New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 170

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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 170. Breaking Through Limits (5)

An emergency situation arose from the morning.

As soon as I arrived at work, I headed to the Fund Office, where the General Manager and all employees were staring at the TV.

“Has the press conference started?”

“It just started a moment ago.”

President Bush’s press conference.

In fact, it was more like a prepared address to the nation than a press conference, as the speech began.

[Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours.

Otherwise, we will commence military action.]

An ultimatum and declaration of war.

It was a declaration of war stating that they would start the war in 48 hours.

“Will Iraq accept those conditions?”

“That will never happen. Branch Manager, you know well how obsessed those in power are with their positions, right?”

“Then the war will start in 48 hours.”

“The possibility is over 90%.”

Now we only had 48 hours left.

We had to liquidate all positions before the war started.

“The war has now begun. Now liquidate all positions.”

“You mean everything, including oil futures and short selling positions?”

“That’s right. Liquidate them with minimal impact on the market.”

It was actually an impossible request.

We had invested 10 billion dollars in oil futures alone.

With 5x leverage, we had built up a position worth a whopping 50 billion dollars.

If we liquidated this in just two days.

It would inevitably affect the market, but since the war hadn’t actually started yet, there would be many willing to absorb the volume we threw out.

“We’ll begin liquidation. But isn’t this a bit early? Oil prices are rising rapidly after President Bush’s press conference.”

“That’s exactly why we need to sell now. We need to sell during an uptrend to exit safely. It’s much better than getting greedy and having our legs caught.”

“We’ll communicate with Headquarters and process this quickly.”

Headquarters and Korea Branch moved simultaneously.

It seemed like war had broken out at Tiger Fund before Iraq.

The employees moved tirelessly, throwing out volume with various strategies and struggling desperately to increase the return rate even a little.

We had been preparing for this day for nearly half a year.

Since this was an investment with Tiger Fund’s lifeline at stake, everyone united and began the liquidation work.

***

How did the day pass?

To be precise, 36 hours had flown by.

The Fund Employees had liquidated most of their volume during that time, and they were all leaning against their desks like zombies to keep from collapsing.

“Branch Manager, we’ve completed liquidating all oil futures.”

“What’s the profit level?”

“We entered with 10 billion dollars at the 25 dollar line with 5x leverage and sold at an average of 37 dollars.”

“Oil prices rose about 48%.”

“That’s correct. With 48% and 5x leverage applied, the return rate is 240%, with profits of 24 billion dollars.”

24 billion dollars in one shot.

But it wasn’t over yet.

“What about the call option profits?”

“Option prices tripled for a 200% return rate, with profits of 5 billion dollars.”

“Did you also finish liquidating all airline and hotel stock short positions?”

“Yes, we liquidated everything. Total profit of 1.2 billion dollars. And energy and defense stocks made 600 million dollars profit.”

There were differences in return rates, but all investments were huge successes.

The employees listening to Song Sang-yeon’s profit report raised both arms high to savor the victory.

The General Manager, who had been watching contentedly from the side, patted my shoulder.

“You worked hard. This investment achieved total profits of 30.8 billion dollars.”

“It’s a massive profit even compared to the fund’s total operating capital.”

“This recovery amount is 50.8 billion dollars, so our operating scale has nearly doubled. Now we can finally hold that New Year meeting.”

“As I mentioned before, this isn’t over yet.”

Now it was time for reverse trading.

Only 12 hours remained until the war.

I felt sorry for the employees who had been working on liquidation without a moment’s rest, but it wasn’t time to rest yet.

“Everyone please focus! We’re entering reverse positions right now. Song Sang-yeon, how much can we short oil futures today?”

“In our previous investment, we were able to build a 50 billion dollar position because we steadily secured volume over 3 months. That was only possible by combining on-exchange and off-exchange trading.”

“So what’s the maximum position we can take in one day?”

“Maximum 400 million dollars. But if we expand off-exchange swap contracts, up to 2 billion dollars is difficult but possible.”

The oil futures market was a game with predetermined betting amounts.

No matter how much money you had, you couldn’t bet amounts exceeding the entire market’s trading volume.

But that didn’t mean there were no methods.

Just as real estate had derivative products, oil futures also had another market consisting of off-exchange swaps and options.

In fact, the derivative market was larger than the spot market.

But even utilizing such derivative markets.

It was impossible to pour the massive 50.8 billion dollars entirely into the oil market alone.

“Then let’s invest 10 billion dollars in the oil market. Secure maximum volume daily.”

“For the market to absorb 10 billion dollars with 5x leverage, it will take at least 3 weeks.”

“The return rate will drop slightly over time, but we’ll still get decent profits. So proceed that way. Now we have 40.8 billion dollars left to distribute.”

This was wartime.

In peacetime, the portfolio and investment strategy should have been completed already, but the employees’ attention was focused solely on oil price increases.

Having won the most important battle.

