Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 126

Translator: Dreamscribe"We are currently holding internal meetings about when it would be best to change our policy regarding the asset management company. Vice President Kang Ji-hwan has also expressed the opinion that it might be time to open the management company to the general public."

“But if we open the asset management firm to general customers, wouldn’t that be like throwing down the gauntlet to Kangseong and KS, the two giant asset management firms in our country?”

“Manager Lee. That’s not a challenge.”

“Then what is it......?”

“It’s a notice. That we’re going to sweep away all of your firm’s clients-.”

“Ah.”

Kwangwoon Asset Management is still not open to the general public.

That’s because they’re currently only managing assets from the National Pension Service.

However, if Kwangwoon Asset Management were to open to the domestic market, there were even talks that all other asset management firms in the country might have to shut down.

“But aren’t we tied up with Kangseong through semiconductors? They’ve done a lot to accommodate us, even sharing factories and technology. If we steal away their asset management clients like this, wouldn’t that strain our relationship?”

“That’s true, but.......”

The employees looked in my direction.

“CEO-nim?”

“.......”

But I wasn’t focused on the conversation the employees were having.

I was thinking about something else instead.

‘What on earth was that.’

One of the stocks I saw yesterday.

GameStop.

The other ones had normal appearances, but that one stock was unusually different.

It was bizarre, filled with madness, and yet somehow seemed to almost make sense.

It was a type of stock I was seeing for the first time, and it left me bewildered.

The problem was, I couldn’t figure out why my intuition was showing me that stock in such a way.

“What about the material I requested yesterday?”

“Ah, yes. You’re talking about GameStop, right? Here it is.”

As I was about to receive the report handed over by the Department Head, I paused.

It was because the turbulent hue I saw yesterday was surging through the entire document.

“.......”

It felt unsettling, but I took the document.

The tangled sense of madness spread through my body from my fingertips.

Frowning, I looked over the report.

“It’s a company that sells video games offline. They started in 1984 and opened offline stores all over the U.S. to sell games and reached their peak, but... as you know, the world has changed. Now we live in a world that prefers online over offline. Above all, the company is rumored to be in crisis after taking a direct hit from COVID.”

The development of the internet had shaken offline stores.

And now the development of smartphones was delivering the final blow.

The era of visiting physical stores was gone, and now everything could be done online.

You could say that the massive disease known as COVID had played a huge role in creating such a world.

“That’s exactly what Wall Street is targeting. They’re launching large-scale short selling on GameStop. Quite a few places have already taken positions. Since hedge funds are also getting involved, the short interest rate continues to rise.”

“What’s the current short interest rate?”

“It’s said to have already exceeded 50%.”

The employees who were listening to the report looked shocked.

“What? Over 50%?”

“That much? Isn’t that a bit much?”

Generally, even a short interest rate of 20–30% is considered high.

But 50% was an extremely high figure.

“The problem is, this might just be the beginning. It seems like everyone’s heard rumors from somewhere and is short selling GameStop left and right. There’s even talk in the industry that it could reach 70%.”

Now that the short sellers have latched on, GameStop’s future was as good as decided.

Soon, negative articles about GameStop would erupt from all sides, and online communities would start talking as if the company could go bankrupt any day now.

“It’s the usual pattern. Once Wall Street takes a short position, the media writes the articles.”

The media moves according to money.

They’re cold as ice to the government, but endlessly warm to whoever pays them.

“The current stock price is 30 dollars.......”

“Yes. It’ll probably drop to 20 dollars within a few days. By any chance...... were you thinking of shorting this as well?”

I shook my head.

It was already too late for us to enter the short position, as many short sellers had already piled in, and even if we had taken a position earlier, the scale wasn’t that large.

In other words, even if we jumped in now, we’d only make some pocket change and walk away.

Still, it would be better to check with my intuition just in case.

“.......”

My intuition didn’t respond to Department Head Seo’s question about whether I would go short.

Only the nauseating sensation of chaotic confusion lingered on my tongue.

“No. Even if we short it, it’s not like we’d make a huge profit.”

“Right. For Kwangwoon, the scale is too small anyway. Haha.”

So should we just drop this and move on?

At that moment, a slight tingling sensation passed through me.

Wait a second. Don’t tell me... it’s telling me to buy?

As if confirming my thoughts, my intuition flashed through my mind once again.

‘How much?’

I slowly wrote down an amount.

Even as I raised it, my intuition didn’t react, so I started lowering the amount.

And then, the amount stopped at a certain level.

“......?”

I tilted my head as I looked at the number.

“Department Head. Can you... just buy 1 billion worth of this?”

