Bet a Little of Your Life
Bet a little of your life.
Leverage.
It has plenty of advantages, but of course it comes with its share of drawbacks too.
It's no big deal.
The call comes in.
No—for individual investors, it arrives as a text.
It kindly informs you that if the stock price drops a little further, you might get liquidated.
You just have to deal with it before that happens.
It's better for body and mind to always think positively rather than negatively about everything.
"Hey!!"
There was someone who couldn't manage that.
Without a shred of shame, she came pounding over nearly naked.
"Your stocks were insane."
"A-a-are you crazy right now?!!"
She was in a shower gown.
Above the loosely knotted sash at her waist, soft flesh bounced and swayed, half-visible, half-hidden.
The bathroom door swung open and the humid air that spilled out carried a pleasant scent.
Still-damp hands wrapped around my shoulders.
"You fucking bastard!"
"Gack! Gaaah!"
"Get out. Aren't you getting out?!"
She started choking me.
She squeezed so hard it felt like the blood flowing through my carotid arteries was being cut off.
Sa…ve… me…
My vision went black.
As the oxygen density in my brain dropped and I was about to cross the River Styx for real—
What had to come finally arrived.
The carefully placed sell order had filled.
"Wh-what? What did you just do?"
"Cool your head and take a look!"
Panic.
I slipped free the moment her grip loosened.
Then I grabbed her the way a Pokémon Trainer might seize a shoulder and showed her the profit window.
Seeing is believing.
If she had eyes, she would know exactly what I had done.
"Wh-what is this?"
"Money printer."
"No, how did you do it? I was… taking losses."
A profit of 1.1 million won.
I had made it while this girl was leisurely taking a shower.
Still a long way to go, though.
The seed money was small.
She had really done a number on it.
But it was also true that hope was starting to appear.
"Try massaging my shoulders."
"Wh-why should I…"
"Someone kept choking me so hard my neck hurts. This isn't even SM."
"Fine! I'll do it, okay, I'll do it."
Thinking positively, it didn't seem so bad after all.
The chest girl, attitude adjusted, began gently kneading my shoulders.
Even while this was happening, the market kept turning.
The stock price that had briefly lifted its head slammed back down again.
"Shouldn't we buy now?"
"Ah-ah."
"Why not?"
"This massage isn't relaxing at all."
A buying opportunity.
The ants who had just watched the rebound couldn't help thinking that way.
The short-sellers aren't going to give us an easy move.
Selling high doesn't automatically mean profit.
There are securities transaction taxes and fees paid to the country and the brokerage.
Fees can be ignored.
Depending on the firm they hover around a negligible 0.015 percent, but—
"Can't we start buying soon?"
"Why?"
"It's a stock that still has room to go up, and…"
"Don't fall in love with the stock."
"What?"
The securities transaction tax under current rules is 0.25 percent.
Sell fifty million won worth and 125,000 won flies off as tax.
No need to take on risk just to pocket a few tens of thousands.
The extreme volatility lasts only until 9:30.
From now on, volume drops sharply.
The way to make money inside small swings is to set the buy price as finely as possible.
POSCO 263,500 won −2.5%
Mirae Steel 59,600 won −2.3%
Donghae Steel 15,000 won −6.0%
Donghae Steel's price.
At 15,050 won per share it was optimized for day trading.
When a stock sits in the ten-thousand-won range, one tick moves fifty won—about 0.33 percent.
Even a few ticks peeled off could produce solid profit.
I had chosen Donghae Steel not only for its volatility but after factoring in the price level as well.
"It's dropping, right?"
"Ah…"
"You might think this stock is a ten-bagger, but short-term market movement is only about response."
I bought at 11,900 won.
This time I used only credit and loaded roughly twenty million won worth of shares.
"How are you buying twenty million?"
"There's something called credit trading."
"Cr-credit?! With my money?"
"It's not even my life, so who cares."
Should I have loaded more?
The moment I bought, the order book started moving.
Still, just in case it could drag me down with it—
Credit and margin.
We were going Kaioken times eight.
Fifty-five million won worth of stock landed in the cart.
"Aren't you being way too reckless with other people's money?"
"Haa…"
"I'm the one who wants to sigh, okay?!"
"Hey, that's exactly what a trader is."
A job that trades with other people's money.
I had caught the last train nicely.
Fortunately it wasn't the last train of my life.
The rebound was better than expected.
The reason: foreign institutions had started appearing among the buyers.
"Foreigners are buying!"
"But."
"Doesn't that mean it's a good enough stock for foreigners to care about? The volume is huge too."
"Haa…"
In reality it was nothing special.
It just meant institutions headquartered overseas.
They're all black-haired foreigners. Black-haired foreigners.
Real foreigners existed, but they were a minority.
Most had separate Korean desks.
Koreans were doing the trading.
The only difference was that they were more capable than domestic institutions.
The probability of a fake-out rise was extremely high.
They were deliberately showing that they had bought.
