After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 016

The target was decided.

What remained was what problems this target had.

“From now on, please gather all the data on NextMove Logistics.”

“NextMove?”

“What kind of company is that?”

Kim Seong-won and Choi So-yeon asked.

A natural reaction.

But Kim Ha-ryul was different.

“It’s a company that develops AI-based autonomous truck driving.”

“If it’s AI-based autonomous truck driving, is it an automotive company?”

“No. They only produce software. Their market cap is $7.3 billion, which is over 10 trillion won.”

“A 10 trillion won company? But why haven’t I heard of it…”

“It’s also a unicorn company and hasn’t become a hot topic domestically. There are many companies of this scale on NASDAQ.”

$7.3 billion was big money for individuals, but in the NASDAQ market, it wasn’t particularly large.

Moreover, when Koreans thought of autonomous driving, Tesla was their first choice.

No, it wasn’t just first choice—it was everything.

“Do you think NextMove will become the Nikola of the AI industry, CEO?”

Nikola.

Before the Corona crisis, it was a global company that grew by playing the hydrogen truck card.

This company, which once grew to have a market cap of over $30 billion, eventually collapsed when fraud was exposed.

In short, Kim Ha-ryul’s mention of Nikola was accurate.

“I can’t give a definitive answer yet. But Nikola also had no substance, and NextMove also has no substance.”

The common point between the two companies was.

“In the end, they’re raking in money by selling only promises of what will happen without any technology.”

That was the current taboo of the AI market.

* * *

KH Capital, which had been quiet, began to move busily.

All employees started collecting data on NextMove Logistics.

CEO Kang Hyeon was no exception.

‘The more I look, the more it resembles Nikola. They have no technology, but their stock price keeps rising.’

NextMove was also touting full autonomous driving, but its substance was nowhere to be found.

The evidence the company put out every year was too weak, and there was no visible way to drive their revenue.

‘The reason they could grow into a company of this scale despite this was because they had solid partners.’

He quickly checked the time—it was almost meeting time.

After organizing the contents, he got up from his seat and headed to the conference room.

When he arrived, the employees were already gathered.

“Let’s begin.”

Kim Ha-ryul led this meeting.

She had shown good information gathering skills in previous deals, but this time she moved around like a fish in water.

“According to my investigation, NextMove is a company maintaining a huge market cap, but it has no substance.”

He liked it from the start.

The parts she had investigated and was confident about came from her mouth first.

“Above all, the full automation they talk about is currently very lacking. Yet the reason the company could grow to this scale is mainly because China’s largest private equity fund, CDH, is behind them.”

CDH Investments.

A Chinese private equity fund with assets approaching $27 billion, making it a massive fund.

It was large enough to rank in the global top 50 and was positioned in the top tier in China, excluding sovereign wealth funds.

Having this place provide funding meant only one thing.

“External investors would have taken it as a signal that there were no funding problems.”

Kim Ha-ryul nodded at Kim Seong-won’s words.

“That’s right. After that, UPS, Nvidia, and Navistar joined in succession, and the scale grew like a snowball.”

UPS, the world’s largest delivery company.

Nvidia, the strongest in AI semiconductors.

And even Navistar, a traditional American truck company.

With funding backed by China’s largest private equity fund, everything fell into place.

Kwangho, who had been listening to the explanation, spoke up.

“With all this, isn’t there no reason for it to fall?”

On the surface, there was no reason for it to fall.

It seemed like they should buy in right now.

But in Kang Hyeon’s eyes, NextMove Logistics was still glowing blue.

‘I could just trust my ability and mindlessly go short. That would definitely bring profits. But if such data accumulates, external forces will eventually target us.’

The external forces Kang Hyeon worried about were prime brokers and supervisory agencies from various countries.

They were desperate to catch financial crimes.

Brokers to reduce risk, and supervisory agencies to catch financial crimes.

So if they detected even the slightest suspicious sign, they would immediately push in.

‘If I can’t present proper evidence then, it’ll become troublesome.’

It would be fortunate if it ended with just being troublesome.

