Deep-Rooted Evils
Even in the ruins left behind by war, sprouts are bound to push through.
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The market that had crashed was finally showing signs of a rebound.
At first, suspicion was inevitable.
They had been getting beaten down for so long, after all. When the master who only ever hits you suddenly starts being nice… you can’t help wondering if he’s just marinating you in soybean paste to roast you the next day.
But when it kept going…
Little by little, minds began to change. The fear they had been living with started to feel like a distant memory. Their buying perspective shifted too.
Come to think of it, they had heard the phrase somewhere before.
You have to buy when everyone says no! The period they call “fear” had arrived. Now it only had to go up, right?
That hope circuit of the retail investors got an extra layer of conviction poured on top.
A market that had been nothing but bad news. Suddenly positive catalysts were pouring out—right into the news articles retail investors checked every single day. Of course they wavered.
In the middle of one or two things changing, they even got to hear the expert’s take.
Humans are creatures of forgetfulness. The recent downtrend was already fading from memory. Instead it was being re-framed as an “opportunity.” Looking at the rapidly rising stock market…
A feeling of being left out alone. Retail buying sentiment was being pulled back up again.
“The Nasdaq is currently entering a short-term rebound. The prevailing interpretation is that this is a bear-market rally, however…”
Without realizing that it was a sweet temptation.
The brokerages were analyzing the current situation rationally.
Gaemi Investment Securities. A team-leader-level meeting was underway. Kim Seung-hyeon, head of Information Team 1, was delivering the PPL report.
“If it’s a bear-market rally, that means short-term rise, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct. A U.S. rate hike is already scheduled for March, and the consensus is that the Fed will maintain its hawkish stance going forward. It’s already reflected in the FOMC dot plot and FedWatch.”
The market had fallen too far, too fast. When a crash comes in a short period, a structural rebound is inevitable.
Because the futures speculators have to take the opposite position to cover.
Division Chief Lee Tae-ho nodded at the report. The influence of the futures market was definitely there. If you bought the minus, you had to buy the plus to close it out. But if it only kept falling, the plus became scarce in the market. So they deliberately manufactured a rebound. That was the true identity of what people called a “technical rebound.”
“Foreigners are also mainly buying through futures. Our team’s view is that this is not a signal of a full-fledged rebound.”
“Team 2 agrees.”
The trading desks that handled the actual execution. Neither Team 1 nor Team 2 had any disagreement. The people who felt the market’s flow on their skin were sensitive.
So in the end the downtrend comes back.
Even institutions couldn’t just do whatever they wanted. Twisting the big flow was impossible. When the global market was moving that way, forcing it only meant losses.
“If we float positive articles and dump the inventory onto the ants, that should do it, right? Same as usual.”
“Information Team 2 already started the work.”
But in the small flows, they could twist things. What they had been putting the most effort into recently was…
Right. We have to dispose of Osung Electronics.
Various pieces of bad news had piled up. The ideal time to unload was while Osung Electronics still had good earnings. That grand plan had run into a problem. One little troublemaker had appeared out of nowhere.
“Trading Team 3 is accumulating as scheduled. But there’s one thing that’s bugging us…”
“What is it?”
“Ants are pouring into Osung Biologics like crazy? As far as we know there haven’t been any particularly positive articles.”
A downtrend was also an opportunity for rebalancing. If you sold something, you bought something else. Sell Osung Electronics. Move the money into Osung Biologics—that was the goal.
It’s because of that bastard…
Division Chief Lee Tae-ho knew exactly what the Trading Team 3 leader was talking about. The troublemaker. The one who had suddenly appeared and was pushing Osung Biologics.
“The Information Team hasn’t made any mistakes.”
“But they’re actually buying, so…”
It was the part they had been putting real work into. Making the ants cut their losses on Osung Biologics.
They floated terrifying articles. Normally the scared ants would sell.
Instead the ants are buying even more.
Because of Sonik-jwa. Because of that bastard’s bomb statements. At this rate it might affect the plan.
“Ah, so that happened.”
“It wasn’t under our jurisdiction so we didn’t know. We were only handling the regular response.”
Just some ant bastard? Originally he wouldn’t even have been worth noticing.
More followers than I expected.
But the future was on the line. If Osung Biologics really rose like this…
Tsk!
The followers would only grow. The impact on the market might become impossible to ignore.
Better to thoroughly crush him while we have the chance.
They had the power to do it. They would teach him that this was not a market one little ant could mess with.
The stock market. From the outside it could look so easy.
Just wait and it’ll be fine, right?
Why do people drown? If you just hold onto the tube, the rescue team will come. But that wasn’t how it worked. When you were in the middle of the Pacific, the thought that you were going to die took over.
Whether this was really the right call… rational thinking became impossible. Even if you held 100% certain information.
Osung Electronics is actually rising nicely.
Osung Electronics. A stock packed with bad news. No one would particularly want to hold it. Meanwhile Osung Biologics was still healthy. It was also the company the Osung Group itself was pushing.
Strangely the price was just limping along. Rationally it made no sense.
That’s why downtrends are hard.
Maintaining your own view. Because the institutions kept throwing fakes. There was abnormal market intervention. For me it was something I naturally factored in, of course.
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From the perspective of ordinary investors it could be different. They only judged by results, not process.
Buy Osung Biologics you fucking bastards!!
This is why the stock market is fun.
When you express an opinion, it affects the market. Intentional market distortion occurs. Anticipating that had been my trading strategy. I already had the response planned out.
I went all-in.