New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 168

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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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Chapter 168. Breaking Through Limits (3)

Palantia began operating its system in earnest based on CIA intelligence.

However, I couldn’t view that information directly.

If I checked the information from Korea, the CIA could verify those log records and express dissatisfaction.

To directly access CIA information, I would have to go to the United States.

But that wasn’t necessarily required.

I just needed to receive the predictions that Palantia made based on CIA intelligence.

“Branch Manager, Headquarters has sent a report.”

“It’s a Middle East-related report.”

It’s a report with detailed information about the local situation.”

This was how I received information.

First, Palantia processed the intelligence and sent it to Tiger Fund Headquarters.

The CIA didn’t take issue with the Chairman and General Manager sending me the processed information in report form.

“Iraqi exiles’ testimonies continue to emerge.”

“The content includes that Iraqi exiles in the UK and Germany, not just the United States, are making similar statements.”

Weapons of mass destruction.

This was what Iraqi exiles were commonly claiming.

The moment I saw that content, the gears that had been stopped began to turn.

“War will break out soon.”

“Do you really think Iraq is developing and possessing weapons of mass destruction?”

“That’s impossible to know.”

“According to Omnis, the possibility that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction is predicted to be quite high.”

That part bothered me too.

It felt like Omnis’s prediction system had been contaminated.

Judging by the discordant notes heard throughout the report content, it seemed likely to have been calibrated based on contaminated data.

But that part wasn’t important.

Just because data and information were contaminated didn’t mean the results would change.

“The United States seems to have already decided the outcome and is fitting pieces to match it. Other countries are showing similar movements as well.”

“So you see war occurring regardless of whether they possess weapons of mass destruction.”

“Even for re-election, the White House needs a target to express anger toward. So the process is merely for building justification.”

Looking at the report, I could be certain.

That the United States had already made the decision for war.

And I could also tell that war was only months away.

“Should we think they’re building justification through Iraqi exiles?”

“When the new year comes, justification will be sufficiently built. War will start as early as within the first quarter of next year.”

“Then there isn’t much time left now.”

“Now we need to start preparing gradually. Move slowly and secretly for now. It won’t be too late to move in earnest when the new year comes.”

There was nothing good about needlessly alarming the market.

So now we needed to quietly secure volume to avoid suspicion.

“I’ll slowly begin short selling volume and oil futures investment.”

“Since we’ll need to move aggressively when the new year comes, we must secure necessary funds in advance.”

“I’ll maximize cash holdings in coordination with Headquarters, and proceed with loans using stocks or real estate as collateral.”

It was the calm before the storm.

Without completing full preparations before the storm hit, we couldn’t survive.

Tiger Fund planned beyond survival – to use the storm as leverage to seize Wall Street’s hegemony.

***

The end of 2002.

While we prepared for the Iraq War.

Korea held its presidential election, and the results came out today.

“A whirlwind swept through the political arena too.”

“The underdog candidate ultimately won. There are various reasons, but reports are emerging that the spread of the Internet had a major impact on the election results.”

“It was an election that proved you can instantly boost recognition by properly utilizing the Internet.”

“Moreover, the public always loves an underdog’s rebellion.”

The election was a very interesting event.

But in this election, Tiger Fund was more like an observer.

Though we delivered donations to both the ruling and opposition parties, we didn’t openly take either side.

The stage of having to depend on the Blue House had already passed.

We had already planted our people in political circles and various government agencies.

Since Tiger Fund’s influence on Korea’s economy was very significant, there was no need to jump into the election arena.

And since the Iraq War was a bigger event for us than the presidential election, we didn’t have the capacity to focus on the election.

“Right now, the United States situation is more important than Korea.”

“The United States is steadily demonizing Iraq. Regardless of faction, most are voicing opinions that Iraq should be attacked.”

“So it’s a situation where they just need to put the final period.”

“Since American public opinion is already decided, if they just move international opinion now, they can immediately enter war.”

International opinion wasn’t much different.

After all, international opinion was bound to move according to the logic of power.

“How is the oil price situation?”

“Oil prices have begun rising little by little. They’ve currently risen to $25, and this seems largely due to the spread of rumors about America’s invasion of Iraq.”

“Now we can move aggressively.”

“I’ll focus purchases on WTI 3-month futures. I’ll set leverage at an average level of 5x.”

Under Song Sang-yeon’s leadership, we had already completed a portfolio that could yield maximum returns.

The funds we could use totaled $20 billion.

Of this, half – $10 billion – would go to oil futures purchases, 25% to call option purchases, and the rest to energy stock purchases and short selling.

“Considering call option rollovers, we’ll need additional funds.”

“You don’t need to worry. When oil prices rise, valuation profits increase, and we can expand credit limits using that as collateral.”

The way money makes money.

As long as oil prices rose, we wouldn’t lack funds.

Favorable positions would serve as collateral.

“Secure as much volume as possible. Even if war doesn’t break out, oil prices will keep rising as long as this tension is maintained.”

“When should we set the liquidation timing?”

“We must sell at the peak. The moment war actually starts, liquidate all positions.”

“Isn’t that too early? If war breaks out, oil prices could surge even more.”

Naturally, oil prices would rise further when war erupted.

But to safely secure profits, we needed to move right after war began.

“I used the Gulf War as reference data. The war will be very short and end with America’s one-sided victory. The moment war starts, the outcome is already determined.”

“You mean oil prices will regain stability once the war ends.”