We had to fight the remaining battles by developing strategies in real time.

“Take long positions in airline and tourism stocks that we were shorting, and short the energy and defense stocks we were long on.”

“How much should we invest in each?”

“10 billion dollars short on oil decline with 5x leverage. 10 billion long on airlines and tourism, 10 billion short on energy and defense. Let’s invest a total of 30 billion dollars. Let’s convert the remaining 20.8 billion dollars to cash assets in case of unexpected situations.”

In a bull market, having low cash reserves wasn’t a big problem.

But in a bear market, you needed to hold cash for unexpected situations to enable swift responses.

“Energy and defense stocks are large enough to easily short 10 billion dollars, but the problem is airline and tourism stocks. They’re too small to put 10 billion dollars long.”

“That would be true if limited to the United States. Let’s expand the scope. If we include not just the United States but European airlines and Asian hotel and leisure stocks, we can easily absorb it.”

“If we expand the scope to Asia, it’s definitely possible.”

“Mobilize Headquarters and all Asian branches to secure volume as quickly as possible.”

The time battle had begun.

We needed to secure as much volume as possible now to maximize returns.

***

Korean time.

March 20, 2003, 10:30 AM.

Finally, the Iraq War, called the Second Gulf War, began.

Saddam Hussein casually ignored President Bush’s ultimatum.

As if expecting such a reaction, coalition forces led by the United States and UK began full-scale war by bombing Baghdad, Iraq.

“Branch Manager! Oil prices actually rose when the war started. They went up to 39 dollars.”

“This is actually a good situation for us. We need to secure more volume now to maximize profits.”

Oil prices surged as if mocking us.

But as soon as images of Baghdad instantly turned to ruins were broadcast, the situation would surely change.

“Not just oil prices, but all charts are fluctuating simultaneously.”

“Right now all markets are in chaos. Don’t get swept up in it, just stay on our path.”

Would a movie theater watching a horror film look like this?

The employees would flinch and startle every time the charts fluctuated.

However, since they held 20.8 billion dollars in cash as insurance, they quickly regained stability and moved forward again.

“We’ve secured all the target oil futures volume for today!”

“How is the short selling volume acquisition progressing?”

“We’re securing as much as possible through various prime brokers, and so far we’ve invested 6 billion dollars to build a 12 billion dollar position.”

The leverage on short selling positions was limited to about 2x.

Even if we increased leverage further, there was a clear limit to the funds the market could absorb.

If we only increased the ratio unnecessarily, interest and usage fees would just balloon.

So we maintained a strategy of building positions with our own funds as much as possible.

“Continue securing short selling volume.”

“We’ll invest all the remaining 4 billion dollars within this week.”

“How is the situation with securing airline and tourism stocks?”

“We’re securing them without difficulty. Since market conditions are moving so urgently, more volume than expected is being released into the market.”

“Secure as much as possible. And if necessary, it’s fine to invest over 10 billion dollars.”

Long position volume could be quickly converted to cash assets.

Therefore, there was no need to set funding limits, and it wouldn’t be a problem to invest part of the 20.8 billion dollars set aside as safe assets.

“Branch Manager, there’s contact from Palantia. Carter Till is urgently looking for you.”

“I’ll take the call.”

The General Manager came running urgently with a satellite phone.

I moved to a quiet place and answered Carter Till’s call.

“I’ve answered the phone.”

[Mister Lee! The new function added to Omnis, is this accurate?]

“Are you referring to the real-time location tracking system?”

[That’s right, the tracking system! But when I checked, there was already a tracking target designated. Don’t tell me you put in a function to track Saddam Hussein?]

I had built the tracking system together with over a hundred developers.

We combined various information including satellite intelligence, local reports, logistics data, and internet usage.

We installed an algorithm in Omnis that tracks the target’s location and predicts movement routes.

The reason we could complete such a function in a short time was.

Because we had already preset the tracking target in advance.

“That’s correct, it’s a function created to track Saddam Hussein.”

[I thought so. As soon as we updated the system, it automatically started location tracking, so I called in surprise.]

“I’m glad the function is working properly.”

Palantia needed definitive results.

Only then could we sign contracts with other US agencies.

So we urgently added the location tracking function and made Saddam Hussein the tracking target.

There couldn’t be a bigger achievement than this.

If we could capture or subdue Saddam Hussein early thanks to Palantia, we could gain recognition at once.

[Let’s communicate with the US Military through the CIA right now. If we can capture Saddam Hussein alive, no one will be able to ignore us anymore!]

“The more reliable information there is, the higher the location tracking reliability becomes. Try actively utilizing CIA and US Military intelligence.”

[The CIA has started trusting us, so we can utilize more reliable information! I’ll contact you again!]

Carter Till hung up the phone urgently.

If Palantia, the CIA, and the US Military shared information with each other, capturing Saddam Hussein alive was just a matter of time.

However, I was concerned that the trust relationship wasn’t properly established yet.

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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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