Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 108

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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108. What’s going on here?

Monday, January 23rd, 1995. Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX).
The expansive Trading Floor hummed with its usual frenetic energy.
Traders clad in colored jackets denoting their firms thrust their hands skyward, their voices raw and piercing as they shouted bids and offers—a cacophony that assaulted the ears.
Amid this whirlwind of activity, Brad Cooper sat at the Barings Bank pit, observing the market’s every twitch.
Haggard from sleepless nights, his eyes bloodshot and inflamed, Brad remained seated yet anxious, his leg bouncing restlessly beneath the desk.
The dark, oppressive aura radiating from him was so palpable that even his own teammates hesitated to approach.
The recent earthquake had sent the Japanese stock market swinging wildly between euphoria and despair, and I had ridden those waves backward, getting battered from both directions.
My eyes tracked the Bloomberg terminal before me and the traders barking their deals, yet my mind was elsewhere entirely.

‘Damn it!’

I cursed myself for not exercising patience, for not waiting just a little longer to read the market’s true direction—but it was far too late now.
The losses buried in Account 88888 had swollen to unbearable proportions, and that mounting dread compelled me toward increasingly reckless trades.
Those hasty positions had not stemmed the bleeding; instead, they had multiplied my losses several times over.
Alone in the empty office over the weekend, tallying trade slips and punching numbers into a calculator, I had confronted the full magnitude of the damage—and my eyes had squeezed shut involuntarily.
The hidden losses in Account 88888 had now surpassed 10 billion yen.
The Nikkei futures I had sold, betting on a steeper market collapse, had been the decisive blow.
The one saving grace was that the long position I had re-established slightly later was climbing sharply, already 300 points above the 19,100 benchmark.
I had liquidated all my shorts and shifted entirely into Nikkei longs.
If the index continued its ascent and broke through the 20,000 level, I could trim my losses substantially and breathe again.

‘There’s still plenty of time until March, and the market sentiment is strong. Twenty thousand is well within reach.’

Once I closed these positions and caught my breath, I would reassess and place fresh bets.

‘Yes. I’ve come this far—I just need to weather this storm.’

As I was steeling myself against the anxiety gnawing at my chest, a teammate handed a freshly completed dealing card to the pit’s Female Secretary, his eyes settling on me with unmistakable concern.

“Brad. Are you alright?”

I snapped back to attention, my head jerking upright.

“What?”
“You don’t look well. Are you feeling unwell?”
“No, it’s nothing. I just haven’t been sleeping well lately because of insomnia.”

Brad Cooper waved his hand dismissively.

“You know how it is. There’s just a lot to worry about these days.”
“I see.”

His colleague, aware that Brad Cooper had been on edge due to the recent volatility in the Japanese stock market, nodded understandingly and fell silent out of consideration.
Brad Cooper rubbed his face wearily with his hands, then gazed for a moment at the large ticker board visible before him.
He then reached across his desk and called a colleague in Tokyo.

[Hello?]
“Eric, it’s me.”
[Yeah.]

Tokyo was in the middle of active trading, so the voice on the other end was mixed with loud ambient noise.

“How’s the atmosphere over there?”
[It looks like we’ve completely recovered from the earthquake aftermath. If no other variables emerge, it seems like the upward trend will continue for a while.]
“Good to hear. That’s a relief.”

Hearing the answer he wanted, Brad Cooper felt inwardly relieved and relaxed his tense expression slightly.

“I heard rescue operations are still ongoing in Kobe?”
[Don’t even mention it. The entire city is completely devastated, so it’s going to take an enormous amount of money and time to restore it to its former state.]
“Even just watching the news footage, you can see how severe the damage is.”
[It’s ironic how construction companies keep hitting the daily limit because of it.]
“Indeed.”

Brad Cooper smiled bitterly and adjusted the receiver in his hand as he spoke.

“I hear aftershocks are still continuing, so take care of yourself and let me know immediately if anything changes.”
[Will do.]

Just as Brad Cooper was about to end the call, he heard Eric’s voice suddenly startled on the other end.

[Wait, what? Why is this happening?]

A sudden sense of foreboding gripped Brad Cooper as his face hardened. He asked urgently.

“What’s wrong?”
[Selling volume is pouring in all at once!]
“What did you say!”
[The Nikkei has reversed into a decline! The atmosphere feels off—I’ll call you back later.]

Eric, unable to hide his panic, hung up before Brad Cooper could even respond.
Brad Cooper stood frozen, unable to even lower the receiver, until he lifted his head and gazed at the massive ticker board before him—and his entire body went rigid.
The Japanese Nikkei Index, which had been climbing steadily just moments before, had reversed course like a cruel illusion and was plummeting downward.
Traders scrambled in panic at the sudden collapse, rushing to the dealing desks and desperately shouting sell orders.

“What the hell is happening!”
“I don’t know—just sell!”

As the index that had climbed over the past few days crumbled like a mirage in an instant, the traders’ clamor pierced the air with deafening intensity.

“Damn it, why is it collapsing all of a sudden?”
“Is the Nikkei index really at this level right now?”
“Hell! This doesn’t feel right.”