“Pardon? One billion dollars? But this is a stock that’s guaranteed to fall. More than anything, I don’t know if we can even handle an amount like one billion dollars.......”

“No, not one billion dollars.”

I double-checked a few more times, but the result was always the same.

“One billion won.”

“What? Wo- won? Then... just one million dollars?”

Department Head Seo’s expression as he looked at me was probably the same as mine right now.

***

My intuition had been developing more and more.

In the past, I had only relied on feelings, but now, it had been upgraded to the point of showing vivid visions.

There were times when it even showed me stocks through colors.

In those cases, when I took a long or short position on that stock, the light would disappear on its own.

As if to say I had made the right decision.

But this time, that chaotic light was still lingering.

Even after I took a long position with 1 billion won following my intuition.

That meant there was still more to it?

“I heard the news. Kwangwoon Asset Management isn’t planning to open in the domestic market, is that right?”

“......?”

I paused for a moment at the words of Chairman Kang Sung-ho, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Lately, I hadn’t been paying any attention to the asset management firm due to other matters.

Especially regarding the domestic opening issue, I knew there had been a lot of back-and-forth, but since I hadn’t made a final decision, it had just been put on hold for now.

But it seemed that Chairman Kang Sung-ho and other asset management firms thought we were deliberately choosing not to open domestically.

“People in the industry were already really worried. If Kwangwoon opens its asset management firm to the public, everyone will flock to you. Right now, there’s already a buzz about how you’re making legendary returns with the National Pension Service, isn’t there?”

Kwangwoon’s corporate brand image is currently number one in South Korea.

It suddenly exploded in popularity after we acquired Tottenham.

That’s why other asset management firms were on edge.

“But the fact that you still haven’t made any plans to open domestically... that fits CEO Jung’s motto perfectly. You’ve always told me that you wanted to grow together while coexisting with domestic companies. So does that mean Kwangwoon Asset Management will only manage the National Pension Service?”

In truth, that wasn’t exactly my intention.

It’s just that we hadn’t made any specific plans yet.

But it seemed Chairman Kang Sung-ho had misunderstood, thinking I was deliberately avoiding domestic entry to avoid hurting local firms.

“Or is it that you’re planning to go abroad entirely?”

Then my intuition flashed through me again.

“Well, if your dream is to become the world’s largest asset management firm like Whiterock, that might actually be the better move. Rather than focusing on the domestic market, you could just draw in all the global capital. That’s your plan, isn’t it?”

My intuition struck me once again.

“......Chairman, you really are wise.”

“Wahaha. Hearing that from no one else but CEO Jung makes me a little embarrassed. I’ve always been pretty sharp, haven’t I?”

Today marked the moment when the management policy of Kwangwoon Asset Management was decided.

“And Kwangwoon’s original playground has always been overseas, hasn’t it? The Bitcoin exchange is also the world’s largest in scale. Wouldn’t it be great to combine that know-how with the asset management firm? No, better yet, using that as a foundation to expand overseas would be even better. KW Exchange has its own app too. You could even trade on the US market through it.”

“......!?”

The intuition that had only lightly brushed past me until now surged in full climax, sending a shiver through my entire body.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

"......I think about this often, but Chairman, you truly are full of brilliant ideas.”

“Hmm? What’s this today? Why are you flattering me like this?”

“Here, have a drink.”

“Well now. Haha. I don’t know what this is about, but I’m in a great mood.”

After pouring Chairman Kang Sung-ho another drink, I reopened the report saved on my phone.

“......!”

The GameStop stock, which had been swirling in a chaotic storm of colors, had returned to normal.

***

“The securities app currently enjoying overwhelming popularity in the US is called ‘Losthood’. Since COVID, the number of retail investors has exploded, and it’s especially popular among young people. Most of all, since commissions are free, users can trade not just the entire stock market but also futures, ETFs, and even Bitcoin.”

The hottest securities app in the US right now was this app called Losthood.

With tens of millions of users, its influence was massive.

“You can trade Bitcoin on it too?”

“Yes. But that’s limited in volume. More importantly, our KW has such a dominant hold over the Bitcoin sector that competing with us is virtually impossible. However, if they keep expanding their services while pushing the ‘no commission’ model... no one can say for sure what could happen in the future. They’re still growing very rapidly.”

In short, they were a serious competitive threat to us.

“We may dominate in Bitcoin, but when it comes to the US stock market, the situation is completely different. Over there, they have a solid user base, whereas all our users are concentrated in the Bitcoin sector.”

“You mean we can’t compete in the US stock market?”

“Yes. Their loyal user base is so strong that it would be extremely difficult to compete. That’s why I said earlier that even our dominance in Bitcoin may not last forever, because Losthood is now looking to expand not just in the US but globally.”