“Exactly. Think of a war declaration as no different from an armistice declaration.”

It was a war with predetermined results.

From the timing of war to victory.

Since the United States had already decided everything, we just needed to ride that flow.

***

2003 dawned.

To welcome the new year, the General Manager personally came to Korea.

“Is it okay for you to leave Headquarters and come to Korea from the new year? Don’t you have New Year meetings?”

“Thanks to someone, it’s not an atmosphere for New Year meetings. With all the Fund’s money deployed to the battlefield, how could we hold meetings?”

He meant because of me.

Actually, it wasn’t wrong.

Right now there was no leisure for New Year greetings.

An investment with Tiger Fund’s fate at stake was underway.

“So far, things are proceeding smoothly.”

“Oil prices have risen quite a bit. There seem to be many funds that followed us into oil futures. But you know how it is. It’s not over until the profits are actually in our hands.”

“It’s still too early to pull out. Even if not to $40, there’s plenty of room for growth up to the high $30s.”

Oil prices were still hovering in the low $30s.

We could harvest considerable profits even if we liquidated now.

But since this was an investment we started by betting Tiger Fund’s fate on it, we couldn’t be satisfied with just this much.

“Of course I trust the Branch Manager. But the situation feels quite unstable.”

“Unless the White House suddenly declares they won’t invade Iraq, this is an investment that absolutely cannot fail.”

“The U.S. Government is certainly continuing to intensify their condemnation of Iraq.”

“That’s the current atmosphere in the United States. They’re ready to crush anyone who tries to stop the Iraq war.”

Not everyone supported the war.

Some countries were too afraid of the United States to speak up, while others like France directly opposed the war.

“France and Germany are opposing the war.”

“No matter how much they oppose it, the White House has no choice but to force the war through. After building up the atmosphere like this, suddenly saying they won’t go to war would mean giving up on reelection.”

All decisions in democracy ultimately moved according to elections.

They were bound to move in the direction of getting even one more vote in elections, and right now the majority of American citizens supported the war.

“Even looking at the information coming through Palantia, the war seems difficult to reverse now.”

“So we just need to wait patiently.”

“Still, I think I’ll wait in Korea until we liquidate the profits. What good would it do to return to the United States in this state when I wouldn’t be able to focus on work?”

The Korea Branch was serving as the control tower for this investment.

Of course, most of the funds were at Headquarters, but Headquarters’ funds moved according to the Korea Branch’s will.

The Chairman and General Manager had given me such command authority, and since there had been results of generating large profits from several investments so far, there weren’t many opposing voices.

“Since you’re in Korea, may I give you a simple task?”

“It would be better to spend time doing simple work rather than just sitting idle in Korea. But what kind of work is it?”

“It’s work that can provide a change of mood. I’d like you to handle the baseball team reorganization work that the General Manager enjoys.”

“Baseball team? Ah! You mean the Daehyeon Baseball Team.”

The General Manager had been under extreme stress due to this investment.

For such a General Manager, baseball team reorganization would be very enjoyable work.

“These are the problems with the Daehyeon Baseball Team that I’ve investigated so far.”

“This isn’t the level of a professional team report.”

“I mobilized Redline to investigate everything about the Daehyeon Baseball Team, and even presented future directions.”

A baseball team report of over several hundred pages.

Since he couldn’t read all that report material right away, the General Manager quickly checked the summary written on the first page.

“You’ve identified outdated training as the biggest problem.”

“Outdated training disguised as grit and hungry spirit is poison that eats away at players’ careers.”

“Asian countries do place importance on grit.”

“We need to change the outdated training that makes players weighing over 100kg do duck walks to overwork their knees, or makes pitchers whose shoulders are their lifeline throw over 300 balls a day, into scientific methods.”

Redline had infiltrated the Daehyeon Baseball Team as staff to collect all information.

They checked in detail by time slot what kind of training the players received.

And they had finished identifying what injuries the trained players were suffering from.

“It’s certainly a completely different method from the United States.”

“If training that emphasizes grit like Japan or Korea was really effective, we couldn’t explain why Major League players show superior skills compared to them.”

“So you’re planning to directly adopt American training methods?”

“Rather than simply copying the American style, I plan to create Tiger Fund’s own system that’s even more scientific.”

Even in the United States where Major League exists.

Simply copying their methods wouldn’t necessarily produce good results.

Westerners and Asians naturally differ from body type to muscle structure.

Therefore, customized training programs tailored to individual players were needed, and this required precise facilities and equipment as support.

“What kind of method do you mean by scientific approach?”

“I’m thinking of creating a training method that utilizes all of Tiger Fund’s capabilities from finance to semiconductors and even game companies. First, we need to introduce a data analysis system.”

“Baseball is called the sport of data. If we could obtain more data, naturally better results would come, but would it be possible to establish such a system with a baseball team’s budget?”

The baseball team’s budget was limited.

The system introduction I envisioned was absolutely impossible since it far exceeded the baseball team’s budget.

But Tiger Fund had many reliable collaborators.

“We can proceed by linking it with the game industry. If we use the data obtained that way in games, we can pursue it with the game company’s funds rather than the baseball team’s budget.”

“You mean making a baseball game. That seems like a good plan. Let’s try proceeding with it.”

Collection of all data.

From macroscopic information like wars to microscopic information like individual players’ muscle movements.

Even data that seems completely unrelated at first glance will definitely become useful someday if we just collect it.

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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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