After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 17

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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 017

Kang Hyeon’s gaze turned toward the monitor.

The institutional trading system was running on the monitor.

[Status: Filled

Fill Price: $52.30

Fill Quantity: 1,500,000 shares]

The first day’s filled order was 1.5 million shares.

It was still far from the target of 6.6 million shares.

‘Is the volume low because it’s a popular stock?’

This scale of short selling was a first for Kang Hyeon too.

In the past, when he was at the investment company, he mostly executed buy orders or long-short positions on indices.

Since he had no experience with large-scale short selling of individual stocks, he waited patiently.

‘The stock price hasn’t changed much yet. It means JP Morgan is entering well in divided portions.’

Just because you short sell doesn’t mean the stock price drops all at once.

Such price movements were only possible when specific events occurred.

Unless it was exposed as fraud like Nikola or the corporate value plummeted during IPO due diligence like WeWork, price movements weren’t significant.

‘It’s still glowing blue. This means the corporate value will crash. There’s definitely going to be some event.’

He couldn’t know what that event would be.

But Kang Hyeon was certain that NextMove was hiding something unknown to the outside world.

His ability had never betrayed him so far.

Moreover, with this level of glow, that time wouldn’t be long.

‘Interest in the hundreds of millions is accumulating daily, but I can endure this much.’

Short selling has a structure of borrowing and selling stocks, so you have to pay interest when borrowing.

The interest rate JP Morgan offered him was 15 percent annually.

It was 0.041 percent daily interest, but since the scale was $350 million, $140,000 per day, or 200 million won in Korean currency, was generated in interest.

Interest is settled monthly, so he would have to pay 6.2 billion won in interest.

In other words, the longer you hold a short selling position, the more you lose.

That’s why most short selling position participants hedge by taking long positions.

But Kang Hyeon was in a situation where he only took short positions.

‘If I misjudged the timing, I’d have to pay tremendous interest.’

It could have been dangerous if he hadn’t made proper profits from the NASDAQ long position earlier.

‘The interest I need to pay immediately isn’t much. Let’s wait slowly.’

How exactly would this giant corporation crumble?

Kang Hyeon was already getting curious.

* * *

It took three days to fill all the contracts.

[Fill Quantity: 6,600,000 shares]

6.6 million shares.

He short sold with volume equivalent to 5 percent of NextMove’s issued shares.

The average price was $53.5.

Although he entered in divided portions and took positions over several days, this fact soon began to spread throughout Wall Street.

“When did so much short selling accumulate on NextMove?”

“Recently someone took a large volume of short selling positions, right?”

“Which broker is it? Goldman? JP Morgan?”

“It’s JP Morgan. From what I hear, such orders came in from Asia.”

“Asia means Japan or China?”

The big players in Asia were Japan and China.

Since there was no one in South Korea who could short sell at this scale, it wasn’t mentioned.

“Since Chinese capital went into NextMove, it’s probably Japan rather than China, right?”

“Why would Japan short sell NextMove? Those conservative people?”

“Didn’t some information get in? And we can’t completely rule out China either. Since they’re tied to Chinese capital, the information would be faster, right?”

Wall Street was literally turned upside down.

$350 million.

It wasn’t a large amount when looking at NASDAQ as a whole, but it was a large amount when limited to a single stock.

Moreover, NextMove was a company receiving tremendous attention, called the Tesla of trucks.

The fact that large-scale short selling occurred here was enough to catch the attention of Wall Street traders.

And this news crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached South Korea as well.

“I heard someone in Japan short sold NextMove for $350 million?”

“NextMove? What kind of place is that?”

“It’s a company listed on NASDAQ. It’s so hot in the United States that it’s called the second Tesla.”

Traders didn’t memorize every stock.

Since each of them had different areas of expertise, there were more people who didn’t know NextMove.

“Oh, there? They’re crazy to short sell when China is backing them.”

“Manager Choi, do you know something about it?”

Then Choi Chang-wook, who was listening to the conversation, stepped forward and acted knowledgeable.

Naturally, the colleagues around him asked him.

“It’s a very decent company there. The funding comes from China, and UPS, Nvidia, and even Navistar are attached to it.”

“Isn’t that perfect then?”

“Right. Some people compare it to Nikola, but it’s completely different from there. Nikola was completely fraudulent, but this place at least does testing.”

“So it’s not a scam company?”

“Yeah. How much did they short sell?”

“They say it’s over $300 million in scale.”

It was exactly $350 million, but the story didn’t seem to be conveyed that precisely.

Hearing the scale, Choi Chang-wook sneered.

“Whoever it is will soon get their head heated up. It’ll be on the news soon. Some stupid Japanese hedge fund suffered record losses from short selling.”

By the book, that’s how it should have been.

But it didn’t take even a day for that prediction to crumble.

“Breaking news!”

Everyone’s gaze turned to the employee who shouted.

“WSJ published an exclusive article saying NextMove is leaking confidential information to foreign countries!”

“What? What are you talking about? Give me that!”

Choi Chang-wook irritably snatched the document from the man’s hand and checked the content.

[NextMove Core Personnel Sell Technology to China.]

A headline that would turn all positive factors into negative ones was prominently displayed.

Then.

“You confidently said it wasn’t a scam.”

Someone’s words reached his ears.

He turned his head to find the owner of that voice, but everyone was avoiding eye contact.

“Kuk…!”

