After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 28

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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 028

India.

Dongbang Partners India Branch.

The office was bustling with activity.

“30 minutes left.”

“Volatility?”

“All dead.”

“Good. Take positions and load up volume to push it through.”

“Yes.”

The trading team quickly placed orders.

The trade was completed in an instant.

They took positions in options and loaded volume in futures to move the spot market where volatility had died.

“Closing positions.”

“All positions closed.”

“Profit is 3.27 million dollars.”

The trade was finished.

They made 3.27 million dollars in 30 minutes of trading.

“Market sentiment?”

“Nothing has changed. No particular talk from the community side either.”

“Good. Let’s wrap up.”

Ju Myeong-heo, who managed the branch, gave orders to the traders and returned to his office.

Sitting in front of his computer, he checked this month’s profits.

[52,429,140USD]

52 million dollars.

It was an astronomical profit, but it hadn’t reached the target.

“Still not reaching 200 million dollars.”

This month’s target was 200 million dollars.

They hadn’t set such a high target from the beginning.

Their trading was in a gray area after all.

If SEBI noticed and launched an investigation, there could be problems.

So until now, they had kept targets low enough to avoid attention.

Thanks to that, they had been generating stable profits long-term.

“Suddenly raising the target to 200 million dollars. Damn!”

Then headquarters had raised the target.

Curious about the reason, he investigated and found the answer in the United States.

“NextMove collapsed…”

The NextMove incident.

It was an event that shook the US financial markets.

A promising stock came under FBI investigation and its price plummeted.

Though the price had somewhat stabilized now, industry observers believed recovery was impossible.

The problem was that Dongbang Partners had invested heavily in NextMove.

As the stock price fell, losses naturally occurred, and to cover those losses, they issued special directives to branches worldwide.

Namely, a massive increase in targets.

“Tsk! Making the branches cover headquarters’ losses!”

Though his dissatisfaction was great, there was no choice.

Branches had to do what headquarters told them to do.

“Phew… Still, it’s fortunate the Indians haven’t noticed. I was worried they’d catch on with the increased trading volume.”

Trading in the gray area.

One wrong move could make it illegal.

‘How long do I have to walk on this thin ice?’

Ju Myeong-heo’s anxiety grew day by day.

* * *

Kang Hyeon met with Choi Byeon to discuss the recent situation.

“Hmm, certainly if those Eastern guys, who are the second-largest shareholders, spread strange stories to the media, the local government might exclude KH Construction.”

“Yes, those guys have already received dividends on profits from the jeonse fraud, so it’s confirmed they’ve gained more than their initial investment.”

“That means they’ll have no reservations.”

As expected of Choi Byeon.

He grasped everything at once and reached a conclusion.

That part was the biggest concern, so it was fortunate he didn’t need a long explanation.

“I’ve thought of various methods, but each had obstacles.”

“What methods did you consider?”

“First was weakening their stake. The best method I considered was paid-in capital increase through contribution in kind.”

Contribution in kind was providing physical assets like land in exchange for new shares.

They could transfer the Yeongjong Island land currently held by KH Recovery to KH Construction and receive new shares.

“The problem is that even using this method, Eastern would still be the second-largest shareholder.”

“The anxiety the local government feels would remain unchanged.”

“Yes. The best method would be creating a situation where they have to quickly sell their shares…”

“There aren’t many such methods. The most certain would be reporting their involvement in jeonse fraud to the Financial Supervisory Service to halt their operations in South Korea, but…”

“I already searched for materials, but there was no direct evidence. Oh Jeong-seok’s testimony is the only thing. The problem is he’s unlikely to cooperate at this point.”

“He would be. Cooperating with Choi CEO at this point offers him little benefit. Rather, if his collusion with Eastern becomes known, his sentence could be heavier.”

It was a headache-inducing situation all around.

“For now, I think you should consider the shareholder allocation or paid-in capital increase through contribution in kind that Choi CEO thought of. Otherwise, CB issuance would be fine too.”

“I think we’ll have to.”

They continued discussing various ideas and searching for methods, but returned to the office without finding a suitable solution.

Though it was past closing time today, Kwangho remained alone at his desk.

“Backtesting again today?”

“Huh? Oh yeah. That’s running automatically, so no problem. Look at this.”

“Hm?”

Going to Kwangho’s desk, he saw the chart from yesterday.

One difference was that it showed recent data rather than very old data.

“Did you check the recent charts for what you were looking at yesterday?”

“Yeah. The pattern was strange, so I ran backtesting up to recent data. But strangely, trading frequency increased since last month.”

“Last month?”

“Yeah, what’s marked here are guys trading using signals. They used to trade once a month or once every two months.”

Looking at past data, there were indeed few markings.

“But since last month, trading has been happening 2-3 times per week. They’ve been loading large volumes each time too.”

“That’s definitely strange. Did they need performance?”

“Or maybe headquarters needed money.”

“How long have these guys been in the India Market?”

“They seem to have been trading since COVID was almost over, so about 4 years?”

A pattern that had been consistent for 4 years had changed.

This meant some major change had occurred.

Then one stock flashed through his mind.

“NextMove.”

“Huh?”

“The NextMove incident broke two months ago. If trading frequency increased since last month, maybe headquarters got hit by NextMove?”

“They increased trading frequency to cover those losses?”

It was still just speculation.

But.

“That sounds plausible.”

The most plausible scenario was complete.

