Golden Spoon Investor

Chapter 550 550: CH551

Beyond the wide panoramic glass wall that filled one side of the room, Seoul's night skyline glittered as if countless stars had fallen onto the city and lit it up.

Beside that postcard-perfect view, Seok-won cut through the water alone in the hotel's indoor swimming pool, with no other guests around.

He swam lap after lap along the tube lane, arms slicing the water without rest, sending up sprays each time. Only when his breath reached its limit did he place a hand on the wall and finally stop.

"Whew…"

He took a deep breath, wiped his face with one hand, and swept back his wet hair, revealing his clear forehead.

Holding onto the ladder at the pool's edge, he slowly climbed out. From the side, Han Ji-sung—waiting like a shadow—hurried over with a towel.

Seok-won took it and dried his wet body before sitting down on a nearby sunbed.

"You should hydrate as well."

"Thanks."

Smiling, Seok-won accepted the tumbler Han Ji-sung handed him with quiet attentiveness.

He drank several gulps of the sports drink—supposed to be excellent for rehydration after exercise—and was taking a short break when his phone rang on the sunbed beside him.

Seeing the name flashing on the screen, he immediately pressed the call button.

It was Landon.

"Did you make it to the Bahamas?"

[I'm still in Miami. I was going to take the yacht out for the Bahamas at sunrise, but… I think I need to head back to New York.]

Hearing the stiffness in Landon's voice, Seok-won replied calmly:

"Sounds like today's OECD economic outlook wasn't very good."

[Good news for the stock market… but bad news for us, since we're short.]

"What did it say?"

[To get straight to the point: the report claims the stock market has corrected enough, which has cooled overheated consumer spending. With inflation worries easing, they expect the U.S. economy to keep growing healthily.]

"So if inflation pressure is gone, that means the Fed can stop raising interest rates."

[Exactly. With no inflation, there's no reason to keep hiking rates and deliberately hurting the economy.]

Landon continued, voice firm:

[According to the OECD, the recent stock market crash actually helped by cooling demand and relieving inflationary pressure.]

"When stock prices fall, people feel poorer and naturally spend less. So it's not wrong."

Unlike Seok-won, who stayed relaxed, Landon seemed to be taking things much more seriously.

[They also said the U.S. economy will grow 4.9% this year but slow to 3.0% next year—a significant deceleration.]

"Normally, economic slowdown would be bad for the market. But this time, investors may see it as a reason for the Fed to stop raising rates. So yes, that's bullish."

[The moment the report came out, futures and stocks in after-hours trading surged upward.]

Even with Landon's anxious tone, Seok-won remained unfazed.

"It's just the dead-cat bounce I mentioned earlier. No need to panic."

[Are you sure?]

Looking worried, Landon asked quietly. Seok-won answered with a composed expression:

"If a single OECD report were enough to reverse this decline, I never would've set up a position this big to begin with."

[That's true, but still…]

"Now that the dot-com companies' real conditions have been exposed—hidden for years behind the internet hype and exploding stock prices—the market can't rebound into a new bull run."

[You mean the reality that dot-com companies aren't actually making money like people assumed.]

"Exactly. The rebound will be sharp because the drop was steep—but it won't last. Trust me."

Hearing the certainty in his voice, Landon finally exhaled, relieved.

His anxiety about having taken a vacation instead of staying in New York faded as quickly as it had arrived.

Seeing Landon regain his composure, Seok-won adjusted his grip on the phone and continued.

"But it'd be wasteful to just let this pass. Tell Andrew to review the top market-cap stocks and buy them at his discretion. Once they rise more than twenty percent, he should sell again."

[You want us to keep holding the short position and buy stocks at the same time?]

Hearing Landon's startled tone, Seok-won grinned, showing his teeth.

"They'll bounce and then fall again anyway. We might as well skim some profit during the rebound."

[Hah… I've always thought this, but your nerve is unbelievable, boss.]

Landon shook his head on the other end of the call, saying it was something he could never pull off himself.

"So just relax, head to the Bahamas, and enjoy the sunshine."

[I'm not as fearless as you. I'm not sure I can ignore the market and enjoy the rest of my vacation… but I'll hold the position as you said.]

"Good."

Ending the call, Seok-won set the phone down beside him and got up from the sunbed.

Then he walked back toward the pool and dove straight into the cold water.

Splash!

After gliding underwater for a long moment, he surfaced and swam forward with smooth, dolphin-like strokes that cut the water cleanly.

***

After the Memorial Day holiday, the New York stock market reopened with a long-awaited burst of good news. Stocks rebounded sharply, and for the first time in a while, a hopeful mood spread across Wall Street.

