Chapter 6

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Team Leader Park Hong-seo hadn’t played many games.

It just wasn’t particularly to his taste.

He couldn’t understand at all how people could get so absorbed in it that they lose track of time.

However, after stepping into the stock market, he came to understand gamers’ hearts.

Because he too, from the moment the stock market opens until closing, focuses entirely on it with complete immersion.

Today’s market also ended in a flash.

“Phew.”

He checked the daily return rate.

+1%

1%.

At a glance, it’s a very small number.

However, in the prop trading department, 1% was by no means a small number.

“Team Leader. You did well today.”

“What about the others?”

“Don’t even ask. Not just our team, but all the other teams got crushed too.”

The market has been fluctuating violently lately.

That’s how stocks are.

Even when countless elites do thorough data analysis and enter, they can’t predict stock prices.

Because stocks are the direct expression of human madness.

“It looks like no team will meet the monthly target this month.”

“Yes. But who knows. There’s still about a week left. We might be able to fill the target quota within that time.”

Prop trading has monthly targets set for each team.

Minimum 5% to maximum 15%.

Sometimes people misunderstand that prop trading, which mainly does short-term trading, has monthly profit targets of 50 to 100%.

They say short-term trading is gambling, and those crazy about gambling will extract the highest returns.

But prop trading is actually a place that cries “safety first.”

That’s why they advise against adventurous investment and even manage risk by setting leverage limits.

Because of this, daily returns are often 0.1%.

You could say the prop trading department is risk-management-focused, with the principle of at least not making losses.

“Let’s do what we can. Everyone have a cup of coffee, and let’s go straight into the meeting.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Team Leader Park also headed to the break room to take a brief rest and pour some water.

As he was pouring water like that, someone smoothly approached from behind.

“Hey. Team Leader Park. Aren’t you being too obvious about sucking up?”

It was Team Leader Kim Hak-tae, a fellow hire from the same year.

Team Leader Park narrowed his brow.

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know, or are you pretending not to know? Our juniors had a hard time today thanks to Team Leader Park. The market was already crazy busy today, and those kids ran around like crazy.”

Ah. So that’s what he’s talking about.

Kim Hak-tae whispered quietly in case anyone might hear.

“That parachute. Team Leader Park let him rest comfortably today. Well, well, I didn’t see you that way, but I guess Team Leader Park is trying to navigate office life too?”

“That’s not it.”

“I understand. They say he’s a parachute inserted directly by the CEO. Since the parachute happened to land in Team Leader Park’s team, you can’t help but be concerned. It would be troublesome if you get on his bad side now and that guy gets super-fast promoted to executive later.”

It wasn’t wrong.

Even if you try not to care, it makes you care.

“So, did you talk to that guy? What’s his relationship with the president? Must be family, right?”

Jeong Jin-ho revealed that he’s not related to the CEO by family.

“I don’t know either.”

“Tsk. You’re trying to keep the good stuff to yourself again.”

“What good stuff is there? He’s someone who’ll leave for another place soon anyway.”

“Well. That’s true too. Still, should I try to make an impression before he leaves? Team Leader Park is even making this kind of effort.”

Team Leader Park Hong-seo shook his head and left the break room.

He kept Jeong Jin-ho at his seat today to check his investment skills.

“..”

Where did he invest today?

“Daehan Solution?”

Daehan Solution was a place that imports nickel and makes batteries.

On a day like today, no, it was one of the stocks you absolutely shouldn’t enter for a while.

But the new employee threw money at this.

“Full buy again?”

Is he rebelling?

Daring to tell me not to test him?

Or is going all-in on one stock just a habit?

‘Yeah. What was I expecting?’

Not wanting to think complicated thoughts, Team Leader Park closed the window.

He tried it thinking maybe he had investment talent, but as expected, that new employee was just an ordinary parachute with nothing special.

You could tell just by looking at how he didn’t diversify into multiple stocks but just went all-in on one stock as if it was bothersome.

That insincere attitude was a bit annoying though.

‘Why should I get angry about this?’

He’s someone who’ll leave here soon and move up anyway.

He had no intention of sucking up, but he had even less intention of making enemies.

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

Has there ever been a day at the company as awkward and boring as today?

Following the intuition that struck my whole body, I just pressed the buy button, and I spent all the virtual money I had.

And all on just one stock.

“Jin-ho~. How was your investment today?”

“So-so.”

“Oho. Can I take a look?”

“Well. You shouldn’t.”

Lee Hye-rin checked my stock holdings and blinked.

“Jin-ho. What is this?”

“Pretty terrible, right?”

“No. Did you forget that the basics of investment are diversification? Last time you said it was a mistake. But you went all-in again? And Daehan Solution of all things! Why on earth did you buy this? Don’t tell me this was also a mistake?”

“..”

I smiled awkwardly and scratched my head.

“Then how about you, Assistant Manager? Did you do well today?”

At that, Lee Hye-rin confidently put her arms on both hips.

“Ahem. My return today was a whopping 2%! I’m probably the only one on our team who made 2%!”

That look was so cute that I couldn’t help but smile broadly.

“Wow. That’s amazing. You’re totally the stock champ.”

“Stock champ? What’s that?”