To lure the ants.
And behind the scenes they would be quietly selling.
Sure enough.
"It's dropping, it's dropping!"
"Stop making such a fuss."
"How can you just sit there—kyaa~! Those guys are all underwater!"
My chest is dropping, though?
When I lowered my head, a heavy mass of flesh pressed down on the back of my skull.
The solid weight made my neck ache.
It was softer than I expected.
I had assumed it would be firm because of the shape, but—
The game of chicken had begun.
Institutions started dumping volume as if competing with one another.
Doesn't matter to me anymore.
Neither my shares nor hers were mine any longer.
I had taken one last big swing and gotten out.
"A-are you going to do it again?"
"Why?"
"Using credit and margin is dangerous… Of course I trust you, sunbae."
"I'm not."
Day trading has rules.
Clear opportunities you can definitely take are given three times at most.
I already took all three.
Any more than that is greed.
A little later, at 10:15, Hang Seng futures would open.
The KOSPI is heavily influenced by the Chinese market.
If the Chinese session was weak—
"Hang Seng is dropping, right? It's already falling, and if the index drops too it'll just get buried deeper."
"Ah…"
"Don't tell me you didn't know?"
"…"
The KOSPI was falling too.
One more reason for the stock price to drop.
From the short-sellers' perspective it would be pure joy.
A beginner investor might not know that much.
She chewed her lips for a while, then finally spoke.
"Can I ask just one thing?"
"What."
"What you said earlier."
"So what about it."
"That… love thing you mentioned."
The difference in class.
She seemed to have truly felt the gap between a Pokémon Trainer and a real trader.
She had become extremely polite.
I could at least answer that much.
"The more you research a stock, the easier it is to become convinced it will go up."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Huh?"
"You're supposed to know the company well before you invest, right? It's more stable than investing blindly…"
The explanation was a little complicated.
If she had been a dick-for-brains I could have made her understand in one shot.
Don't have sex—just jerk off!
Spelling it out properly would take a while.
The stock market was never going to be simple.
"Why did you think it would go up?"
"Yesterday Nasdaq steel rose, and iron ore prices were rising too…"
"So what."
"What?"
"If those go up, does the stock go up? If you all-in with full leverage every day those things rise, your net worth multiplies several times over, right?"
"…"
Of course there had been times like that.
But the market was becoming an increasingly complex system, and the factors that influenced it were piled up like a mountain.
That's why you're a Pokémon Trainer.
A junior who had challenged the market without knowing her place.
I had been ready to lecture her and fix that pathetic way of thinking, but—
Drip. Drip.
She was deploying the "tears guarantee victory" strategy.
Only this time the meaning of the crying was different from before.
"This is your chance to realize how powerless you are in the market…"
"Oppa, thank you."
"Huh?"
"I didn't want to leave this room."
She tightly clasped my hand.
And the way her eyes fluttered made something feel off.
Wait. Is this… a flag?
The atmosphere looked good.
From Sora's perspective I was her savior.
The goodwill grind had clearly worked.
In that case it was worth trying once.
"Ahem! Should we sit down and talk for a bit?"
"Sh-should we? There's only one chair, so maybe on the bed…"
Bed is good!
A small single bed.
But it was more than enough.
Two people could use it just fine.
She sat demurely on top of it.
I sat close enough that our hips nearly touched.
"I was scared."
"R-really?"
"Thank you. Really, thank you, oppa."
Losses that had exceeded 30 percent.
Escaping that nightmare of a reality seemed to have released all her tension.
She leaned into me as if seeking support.
And began crying hard against my chest for a long time.
Worth doing the dishes for.
This was why people played the soft-hearted guy.
I patted the shoulders of my junior who had fallen into despair.
In the process my hand brushed her skin.
I had expected it to be rough like her personality, but it was surprisingly soft.
"Aigoo~ so that's how it was."
"I never thought oppa would help me. I'm sorry for saying harsh things usually…"
Her chest pressed against me as well.
The heavy mass delivered a pleasant pressure.
Her bare face without makeup was a little disappointing.
Even that was an advantage at this age.
"Sora went through a lot, huh."
"Yes…"
"I think oppa can help you even more."
"What?"
With women, age is power.
I gently stroked her cheek, still moist from the shower she had just finished.
A small face.
Long eyelashes.
Slightly chapped but thick, pretty lips the color of fresh red.
Perfect for taking advantage of.
She wasn't wearing anything, so I could lick anywhere I wanted.
A fresh college girl you couldn't meet even if you paid extra—finally!
"A hundred—no, would two hundred be enough?"
"…What?"
"If you're going to sell your body, do it with oppa first."
A question mark floated onto her dazed face.
It was a senior's deep consideration, wanting to help with her career choices.
"No, it's just that doing it with a stranger would be worse, right?"
"…"
"If you're going to become a professional you can't make mistakes on the job. I'm only saying this because I'm worried."
"What the fuck, you bastard?"
I got slapped across the face.