[NASDAQ: 3,459.48 +254.37 (+7.94%)]

[DJIA: 10,527.13 +232.64 (+2.21%)]

[S&P 500: 1,422.42 +45.80 (+3.22%)]

Fuller, chairman of Bear Stearns, clenched his fist as he looked at the large market display board on the opposite wall of the trading floor—every major index was glowing red on the upside.

"Yes, that's what I'm talking about!"

The Nasdaq had just recorded one of its biggest one-day jumps ever, and Fuller's face was flushed with excitement.

After living through hellish days where every drop in the market deepened his losses, he couldn't be happier to see the plunge finally halt and a rebound take shape.

Standing beside him, CIO Joseph Lawyer—who looked like he'd lost half his weight from stress—let out a long sigh of relief.

"The OECD report really saved us."

"Haha! Yes, thank God."

"With optimism spreading that the Fed won't raise rates aggressively from here, large tech stocks that had fallen sharply bounced back hard."

Fuller, wearing a deep navy suit, nodded vigorously.

"The Nasdaq fell fifteen hundred points. It's about time it hit bottom and started heading back up."

"You're absolutely right. Toward the end of the session, a report came out saying PC demand is rising and CPU and memory prices are increasing along with it. Semiconductor stocks like Intel and Micron Technology rallied strongly. If no unexpected bad news comes out tomorrow, I think the market will continue in this direction."

"It had better."

Fuller stood with his arms crossed, answering confidently.

To recover the losses he'd taken, the market needed to rise several times more from here.

"By the way, there was also news that hardware manufacturers' earnings per share this year are expected to be the highest since '96, right?"

"That's correct. Our analysts also think that's very likely."

Fuller nodded repeatedly with a satisfied look.

"Everything we've been waiting for is coming together. This is great."

This—finally—felt like the right direction. The correct path.

Fuller felt as if everything had fallen back into place and mentally swept away the nightmare he'd been living through.

"Oh, and there's one more thing I should report."

"Go ahead."

"Right after the OECD report came out and the market opened, we detected Eldorado Fund making large purchases of major tech stocks—Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Oracle—basically all the names that had taken the biggest hits."

Fuller's eyes lit up.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

Lawyer nodded with confidence.

"It looks like they sensed the change in market sentiment and rushed back in to buy."

"Hmph. They're always quick on their feet, I'll give them that."

Fuller snorted, clearly displeased.

"But the strange thing is this—they bought a huge amount, yet they're keeping their short positions exactly as they were."

"They're keeping the short?"

Fuller frowned.

"Yes. I checked multiple times because it felt odd. They didn't touch the position at all. They're still holding it."

"Hm…"

Fuller thought for a moment with a sour expression, then snapped his fingers as though something had clicked.

"You said the COO of Eldorado Fund went on vacation to the Bahamas, right?"

"Yes."

Lawyer replied, looking slightly irritated as he remembered how he'd been unable to meet Landon in person.

"The decision-maker is out of the office. That must be why they can't respond properly to such a sudden change in the situation."

Fuller laughed loudly, mocking them.

"They were enjoying the crash all by themselves with their damn short positions, acting smug… well, serves them right. Don't you think?"

"Now that you mention it… that might be it."

Otherwise, it made no sense that Eldorado would make such an inconsistent move at a time like this.

"That put-option contract almost killed us with stress, but now that I think about it… it's lucky they avoided us and we couldn't cancel it. If we had eaten the loss and unwound the contract prematurely…"

Lawyer exhaled with relief.

"…and then saw the market rebound like this, we would've been banging our heads against the floor in regret."

Fuller, who had spent days panicking about the put options, now smiled brightly—like a man relieved of a bad toothache.

"Now that the situation has flipped, it's Eldorado's turn to feel the heat."

Next to him, Lawyer, the CIO, let out a sly, satisfied grin.

"They're probably tearing their hair out right about now, wondering how to respond."

"Haha! Just imagining those guys—who were so sure the market would crash further—now panicking for their lives… It feels like ten years' worth of indigestion just cleared up."

"There was all that talk about Chairman Park Seok-won predicting the bubble burst perfectly again and writing a new legend… but at this rate, he won't be hitting a jackpot. He'll be taking a serious loss."

With a voice tinged with barely disguised anticipation, Lawyer added his thoughts. Fuller replied in a much more relaxed tone:

"The losses on the index futures and the put-option contracts will be big, sure. But they already made a fortune selling at the top, so the damage won't be fatal. What will take a hit is his reputation—the one where he's never been wrong on a single bet."

Fuller smirked coldly.

"This is what happens when you try to go against the flow all by yourself."

"Exactly."

Just like them, most investors on Wall Street had come to the same conclusion:

Park Seok-won and Eldorado Fund—who had bet heavily on the bubble bursting—had finally made a failed gamble.