inconvenience of having to charge, not as many people are looking for electric vehicles as expected.

“Even though the EU and US stance is firm, for people trading by the second, it’s just a useless promise. There’s also anxiety that the promise could be overturned anytime.”

The prop trading department is a place that does 100% short-term trading.

Long-term promises are just illusions to them.

And it was the same for the retail investors inhabiting the stock market.

“Take short positions across the entire electric vehicle value chain, but let’s thoroughly manage risk. Hedge by selling ETFs with high battery stock weight.”

“Yes. How much leverage should we take?”

“More than 2x is dangerous. Go conservative at about 1.5x. We can’t have margin calls.”

“Then what about the internal combustion engine side?”

“Pick undervalued stocks among catalyst material stocks. But don’t put them all in one basket, diversify. It might have already been reflected to some degree.”

“Then should we start with shorts in the morning and go long in the afternoon session? Each of us will time it ourselves.”

“Let’s do that. While watching the trends. We’ll have to go by feel. But don’t get too greedy. I know we haven’t properly filled this month’s performance, but you might lose even more. Okay?”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

When the meeting ended, everyone poured out.

The team leader gave some instructions, but I didn’t understand any of it.

Then one senior on the way out called Assistant Manager Lee Hye-rin and said.

“Hye-rin. You and Employee Jeong gather materials on catalyst material stocks and pass them to me.”

“Ah, yes!”

Just as we two were about to go out to gather materials.

“Wait. Ask a junior from another team to do that.”

“What?”

“Those two have other things to do today, so don’t order them to do anything.”

“Ah. Yes. I understand.”

Team Leader Park said that to the senior and then nodded at us two.

Telling us to hurry and jump into this market.

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

“Whooo.”

Lee Hye-rin’s fingertips were trembling.

This sensation she was feeling after a long time.

It felt like a demon returning to the gambling den.

“I can’t make mistakes.”

Team Leader Park clearly said.

This is an evaluation.

In other words, if I mess this up, I have to remain a junior for a while.

Just running errands all day long, playing the role of a maid.

“It’s okay. I can do well!”

Lee Hye-rin repeated that to herself.

This was the opportunity she’d been waiting for so long, and she was ready to seize it.

Now she just had to click the mouse like crazy once the market opened.

‘But I wonder if Jin-ho is doing okay.’

She stood on tiptoes to glance at Jeong Jin-ho in the next cubicle.

Lee Hye-rin was busily reviewing the report from research, catalyst material stock data, and today’s meeting content.

But Jeong Jin-ho was just sitting still, really like he’d turned to ice, just staring at the monitor screen.

No matter how she looked at it, he only looked like someone whose mental state had collapsed, not knowing what to do first.

So that insurance stock really was a coincidence after all.

‘Should I go help him later when it’s less busy?’

Taking care of your subordinate is the mentor’s duty!

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

Like athletes waiting at the starting line, everyone seemed to be waiting for the gunshot to go bang.

Before long, a signal sound rang throughout the entire company like an emergency alert.

It was everyone’s turn to look forward and run.

“..”

But I didn’t do anything.

It’s not like I’m saying “the cheetah is laughing” or something like that.

I was just spacing out because I didn’t know what to do.

‘I have no idea what to do first.’

If it were pulling probability-based items, I’d just stare at the item until I get the feeling.

Or if it were enhancement, it would be the same.

But stocks were different.

There were too many things to consider.

‘I can’t tell if it’s going up right now, or tomorrow, or a year from now.’

Item boxes and enhancement give immediate feedback on whether you failed or succeeded.

But stocks weren’t that kind of thing.

‘Say I buy stock here following my intuition. But what if this goes up a year from now?’

Plus, there are so many different stocks that I don’t even know which ones I should look at until I get a feeling.

It feels like finding scales in a sandbox.

‘Stay calm.’

That’s what I always tell myself whenever my head fills with hazy dust.

The problem is I only did this when playing games.

Anyway, now I shouldn’t get impatient but calmly try things one by one.

‘They said today’s meta is electric vehicles and batteries.’

Let me look at that first.

Shouldn’t I at least show that I’m working hard, as the team leader said?

I boldly opened the report from the research team.

“Hmm.”

Am I really reading Korean?

Plus, a list of stocks related to today’s meta was also displayed on the screen, and as Team Leader Park predicted this morning, they were all showing blue lights.

‘I think he said to take short positions in the morning and long positions at lunch.’

Short and long positions.

How exactly am I supposed to take these and manage risk?

Ah. I should’ve gained some experience doing Bitcoin when everyone else was doing it.

‘But if all these are blue lights, doesn’t that mean I absolutely shouldn’t buy now?’

There were more electric vehicle and battery stocks than expected.

But they were all showing blue lights, so it looked like I’d be finished if I entered.

‘Let me find stocks showing red lights and go in there.’

There’s a saying “follow the upper limit.”

It means following stocks hitting the upper limit.

‘Rather than putting money here, it would be much better to put it all on that side.’

Let’s not do what we’re told not to do.

Thinking that, I was about to scroll down the list of battery-related stocks full of blue lights.

“.?”

Just slightly, but I felt a tingling sensation from my fingertips spreading throughout my body.

This feeling isn’t unfamiliar.

“No way.”

I enlarged the window I was about to close with the x.

Then I checked the stocks one by one carefully.

Among stocks full of minuses, the mouse wheel stopped at exactly one place.

It was a company that makes batteries using nickel as a raw material.

“..”

This intense feeling spreading enough to make me gulp.

It’s certain.

It was that feeling I know.

‘But this.’

The minus is way too severe, isn’t it?

Plus, didn’t they say I’d get destroyed the moment I enter battery-related stocks now?

They seemed to be saying there’s absolutely no way it will rise for a while.

But this strong feeling of trembling fingertips was telling me this is it.

‘Right. It’s mock investment anyway, isn’t it?’

Thinking that made me feel a bit more comfortable.

I’ll trust my feeling just one more time.

Click.

I pressed the buy button firmly.