A Rise Without Reason

A rise without reason.

Inverse investing.

"See? See? It dropped again!"

"I'm so jealous of the people who rode the leveraged inverse…"

"I'm telling you, bet on Korea going under even now."

A fever had been sweeping through the club members lately.

Because the market was in freefall.

Ordinary investing couldn't make money. No — losses were practically guaranteed.

"How long is this actually going to keep falling? Not even a bounce."

"I heard it's just going to keep going down."

"From who?"

"Why?"

"There's this analyst I've been watching a lot lately — Professor Doctor Doom~."

But inverse was different. Beyond merely protecting your capital, it was a way to actually turn a profit. And they were taking it seriously.

Myeongtae was the club's most fervent inverse evangelist.

"An analyst?"

"Those guys only ever say it's going up."

"I listened to Manager Yeom and bought, and I got stuck holding!"

"Come on~ The professor is nothing like those people."

Analyst specialty: they only talk about the positive catalysts. They deliberately look away from every piece of bad news scattered across the market. Trust people like that and buy, and you were perfectly set up to be left holding the bag — taking over someone else's stock at a premium after they'd already had their fun.

Can't end up holding the bag.

Which was why you had to read the market with a cold eye. That ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was why Myeongtae was such a devoted follower of Professor Doctor Doom's lectures.

"Do you guys even know what Box-pi is?"

"Box-pi?"

"Does that mean picking up boxes or something?"

"I've heard of that!"

"It's because the KOSPI used to just bounce back and forth between 1,700 and 2,200…"

Hearing the explanation, it made sense. One by one, the members were falling under Myeongtae's spell.

Now everyone's making a fuss, after all this time.

Inverse had become the hottest topic in the club. Namguk, a third-year, clicked his tongue inwardly. At the start of the year, nobody had cared at all. Truly foolish people.

"Namguk! You bought inverse too, right?"

"Hey, shh!"

"Huh?"

He himself had been steadily accumulating leveraged inverse since January. He was sitting on the biggest gains in the entire club. And only one person knew it. Namguk hurriedly clamped a hand over his friend's mouth.

"I've got no intention of spilling about leveraged inverse to anyone but you."

"Why?"

"If that gets out… everyone else is going to start telling me to take over as club president, aren't they?"

"…"

His average cost was a mere 5,500 won range. Nobody else in the club even came close. He was a genuine pioneer of inverse investing. If word got around, it would only become a hassle.

"Namguk, you bought inverse too?"

A sharp-eared member had overheard. For Namguk, who just wanted to keep his head down, this was a problem.

"Aah—! So it finally came out! You, don't go spreading this around, got it?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"That's just his thing."

"Take a good look…! And don't tell a soul!"

He pulled out his phone and showed them his proud account, loaded with KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X.

Enormous profits were stamped across the screen. In the middle of this crash, he was up more than two million won.

"But… holding for four months for a 26% return isn't exactly insane money, is it?"

"Heh heh. So you've noticed…"

"?"

"Unlike me, leveraged inverse has a lazy temperament… Even when you go all-in, it just sits there half-asleep."

Of course, it hadn't been easy. Unlike individual stocks, the index barely moved, and the sideways stretches dragged on forever.

Only when the market is soaked in blood… does leveraged inverse hit maximum destructive power.

He had endured and endured to reach these gains. He had no doubt it would go two times, three times higher.

Hmm… the kids are starting to lose it.

Watching the members like that left Hye-ri, the club president, with a complicated feeling. The market had been in freefall lately. It wouldn't have been strange if people started quitting the club. But this new investment method(?) had changed everything. You could make money going the other direction too.

Tap. Tap!

Hye-ri herself had no interest. Because the person she trusted and followed had given her a warning.

Normally she would have passed it on to the members too. She served as the bridge between oppa and the club. I just do whatever oppa tells me to. For some reason, this time was different. Figuring he must have his reasons, Hye-ri simply stopped thinking about it.

The crashing market.

For the first time, something resembling a real bounce was taking shape. Investors ought to have been filled with joy. But—

The market's reaction was the exact opposite. What sprouted in the hearts of investors who had been beaten so thoroughly that falling felt like the natural order of things was—

Suspicion. There was no way to take this optimistically. Wasn't there some other ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scheme at work?

And no wonder — the market was packed with nothing but bad news. The idea that a reversal could happen was almost impossible to entertain.

Cut your losses while you can still get something back. That was clearly the rational call. And yet—

Even so, the foreigners kept buying. As the index broke back through 2,200 and reclaimed 2,300, a different thought began to take hold. What if it was real? Retail investors couldn't help but wonder whether there was some catalyst they simply didn't know about.

But experience. Ever since February, they had been right every single time. The moment it looked like things might roll up a little, the market slammed them back down. That experience had been drilled into them. Retail investors steeped in fear couldn't bring themselves to hit the buy button.

They calmly pushed the market higher. The stock market entered a full-blown boom. And belatedly, individual investors began to change their minds.

It was a real rebound. Even the bad news that had blanketed the market began to take on different interpretations.

Hadn't it already been pre-reflected? Or maybe everything that had fallen so far had just been excessive fear.

Thoughts like that start to form, don't they.

Human psychology is simple. Believing you're the exception is just an inflated sense of self. Nobody is free of it. That was why you had to steadily accumulate experience.

Still just kids. They were playing with something dangerous — without understanding why short-selling was so hazardous.

Drug addicts start using for the pleasure. Later, they use because of the pain.

They grow accustomed to the drug's intense stimulation. Meaning ordinary stimuli become hopelessly dull. The thrill of making money while everyone else loses it — that was comparable to a narcotic.

They fell into the delusion that they were the smart ones. Without realizing they were only binding themselves tighter.

Controlling your emotions is never easy.

Famous, accomplished people didn't destroy themselves out of vanity for no reason. A moment's recklessness could ruin a life.

A mentality that wavered at something like that could never be called conviction. Even if the market crashed all over again—

They'd scramble to cut losses just to break even.

That was why becoming an investor was so hard. To think differently from ordinary people, you had to change from head to toe. Something you came to understand once you started trading stocks. Getting burned early might even be for the best — the same way people said you needed to go completely broke once before you truly got it.

For someone who had already lived that kind of life, though, it was too late.