“Ah. I mean you’re the champion of stocks. It’s just trendy to add ‘champ’ at the end.”

“I only used that in elementary school. I guess trends really do come back around. No. Now’s not the time for this.”

Lee Hye-rin tried hard to glare at me with a serious face.

“Jin-ho. Don’t go all-in on one stock like this next time. If you had diversified, you wouldn’t have taken this much loss. Got it?”

The problem was that even that look was the epitome of cuteness.

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Phew. I’ll teach you well from now on.”

“Thanks to you, I feel reassured.”

As the two of us were laughing and chatting, a passing senior trader scolded us.

“Assistant Manager Lee, Employee Jeong. Are you two laughing right now? Did you come here to date?”

“Ah. S-sorry.”

“Just prepare for the meeting.”

“Yes.”

I haven’t been here for many days, but I learned one thing.

The office atmosphere changes depending on that day’s market situation.

“Please understand, Jin-ho. The market fluctuated so much today that Deputy Yang Mi-ju also took some losses. Everyone only took losses today, so the atmosphere won’t be very good.”

Even so, I thought it was rude to take out your irritation on an innocent person.

But isn’t this what office life is?

“Still, our team is better off. Other teams are really. Ugh. All my peers from other teams quit because they couldn’t stand that pressure.”

Hmm. I thought our team was the scariest because of Team Leader Park Hong-seo.

Guess I was wrong.

“Oh right. Now that I think about it, I’m your mentor, but I haven’t even bought you a casual meal.”

The prop trading department doesn’t have such a thing as lunch time.

Because the market continues to be open during lunch time too.

That’s why most people have a light snack after the market closes.

“It’s okay.”

“I’m not okay. I’m in a good mood today, so shall we eat something together after work? There’s an udon place I really like near here. How about it?”

How about it, she asks.

“Great!”

Of course it has to be great.

Dinner alone with Assistant Manager Lee Hye-rin!

I was feeling a bit down from getting scolded for nothing, but suddenly I started feeling excited again.

“Although we took losses overall today, we defended well considering. We can make up today’s losses tomorrow. And there’s nothing special about today, right?”

So much so that the smile didn’t leave my face throughout the meeting.

“Ah, yes. The entire market was in a downtrend today. All we did was a little sector hedging for risk management.”

“Well, it looks like the downtrend will continue for a while, so let’s watch.”

“Yes.”

“Everyone worked hard. Let’s all leave work early today.”

We even got off work early today.

It couldn’t be better.

Not only getting to eat dinner with the assistant manager, but also being able to play more games when I get home made my body tingle with joy.

“..”

But was I smiling too much?

After making eye contact with Team Leader Park Hong-seo who was looking at me with a stiff face, I quickly lowered the corners of my mouth that seemed to reach my ears.

But inside my heart, I was still smiling like the happiest person in the world.

‘Ah. The udon I eat today will be the warmest in the world.’

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

There’s a saying.

The most interesting things in the world happen when you’re asleep.

The reason is that various incidents break out overseas in different time zones from our country.

It was the same this time.

“Team Leader. Did you hear the news?!”

Traders who came to work from dawn were in an uproar.

“I saw it.”

“No. Why didn’t these people even signal before doing that?”

An incident broke out in the middle of the night.

No. Maybe calling it an incident is a bit much.

Well, at least it was a big incident for the trading department.

[Indonesian government reduces nickel supply by 30%. Initiates export restrictions.]

Indonesia is the world’s largest nickel producer.

However, recently due to oversupply of nickel, its value had been declining.

They thought Indonesia might present some solution to that, but they suddenly made a surprise announcement.

“If it were 5%, you could think ‘that could happen,’ but 30% is really crazy.”

“They should’ve given advance notice. What kind of behavior is it to stay quiet like they’re not doing anything and then do this?”

30% was a number that could give a big shock to the market.

That much meant the Indonesian government was also very unhappy with how things were currently going.

If nickel supply decreases like this, the battery industry that was on a downward trend yesterday might rebound.

“Not all companies will rise. Those without nickel will suffer, and conversely, those holding plenty of nickel will rise.”

Places that don’t hold nickel will struggle due to the increased prices, but places that already hold a lot of nickel will actually benefit.

The real problem is that there are quite a few teams that shorted, thinking all battery-related stocks would definitely tank.

That’s why the traders are in an uproar now.

If stock prices rebound, the traders who took short positions will suffer huge losses.

“Is the company list out?”

“Not yet. The research department people also just got to work and seem to be busily scraping together data. But I just heard, there’s exactly one place in our country with the most nickel holdings.”

At that moment, Team Leader Park had one name flash through his mind.

“Is that place by any chance. Daehan Solution?”

“Oh. Right. You knew, Team Leader. They say that stock price will soar today.”

“..”

Team Leader Park stared blankly into space.

“Team Leader?”

Jeong Jin-ho.

The stock that parachute went all-in on yesterday was exactly Daehan Solution.

That guy knew this time too.

That it would turn out like this.

‘He kept smiling during yesterday’s closing meeting for a reason.’

That was actually a victor’s smile.

No agency would have predicted that the Indonesian government would make a sudden announcement.

There was no sign of it happening either.

‘How on earth did that parachute know everything?’