“Let’s find them. Among the companies that entered NextMove, look for ones that suffered major losses while also jumping into the India market four years ago. Find a place where these two conditions match.”

“Find them and attack?”

“If you know what mechanism the opponent uses to establish their position, it’s only natural to target that, right?”

What do institutions fear most?

Having their positions exposed.

Because the moment they’re exposed, they become targets.

There were countless real cases in financial history.

The bankruptcy of LTCM, which had attracted attention when Nobel Economics Prize winners Scholes and Merton joined, the GameStop incident, and Soros’s short selling of the British pound were representative examples.

“Okay, then I’ll gather the information.”

“You’re going to do it now? Let’s start together when the employees come to work tomorrow.”

“Is that necessary? If the conditions are already set, finding them won’t be difficult.”

Kwangho moved quickly.

“If I input the conditions you mentioned into the search program our company uses and add the NextMove information Ha-ryul gathered and the materials provided by SEBI…!”

Click!

When he pressed enter, countless materials could be seen passing by on the monitor.

The speed was so fast that it was impossible to tell what those materials were, but the computer instantly reviewed them and produced results.

[FOUND(1)]

“Found it.”

In an instant, it found just one candidate.

When Kwangho pressed the button, that candidate was displayed.

[Dongfang Partners]

Kang Hyeon and Kwangho looked at each other without either speaking first.

* * *

Everything became certain.

“I knew a lot of Chinese capital was involved, but I didn’t expect it to be this much.”

The amount Dongbang Partners invested in NextMove was 1.5 trillion won, about 1 billion dollars.

While it wasn’t a high amount compared to major partners like CDH or Nvidia, it was among the top investments among private equity funds.

“On top of that, they failed to exit and are still holding their position. They’ve reduced their volume, but the scale is so large they can’t dump it all at once.”

NextMove’s price had been cut in half from its peak.

Regardless of when Dongbang Partners invested in NextMove, they enjoyed using leverage.

“If they took loans from banks and reinvested every time the stock value rose, they’d be strapped for cash.”

“Right. Plus, with 1.5 trillion won, they wouldn’t have put it all in initially but would have added more each time it rose. Looking at how they’re moving now, they’ve taken quite a loss.”

“Can we find out how much profit Dongbang Partners made in the India market?”

“According to their published performance data, their profit from the India market over four years is about 4 billion dollars.”

That meant they were making 1 billion dollars in profit annually from the India market.

Even considering that the India market was among the world’s top 5 largest markets, this was a considerable amount.

“Didn’t India know about this?”

“The frequency wasn’t high until now. Plus, after Dongbang introduced this method to the market, other traders started copying it, making it difficult to catch.”

The arbitrage trading currently happening in India had other traders jumping in after Dongbang started it.

With multiple trades being conducted in the same manner, Indian financial authorities seemed to view this as normal trading.

“What method do they use?”

“It’s a method that exploits the characteristics of the India market.”

Due to investor tendencies, the India market had more funds flowing to derivatives rather than spot trading.

“As a result, the spot market’s volatility dies 30 minutes before market close.”

“That’s similar to our country too.”

“Right. Most markets lose volatility as closing time approaches. But in India, it literally stops. Prices stop moving.”

“To that extent?”

“This is the trading volume during the 30 minutes right before market close.”

The trading volume shown on the chart was so small it was barely visible.

“It’s practically nonexistent.”

“Yeah. In fact, these trades are likely bots trading algorithmically.”

Bots were now part of markets everywhere in the world.

They supply liquidity while responding to even small signals.

“They targeted this response method. For example, if you place an order in the futures market, bots judge that trading volume has occurred and buy or sell.”

“At this time, do traders trade options?”

“Right. They especially trade ultra-short-term options for quick hit-and-run tactics. They slowly close the positions they held the next day.”

“Looking at it this way, it seems like market manipulation, but…”

“If you separate them into individual trades, they’re all legal transactions. The market is just following along. That’s why Indian authorities might not have been able to touch this area.”

“Even while being aware of it?”

“Yeah. But they’ll move now. They’ve increased the frequency to this extent.”

Until now, they likely knew but couldn’t punish it.

As an emerging country, India’s laws aren’t complete yet, so they can’t catch trades happening on the borderline of legality.

Moreover, foreign capital was very important in a market that was beginning to grow.

With all these factors overlapping, Dongbang Partners was making enormous profits.

Conversely, ordinary individual investors were suffering losses.

“That means there isn’t much time left.”

“Right.”

At Kwangho’s answer, Kang Hyeon fell into thought.

‘Li Chunseong stayed still even when I was securing JS Construction’s shares. If there was a reason to quickly convert shares to cash, moving then would have been best.’

Their recent exit attempt was poorly timed.

‘When Incheon City confirms the theme park contract, the company’s value will naturally rise. Then there will be many buyers even without selling to me. Yet they tried to sell to me at this point because they can’t wait anymore.’

All the puzzle pieces fit together.

‘Dongbang Partners’ Korean branch was also pressured by headquarters.’

That’s why they might have demanded a somewhat unreasonable price.

‘If the India branch also takes a hit while cornered?’

Even a global investment company like Dongbang Partners would inevitably suffer major damage.

‘If Li Chunseong’s decline is added to that, there’s a high possibility the Korean branch will be greatly affected too.’

All paths connected to show him what he needed to do.

“Kwangho.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you confident?”

There was no subject.

But he immediately understood what it meant.

“Time to show my skills.”

Kwangho was more reliable than ever.

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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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