Crumple!

The document crumpled as much as Choi Chang-wook’s expression.

* * *

The trigger was pulled.

‘This was it.’

NextMove leaked their company’s technology overseas.

That alone was fatal, but unfortunately, that country was China.

This wasn’t something that would end quietly.

“What’s the situation in the United States?”

“Other media outlets are also spreading WSJ’s exclusive report. Almost all economic media are sharing related information.”

“Not just the media, but bloggers are also moving. Related articles are being posted on Reddit, and voices of criticism are getting stronger.”

Unlike South Korea, the United States still had powerful influence through blogs.

Celebrities exercised tremendous influence by expressing their opinions through blogs.

Since they were covering this in earnest, government agencies would definitely start moving seriously too.

“Breaking news! Goldwin has posted about NextMove on his social media! I’ll put it up on the main monitor!”

Soon the main monitor’s screen switched to show Goldwin’s social media post.

[Selling information to China is treason! I will order a thorough investigation into NextMove!]

The President of the United States himself had moved.

This meant only one thing.

“The stock price is plummeting!”

“Selling pressure is pouring in like crazy!”

“It’s dropped below 45 dollars! The selling pressure isn’t stopping and keeps pouring in!”

It meant NextMove was finished.

* * *

There were things that listed companies absolutely must not do.

Namely, not creating risks.

Among these, risks involving government agencies must absolutely never be created.

Especially the moment you get entangled with U.S. government agencies, the stock price literally falls into the abyss.

Representative cases included Enron and Nikola.

When Enron’s accounting fraud was exposed through FBI investigation, its stock price crashed from 90 dollars to below 1 dollar.

Nikola fell below 10 dollars, and in other cases too, stock prices fell at tremendous speed.

“NextMove’s stock price continues to move sideways at 35 dollars.”

NextMove was no different.

NextMove, which had hit 60 dollars, fell to 35 dollars in just half a day.

Only after recording a decline of minus 41.3 percent did the brakes finally kick in.

“What’s the news from the U.S.?”

“The last news was that the FBI would conduct an investigation.”

An FBI investigation.

For NextMove, it was no different from a death sentence.

“The stock price got destroyed in just ten days.”

Ten days since taking the short selling position.

A death sentence had been handed down to NextMove.

And a windfall of money poured down on KH Capital.

“What’s our profit?”

“The return rate is 34.5 percent. The profit is… 123.42 million dollars. Converting at today’s exchange rate, that’s 175.256 billion won in profit!”

Kim Seong-won rubbed his eyes several times as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying.

The amounts displayed here were at an unbelievable level.

‘Does this make sense with just two trades?’

The profit from the first trade was 106.92 billion won.

The second trade was 175.256 billion won.

If they closed the position immediately for confirmed profit, the two trades would total 282.176 billion won.

Since the initial deposit was 60 billion, it had grown fivefold in just one month.

He wondered if there had ever been such history at a Korean securities company.

“President.”

Then Kwangho, who had been listening to the conversation, spoke up.

“Manager Lee Jong-hyeok from JP Morgan just contacted us. He says he wants to discuss matters related to CDS.”

Seong-won felt like he’d been hit in the head with a hammer.

‘I forgot about it because of the huge profits. We also have CDS?’

The 20 billion won CDS.

What would its current value be?

If it was worth over 100 billion won?

‘The profit from just two trades approaches 400 billion?’

It became an even more unbelievable amount.

But being surprised was too early.

“Tell him I’ll contact him.”

“Understood.”

“And we’ll maintain our current position.”

“What?! Maintain it?”

This time too, he shouted in surprise.

When Kang Hyeon stared at him intently, Seong-won quickly covered his mouth.

“I’m… I’m sorry. Position maintenance confirmed.”

“Good. Since the market has closed, let’s just pay some attention to the news. Everyone did great work today.”

Kim Seong-won, watching Kang Hyeon enter the Executive Office with a nonchalant expression, asked Kwangho.

“Um… Department Manager.”

“Huh?”

“Was the President always this steel-hearted at his previous company too?”

“Well, I don’t know well since we weren’t at the same company. But one thing’s certain – our President isn’t an ordinary person.”

“I agree.”

Watching Seong-won nod up and down, Kwangho thought.

‘It’s not even surprising anymore.’

This was already the fourth time.

Finding Bitcoin for 170 billion.

Bitcoin futures for 80 billion.

Foreign stocks for 100 billion.

Plus this time’s 175 billion.

Once could be luck, but when it repeats, it’s no longer luck.

‘That guy has changed.’

While marveling at his friend’s transformation, he finished up his work.

“Alright, let’s set up automatic news search for the U.S. side and head home.”

“Yes!”

* * *

Kang Hyeon entered the Executive Office and immediately picked up the phone.

Then he dialed the other party’s number.

Ring ring ring-

Before long, the other party answered the phone.

-President, I’m sorry for the late hour.

“Not at all. This is business hours for us. You said you had something to discuss regarding CDS?”

-Yes. Headquarters inquired whether you’re considering selling the CDS.

The CDS that Kang Hyeon currently held was worth 20 billion.

But overnight, as NextMove’s stock price was destroyed, naturally the CDS value also skyrocketed.

The current market value was difficult to determine precisely, but his answer was already decided.

“I have no intention of selling yet.”

Knowing it would fall further.

There was absolutely no reason to sell.

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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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