Once a massive supervisory agency like the SEC latched on, the things that needed explanation would increase tremendously.

Even without going to the SEC, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service had a formidable reputation.

Among traders and industry professionals, the saying “don’t catch the Financial Supervisory Service’s attention” existed for good reason.

‘This is why I didn’t go all-in on one stock.’

Repeatedly trading on one particular stock and getting all the ups and downs right?

Regardless of the amount, it would inevitably be detected as suspicious trading.

But this time, he had to go all-in on one stock.

NextMove Logistics.

On the surface, it looked like a decent company, but his eyes said otherwise.

He needed to find the reason.

To prepare for any possible contingency.

“The fundamental aspects are excellent. Then have there been any recent controversies?”

“There have been various controversies, but there was one recent incident.”

Kim Ha-ryul’s investigation wasn’t over.

As attention focused on her words, she continued.

“NextMove presented autonomous driving with a no-accident principle. But there was a recent accident during testing that caused a slight drop in stock price.”

“An accident is quite a big deal, isn’t it?”

“Why did the stock price only drop slightly before closing?”

“At that time, Nvidia announced new technology, so the news got buried. Plus, it seems they defended the stock price.”

“Hmm.”

It seemed like there was a lead.

“Let’s dig into that part in detail. And check if there are any owner risks. From what I’ve found, NextMove’s owners are Chinese, and all their funding came from China, so there might be some connection.”

“Understood.”

“Well, we’ll be busy for a while. Let’s move quickly.”

“Yes!”

Despite saying they’d be busy, there was no fatigue on the employees’ faces.

Knowing this was all the power of bonuses, Kang Hyeon smiled.

* * *

While telling employees to gather information, Kang Hyeon immediately prepared for short selling.

For large capital to execute short selling, they had to go through brokers.

Unlike individual retail investors, they couldn’t short sell with just a click on HTS.

Negotiation with PB was essential, and for that, they had to go through an RM.

Originally, this could be finished with a phone call, but they decided to meet since the other side also had something to say.

“CEO, how have you been?”

“Yes, you’ve been well too, Manager?”

Lee Jong-hyeok, whom he met after nearly a month, had become even more friendly than when they first met.

He wondered if he had been this friendly from the beginning.

He could soon understand the reason.

“Headquarters has classified your company as a special management client.”

“Special management client?”

“Simply put, you’ve become a VIP. Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen someone classified as a special management client within a month in our country.”

Becoming a special management client comes with various benefits.

Allocations for dark pools and short selling are moved to priority.

Plus, he knew that commission rates would also be lowered.

‘The timing is good.’

To hear such news when preparing for short selling.

Even luck seemed to be following him.

“But the reason you wanted to meet today?”

“It’s nothing else, but I want to short sell a specific stock.”

“Of course it’s possible. May I know which stock?”

“NextMove Logistics.”

“NextMove, I see. There are quite a few institutions targeting short positions, so securing volume is difficult, but it’s possible. By any chance, what scale are you thinking?”

The most important thing in short selling was scale.

If you take too little, the profit is small, and if you take too much, margin calls can come even with slight stock price increases.

Moreover, NextMove was currently a stock whose price was rising rapidly, so the position entry was important.

“100 billion won, I’m thinking of 5x leverage.”

A volume that made Lee Jong-hyeok’s eyes widen came out of Kang Hyeon’s mouth.

* * *

Short selling overnight was only possible for ordinary retail investors.

Or it was possible if the scale was very small or for stocks with abundant liquidity.

But most stocks didn’t fall into such cases.

Naturally, PBs also needed time to prepare borrowing volume.

This was why Kang Hyeon moved in advance.

Thanks to this, a commotion broke out at JP Morgan Headquarters.

To be precise, the place where the disturbance occurred was the Risk Team.

“John, that Korean place we saw before has now requested short selling volume.”

At Carter’s report, John frowned and read the report.

“What is this? The short selling amount is 350 million dollars? And NextMove too? Placing this scale of short selling on a stock that’s currently rising?”

NextMove is a super-premium growth stock.