Traders who had bet long frantically waved their dealing cards, desperate to unload their positions.

“Sell 250 contracts at 19,100!”
“Sell 500 at market!”
“I placed my order first!”
“Don’t push!”
“Get out of the way!”

But as the Nikkei plummeted relentlessly, no one dared to buy—fear had gripped them all.
The selling pressure intensified, and the sprawling Trading Floor became saturated with despair and shock.
Brad Cooper, standing transfixed before the ticker board, remained paralyzed by the impact.

“Brad! Right now… we have to!”
“The index… is falling… what do we do?”

The team members surrounding him were flustered, their voices clamoring with concern, but none of their words reached his ears.
Brad Cooper felt dizzy, his mind numb—everything around him seemed less like reality and more like a terrible nightmare.
Or rather, he desperately wished it were.
If it were a nightmare, he would wake in terror with his bedsheets drenched in sweat, and everything would return to normal.
But unfortunately, this was reality, and as he watched the Nikkei index plummet, nausea surged through him as if he were plummeting from the peak of a roller coaster.

“Ugh.”

Brad Cooper barely managed to swallow the bile rising into his throat, his eyes clenching shut.
He wanted nothing more than to abandon everything and flee this cursed place.
But how?
Only then did Brad Cooper realize he had sunk into a vast, inescapable swamp, and despair consumed him.

* * *

Gimpo International Airport, Seoul.
In one corner of the expansive parking lot stood a Gulfstream IV business jet, its fuselage painted pristine white like an elegant swan.
It was the newly delivered private aircraft owned by the Eldorado Fund.
Seok-won sat alone in the cabin, its floor carpeted thickly and finished with luxurious interior appointments.
Reclined at an angle against the spacious, soft leather seat by the window, Seok-won was on a call with Landon Shore in New York.

[The Nikkei just closed, plummeting nearly 1,000 points in a single day.]
“That’s practically panic-level convulsions in the market.”
[The damage estimates from the Kobe earthquake compiled by the Japanese Government are beyond imagination. They’re saying it will exceed 10 trillion yen—I was speechless when I first heard the preliminary figures.]

Seok-won gazed through the round cabin window at the sunset-painted sky, now entirely crimson, and answered calmly.

“Even for an economic powerhouse like Japan, it’s a scale that won’t be easy to manage.”
[It’s not just the stock market that’s been devastated—Japanese government bond prices have also fallen sharply since the announcement.]
“The market seems to anticipate that the Japanese Government will issue bonds on a massive scale to fund reconstruction.”
[Even as a wealthy nation, Japan can’t cover astronomical reconstruction costs through taxation alone.]

With the phone pressed to his ear, Seok-won nodded slightly in agreement.
There were limits to how much could be hastily diverted from other government budgets, and raising additional taxes for reconstruction was equally difficult.
That left only one option: massive issuance of government bonds.

‘Indeed, from the Kobe earthquake onward, Japan’s fiscal deficit and government bond issuance increased significantly.’

The Kobe earthquake was far more than a mere disaster—it was the decisive blow that sent Japan’s already-faltering economy into freefall.
It became the catalyst that plunged the nation into what would be called the Lost Decade, or perhaps the Lost Thirty Years.
Seok-won brushed aside his brief reverie and spoke.

“Unlike the collapsing Japanese stock market and government bonds, the dollar-yen exchange rate will continue its relentless climb.”
[So you’re saying that because the damage is astronomically high, Japan will need to repatriate massive amounts of capital from overseas, correct?]

Seok-won’s lips curved into a smile as Landon Shore grasped the implication immediately.

“Precisely. If my projections hold, the rate will surge to at least 90 yen per dollar.”
[Did you say 90 yen?]

Landon Shore’s surprise was evident in his question, and Seok-won answered in an unruffled tone.

“That’s right.”
[If that happens, we’ll be entering an era of super-strong yen again.]

Considering that the exchange rate stood at 250 yen per dollar at the time of the 1985 Plaza Accord, one could imagine just how dramatically the yen would appreciate.

[If that occurs, we can generate substantial profits from the exchange rate movement once more.]

Landon Shore spoke with barely contained excitement, then a sudden thought prompted him to ask.

[Don’t tell me that trading Nikkei futures in yen against Nomura Securities and other Japanese securities firms was also aimed at capturing currency gains?]

By conducting Nikkei futures trades in yen rather than dollars with Japanese securities companies, Seok-won could capture not only trading profits but also currency gains when the yen strengthened.

“Why not maximize returns by capturing currency gains as well?”

Landon Shore immediately recognized this as Seok-won’s calculated intention and burst into laughter.

[Ha ha ha! You’re absolutely right!]
“Both the exchange rate and the Nikkei will move in our favor. Let’s maintain our positions for now.”
[Understood.]
“I’m departing for the United States now. We’ll discuss the details when we meet.”
[Yes, I’ll be waiting.]

As Seok-won lowered the phone from his ear, a slender blonde Stewardess who had been waiting approached with a subtle smile.

“May we depart now, sir?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“Thank you. Please fasten your seatbelt.”

Moments later, the Gulfstream IV business jet carrying Seok-won surged powerfully down the runway and vanished into the dark night sky.

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