Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 317

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

317. It looks like the boss is finally making his move.

Thursday, February 13, 1997, Bangkok, Thailand.
The Foreign Exchange Department of the International Division at the Bank of Thailand looked as though a hornet’s nest had been stirred—hedge funds had been attacking the baht since morning.

“Sixty million sold at 6.8!”

Piyapong, seated before the monitor, cried out urgently. Kazi Damtatui, the bearded head of the Foreign Exchange Center, furrowed his brow and spoke with irritation.

“Where is it coming from this time!”

Piyapong answered loudly without turning his head.

“Goldman Sachs. Wait—Citibank just placed an order to sell seventy million at 6.8!”
“Those hyenas are relentless.”

Center Director Damtatui ground his teeth and shouted.

“Buy up all the selling pressure!”
“Yes, sir.”

With his response, Piyapong immediately picked up the receiver and placed a buy order.
In an instant, the contracts were executed and the selling dried up, but within moments, a fresh wave of baht sell orders flooded in, pressuring the Bank of Thailand once more.
Watching the exchange rate he had barely pushed up begin to fall again on the monitor, Director Damtatui crumpled his face and spat out a curse.

“Damn it!”

He had lost count of how many times this cycle had repeated—every time the Bank of Thailand bought baht, the hedge funds unleashed massive sell orders in response.

“We cannot let it break through 27 baht! Buy everything. Now!”

Kazi Damtatui, the center director, shouted again with veins bulging in his neck.
At that, Piyapong and the foreign exchange staff resumed their work, either placing direct purchase orders or indirectly selling dollars and buying baht through commercial banks and securities companies.
Amid the tense atmosphere of a battlefield, the foreign exchange staff monitored the buy-sell charts of the Bangkok foreign exchange market as well as those in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney with bated breath.
The floor was filled with the sound of multiple monitors displaying data, fingers drumming on keyboards, and voices shouting exchange rates with handsets pressed to both ears.
Whenever they managed to absorb the selling pressure, hedge fund baht sales orders would pour in again, and screams and harsh curses erupted from all directions.
Time passed in such frantic chaos that there was no time even to grab a meal, and when the market finally closed, the foreign exchange staff—who had been gripping their handsets and cursing with sweat pouring down their faces—collapsed into their chairs like waterlogged cotton.
Piyapong was no different; as the tension dissolved, he was so utterly exhausted that he couldn’t move a single finger.
Kazi Damtatui, whose voice had grown hoarse from shouting all day, clapped his hands to gather his subordinates’ attention as he looked around at them.

“Good work, everyone. I know you’re all tired, but compile and submit the total amount spent on baht purchases throughout today.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Understood.”

Weary voices came from all around.
Piyapong, who had been slumped over his desk like half-dead, barely straightened himself up and typed on his keyboard to check the day’s baht purchase records.

[87,800,000 USD]

Upon confirming that he alone had spent well over eighty-seven million dollars, Piyapong let out an involuntary sigh.
Adding the foreign exchange used by other staff members, Thailand had squandered over a billion dollars in a single day just defending the exchange rate.
The problem was that this was only the beginning, not the end.
He worried whether Thailand’s foreign exchange reserves could withstand the increasingly fierce attacks from hedge funds to come.
Especially when he recalled how the Bank of England and Japan, which had been attacked first, had desperately held out only to have their foreign exchange reserves severely depleted before ultimately surrendering, his mood grew even darker.

“Can we really win this….”

Muttering to himself, Piyapong shook off his weakening resolve and stood up, printing out order slips to report to the center director.

***

Eldorado Fund Representative Office, Manhattan, New York.
As dawn broke and sunlight flooded through the floor-to-ceiling windows, Seok-won sat at his spacious wooden desk, monitoring the frantic fluctuations of the baht and other currencies throughout the early morning on multiple screens installed before him.
Daisy, her black hair neatly tied back and dressed in formal attire, set down a mug and spoke.

“Representative. I’ve brought you coffee.”

Seok-won, who had been watching the baht chart on the London Foreign Exchange Market that had opened following Asia, finally tore his gaze from the monitors and looked at Daisy.

“Thank you.”
“You haven’t had breakfast yet. Would you like me to bring you a sandwich?”
“That would be great.”

Only after Daisy mentioned it did I realize my stomach was completely empty.
While I’d been absorbed in staring at the monitor, I hadn’t noticed that I hadn’t eaten anything since last night except for coffee.

“Of course. There’s a really delicious sandwich shop right in front of the office. I’ll grab something from there right away.”
“Thank you.”

Daisy left with a bright smile, carrying the empty tray with her.
I leaned back in my chair and stretched side to side, loosening my stiff neck and shoulders.
Then came a knock, and as expected, Landon Shore and Andrew—who, like me, had been up all night—entered.

“I was just about to call you. Good timing.”

I stood up and gestured with my chin toward the sofa in the Executive Office.

“Have a seat there.”

Once Landon Shore and Andrew had settled onto the facing sofas, I walked around my desk and took the center seat.
Though I’d been at the office since dawn, my appearance was impeccable as always.
In my white shirt and the bright patterned ascot tie that Kinsley had given me as a gift, I exuded an air of refinement.
I sat with one leg crossed and looked at Andrew as I asked.

“Have you confirmed Quantum Fund’s movements?”

Andrew, receiving my gaze, habitually raised one hand to adjust his gold-rimmed glasses before answering.

“Yes. We don’t know the exact amount, but we’ve confirmed that they’ve been selling baht through Goldman Sachs, just as you anticipated.”
“Just as I thought.”