Expectations are widespread that it will become the second Tesla.

A 350 million dollar short position on such a stock?

Making a hundred concessions, short selling was possible.

There would be no problem if done with their own money only.

“Plus, they’ve expressed intention to purchase CDS as well.”

“Even CDS?”

CDS meant insurance given when a store goes bankrupt.

However, this insurance isn’t taken by the store owner, but by people who think the store will fail.

Short selling plus CDS.

What this meant was one thing.

“They’re confident that NextMove will fail, right?”

“It seems so. Plus, it’s an order from a Korean family office close to China.”

“NextMove is a place with Chinese capital investment, right?”

“Yes. That’s their funding source.”

“You’re saying it could be insider trading. Does Richard know about this trade too?”

“The report should have gone up. A trade of this scale would require special approval.”

This scale isn’t something the Borrowing Team can decide and resolve internally.

It had to be reported to executives and approved.

This was why Richard Blake had no choice but to know about this matter.

“I should go see him.”

John immediately visited Richard Blake’s office.

He too welcomed him as if he had been waiting for John.

“Come in. You’ve come to my office again because of the short selling from Korea.”

“Exactly. This short selling and CDS order has too high a risk level.”

“NextMove’s current stock price is 53 dollars, so if we take this volume, it’s a margin call even with just a 13 percent rise.”

“What additional collateral can they provide?”

“Even so, 20 percent is the limit. Plus, KH isn’t even hedging.”

Generally, when taking short positions, hedging is done.

Hedging is accomplished by buying call options or taking index long positions.

There were other methods too, but KH’s order was just short selling and CDS.

Only those two.

“At this level, they must have definitive evidence that the company will go bankrupt. Were there any such movements at NextMove?”

“Recently, a truck conducting autonomous driving tests had an accident, but it was buried by Nvidia’s issues. But for a company to go bankrupt over something like that…”

“Hmm.”

Interest arose in Richard Blake’s eyes.

He too was a trader, so he knew.

How reckless this kind of betting was.

‘They either know something others don’t or see something others can’t see.’

This trade was like walking a tightrope.

Success would lead to the next step, but failure would mean falling straight down the cliff.

They would face bankruptcy from which they could never recover.

“Interesting. Approve it.”

“Excuse me?”

“This is too dangerous!”

“I’ll take responsibility. Approve it and allocate the short selling volume with top priority.”

Richard, who gave the approval, was curious.

‘If this gamble succeeds, I definitely want to meet him once. This Mr. Choi fellow.’

Choi Kang-hyeon.

That name was etched in his mind.

* * *

Kang Hyeon, who returned to the office, found Ha-ryul still remaining in the office working.

“Aren’t you going home?”

“Oh, I have some more materials to research. What about you, CEO?”

“I have to wait for a call from the United States. Would you like some coffee?”

“That sounds good. I’ll go buy some!”

“No. You research the materials. I’ll go buy it.”

After saying that, he went down to the first floor, bought coffee, and came back up.

Ha-ryul urgently approached Kang Hyeon.

“CEO! Please look at this.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

The document she handed him had one article printed on it.

[Wall Street Journal: NextMove’s partner supply chain and overseas data pathways are currently under review.]

Kang Hyeon’s eyes lit up upon seeing the article.

“When did this article come out?”

“A week ago. The stock price dropped about 1.3 percent at that time, but it turned back to an upward trend.”

He felt certain this was it.

The reason was that the article was emitting a blue light brighter than ever before.

‘Right now it says it’s under review, but the moment this changes to an investigation….’

The stock price would definitely fluctuate wildly.

Ring ring ring-!

Just then, the office phone rang.

Kang Hyeon immediately reached out and answered the phone.

“Hello.”

-This is Lee Jong-hyeok. Final approval came through from headquarters.

Could there be more perfect timing than this?

It was a moment when everything fell into place.

-Should we take the position right away?

“Yes. Please process it as quickly as possible.”

-Understood.

It was time to place the bet in earnest.

On the fact that the company called NextMove was going to collapse.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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