“Above all, in Korea, when investors trade on the US market, they usually link domestic apps with overseas financial institution apps and use them like brokers. So for Korean companies like us to develop a financial app within the US itself is extremely difficult due to regulatory constraints.”

In reality, it’s very difficult for Korean companies to create securities apps abroad.

There’s a reason domestic securities firms partner with overseas financial institutions.

“But that only applies to typical Korean financial firms. We’re a bit different.”

“That’s right. We have the KW Exchange, don’t we? It’s the most-used Bitcoin exchange app even in the US. So, just as Losthood modified its app to support Bitcoin trading, we can modify the KW Exchange app to support US stock trading.”

However, for KW Exchange to handle the US stock market, there were several approvals that needed to be obtained.

“SEC broker-dealer registration, FINRA membership approval, SIPC membership approval, and so on. These three are the main reasons domestic apps can’t expand into overseas securities markets. Even just trying to get those approvals would take at least three years. The chances of rejection are also high. But Kwangwoon doesn’t need to worry about any of that.”

These regulations were like a wall of lamentation, blocking foreign trading apps from entering the US.

But Kwangwoon was different.

“Because during the National Pension Service deal last time, the US government provided us with all those licenses.”

The moment had come when the United States lifted all regulations and even granted licenses so that we could freely play in the U.S. stock market.

I hadn’t expected that this would end up being so useful in a completely different way.

“Are those still valid?”

“Yes. If we submit the application as-is and mobilize all our connections, there’s a high chance we’ll get approval within a month.”

But even if the approval goes smoothly.

The wall of reality remained high.

“Even if it does get approved, when users outside the U.S. try to access the U.S. stock market through our app, there are inevitably going to be regulations. The procedures will also be complicated. That means we’ll have to attract users based inside the U.S., but that space is already dominated by Losthood and other apps.”

Even if we passed the wall of regulations, without users, it would just result in a huge waste of money.

And providing U.S. stock services would require us to hire a large number of new staff.

There would be many other expenses as well.

That’s why the employees believed it would be better not to do it at all.

“.......”

But my intuition was still giving me a strong reaction about this exchange expansion.

Even though, realistically speaking, there was no way to attract users in the U.S.

“There’s only one way. If Losthood makes a huge blunder and users start to leave in droves.”

“But that’s way too unlikely, Manager Lee.”

“Yeah... that’s true.”

In short, there was no way to beat Losthood.

And yet, seeing how my intuition kept pushing this forward...

‘Is it really going to make some unbelievably huge mistake?’

***

Even a 50% short interest rate was already excessive, but this one kept rising, to 70%, then 100%, and finally 140%, becoming the first stock in nearly ten years to exceed a 100% short interest rate.

Short sellers had piled in to the extreme, and now only the plunge into the basement was left.

As if reflecting reality, the stock price had dropped all the way to 20 dollars.

While the short sellers were waiting with their mouths wide open.

[The future of GameStop is still bright.]

A post appeared on the largest community in the U.S.

-GameStop isn’t dead yet. Neither are our memories.

To summarize, the post argued that although GameStop was struggling now, it would soon bounce back.

But that was just the narrative, the real core of the message was this:

-Let’s kill all the shorties piled up in GameStop!

The post claimed that if every member of the large community bought just one share of GameStop, the short sellers could be wiped out naturally.

Tens of thousands of posts are uploaded to the community each day, so one might expect it to be buried quickly, but it captured attention.

-This is insane. You know this is stock manipulation, right? You're saying we should gather all the members here and pump the price? Are you out of your mind? ......Let’s do it now!

-Short interest is at 140%? So if we join forces, we could actually destroy those bastards?

-This sounds fun.

-Oh. Maybe I should throw in some of my extra cash too?

It had started as a joke.

No one really expected anyone to follow through and buy the stock.

But then.

-Wait, what? I just checked the trading screen, and someone bought a million dollars' worth?

GameStop, which had only sell orders and not a single buy order, suddenly saw a million-dollar buy order fire off like a flare.

-What the hell. Are we really doing this?

-Then I’m in too?

As rumors spread that some wealthy member had bought one million dollars' worth of shares after reading the post, others began joining in out of curiosity.

-It’s only 20 dollars a share anyway, right?

-Ah. It just went up by one dollar.

-If the stock actually skyrockets, that would be hilarious. Not that it’ll happen.

Honestly, none of them really believed they could defeat the short sellers.

They were just having fun for 20 dollars.

But as the saying goes,

-Many a little makes a mickle.

Small drops make a mighty ocean.