As I nodded slightly in confirmation, Landon Shore naturally chimed in.

“Based on the fact that Goldman Sachs’ baht sell orders today amount to just over 200 million dollars, it seems they threw a light jab before launching a serious assault.”
“If that weren’t the case, they would have poured in far more capital.”
“I agree.”

Andrew nodded in agreement with my assessment.

“Should we observe the situation a bit longer?”

Landon Shore asked, glancing cautiously at my expression.
As I leaned back against the sofa and stroked my chin thoughtfully, the two men fell silent, waiting for my decision.
Entering too late would limit our profits, yet moving too hastily risked disrupting the momentum and sending the situation in an unpredictable direction, so caution was unavoidable.

“How much did the Bank of Thailand spend defending the exchange rate today?”
“Approximately one to one-point-one billion dollars, I’d estimate.”
“Then tomorrow the hedge funds will dump even more baht than today.”
“The Bank of Thailand has confirmed it won’t collapse at that level, so they won’t hold back.”

I nodded with a gleam in my eye and made my decision.

“Then we’ll buy baht tomorrow as well.”
“Should we start with the hundred million dollars you mentioned last time?”

Andrew leaned forward and asked.

“Let’s begin with that, then inject several hundred million more depending on how things develop.”
“Understood.”
“Let’s hope the Bank of Thailand maintains its iron defense against the hedge funds’ first assault just like today.”

I smiled wryly, and the two men mirrored my expression.

“Haha, I really hope so. If they exhaust their foreign reserves and drag this into a second round while exhausted, they won’t be able to hold out any longer when we flip our position and go short.”

***

The next day.
It was well past midnight, but Manager Choi Ho-geun and his team arrived at the Eldorado Fund Office by taxi.
The four of them crossed the dimly lit, empty lobby and stepped into the elevator that had just arrived.
As the doors closed, Jung Hwan-yeop let out a loud yawn and rubbed his eyes.

“Ugh. I haven’t slept in hours, and my eyelids keep drooping.”
“That’s what you get for drinking beer when you should’ve gone to bed early.”

Manager Choi Ho-geun clicked his tongue disapprovingly from beside him.

“How could I just sleep after witnessing such an exhilarating and dopamine-inducing battle yesterday? Right?”

Jung Hwan-yeop tapped Yu Seok-hyun on the shoulder and spoke.

“That was truly impressive.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

As Yu Seok-hyun responded with excitement still lingering on his face, Hong Jae-hee nodded in agreement alongside him.
Choi Ho-geun, despite his pride in having deep roots in Yeouido’s financial circles, had never witnessed a real-time clash between hedge funds and central banks with over a billion dollars at stake, making this an equally thrilling experience for him.
But what shocked him even more was Mason’s revelation that the battle they had watched with bated breath was merely a prelude to the main event.
This made today’s confrontation, following yesterday’s skirmish, all the more anticipated.
Upon arriving at the 31st floor and the elevator doors opening, Choi Ho-geun and his team hurried toward the Eldorado Fund Office.
As they passed through the security entrance and stepped onto the Trading Floor, a few traders were already present.
The four of them exchanged light greetings with traders they had grown close to during their training period, then pulled up chairs to their designated seats.
For a while, they had temporarily used a meeting room in the back, but over the past few weeks, as they began actual trading, they now had their own desks on one side of the Trading Floor.
Of course, it was only for the duration of their training period, but the fact that they could trade on Wall Street filled them all with tremendous excitement and joy.
Especially for Hong Jae-hee, who had been doing back office work until now, this training program made the experience of actual trading feel particularly special.
As the group settled into their seats, a Junior Trader with red hair wearing a knee-length skirt—a recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution—approached with an armful of printouts and distributed them one by one, saying:

“These are materials related to the baht.”
“Thank you.”

The group accepted the materials with words of gratitude.
As the four of them reviewed the summaries compiled from various information, Mason arrived at the Trading Floor with his briefcase and waved his hand.

“Hey. You’re all here already.”

Choi Ho-geun smiled and threw out a light joke.

“We couldn’t miss such a rare spectacle, just as you said.”
“Hmm. This is quite a big operation, but when you’re with the boss, something like this is nothing.”

Mason’s eyes gleamed with pride.

“Did I tell you about how the boss destroyed the Bank of Japan with the Quantum Fund two years ago?”
“The boss—I mean, the president participated in the yen attack?”

Choi Ho-geun asked in surprise.
His team members also widened their eyes at this story they were hearing for the first time.
Satisfied with his team’s reaction, Mason lifted his chin proudly and spoke.

“Not just participating—we essentially led the assault alongside Quantum Fund and brought down the yen. Here’s how it happened….”

Just as Mason was about to launch into his story with gusto, Dan, the senior chief with a silk necktie around his neck, strode in and bellowed loudly.

“Meeting starts in twenty minutes! Everyone report to the Conference Room without exception!”

Dan pointed directly at Choi Ho-geun and his team members.

“You four participate as well.”
“Us too, sir?”

Choi Ho-geun asked with a bewildered expression.

“That’s right. It’s the boss’s orders, so don’t forget to come.”

With those words, Dan turned and left immediately.

“Phew. Looks like the boss is finally making his move.”

Mason whistled softly, flashing a grin that revealed his white teeth.

“Is Eldorado Fund going to join the baht attack?”
“Of course! There’s no way the boss would sit out on a game this big.”

Hearing that Seok-won would personally dive into this colossal gamble where tens and hundreds of billions of dollars were at stake—not merely watching from the sidelines—Choi Ho-geun and his team members felt their hearts already racing with anticipation at what they would witness.

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