Trickle-Down Effect

The construction sector that had been climbing.

The North Korea–US summit became the signal, and the whole sector began to collapse.

Investors had every reason to be confused.

The news was full of praise for the outcome. And it was true that some remarkable changes had taken place. An American president had set foot on North Korean soil — a historic first. Nuclear freeze, the opening step toward denuclearization, had been secured as well.

All sizzle, no steak.

Unlike ordinary people who swallowed the narrative whole, the stock market was honest. It reflected nothing but the facts. This was not a situation where wishful thinking could be priced in.

Expectation. It had already been pre-reflected.

The reason stock prices had risen all this time was not because the companies themselves were outstanding.

If anything, industry conditions had been poor. That reality was catching up at last, and the sector was crumbling like a sandcastle.

And then there were the ones who hadn't even managed to pile anything up. Junk-stock investors had no choice but to lose their minds. They had spent so long fantasizing about pie in the sky that reality hit them square in the face.

It could have been her, too.

Phew…

Sora pressed a hand to her chest as she watched the prices. It hadn't been Seowoo Construction. It hadn't been Yuhenz either. The trickle-down effect had never reached them. Their cups had never been filled.

But her own cup — the Yuhan Enterprise shares Sora had bought — had caught the benefit. The stock had climbed quite a bit, after several rounds of overnight holds and short-term scalps.

I did lose a little at the end, though.

She had been holding a small remaining position, waiting on Trump's reaction. Then she saw the news and sold. A stop-loss. The moment things moved against her expectations, she had cut the entire position and taken the loss.

She swallowed hard.

It wasn't as if she had never done something similar. She had traded junk stocks more times than she could count. She had even booked bigger profits than this before. And yet her heart was pounding harder than it ever had.

Profit the market allowed…

The process was different. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn't chased some vague rumor and hoped for the best. She had taken profits on solid grounds. The kind of trading she had always imagined for herself — and she had actually pulled it off in the real world. That fact filled her with a deep sense of accomplishment.

The viewers who had watched her video were thanking her, too. A few of them were a little strange, but still.

Is this the kind of fulfillment analysts work for?

Viewers who had made money because of her. Seeing them happy made her happy as well. At the same time, she understood the weight of it. If she had been wrong, the reactions would have been the opposite.

She swallowed again.

That thrill was exactly what she had wanted. As long as the market ran on reason — I think I understand how to make stable profits — she could take on the risk. As a trader, she would willingly throw herself into the fire. To seize the opportunity.

She was finally grasping, not with her head but through experience, what her senior had meant.

She found a treasure chest inside the flames. She didn't get greedy — she took only as much as she could safely carry. That was the profit the market allowed.

And it wouldn't just be construction. She could do this in other sectors too.

Not luck. Skill.

Building stable returns, one after another. That was a trader's real ability. The thing Sora had always dreamed of. She was finally starting to get a real grip on what trading actually was. It was exhilarating. From here on, she would keep stacking the profits the market permitted.

He's not picking up?

It was all thanks to her senior. She was genuinely grateful. She had called to ask him out for a meal.

He was somewhere completely unexpected. Ironically, the place she found her senior's whereabouts was a community board. Sora already knew, of course — that he had appeared on a stream by a YouTuber named Bom-i not long ago.

Won't even hang out with me.

It was fine. She wasn't unaware that her senior was off doing every kind of thing under the sun. Famous streamers. Brokerage broadcasts. He showed his face more often there than he did at school. The time he spent with her had shrunk. Part of her even felt relieved that he wasn't bothering her as much — but other thoughts stirred too, ones she herself couldn't quite identify.

Does Senior like that cute type?

For an entirely different reason, she wanted to crack someone's skull open.

Stock recommendations. Every investor longed for them without exception.

Not that they mean anything.

Holding a stock. Selling it at the right time. Neither was possible without skill. But telling beginners that never landed — because they didn't understand stocks in the first place.

"The pig's feet Bom-i didn't even get to eat evaporated, is what it is."

"Is that right?"

"That's what it is!"

The kid in front of him knew nothing. He couldn't even begin to guess what was rattling around in that head of hers.

Which makes it even better.

A famous influencer. The goal was to make her depend on him — an investor named Sonik-jwa.

"I do have that nickname."

"How is a nickname 'nik-jwa'?"

That process. That was why he was on Bom-i's stream. This time, he hadn't pushed for it himself.

Apparently she has something like an agency.

They had reached out. The previous broadcast had generated more impact than expected, and a lot of viewers were demanding a second episode. Bom-i herself was still obsessively hung up on the vanished pig's feet.

"Why didn't you sell?"

"Bom-i wanted to savor them, so she took them out one by one to eat, is what it is."

"Is that right?"

"That's what it is…"

And for some reason, there had also been a request that she get a little smarter. They wanted him to teach her about stocks.

She did scale-out selling in a pretty unique way.

Basic investor knowledge. Teaching her that sort of thing would go in one ear and out the other. So he used a different method. If the head wouldn't work, the body would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠learn.

"Stock special lecture, starting now."

"Huh."

"We're going to play rock-paper-scissors and flick foreheads."

"Bom-i is confident at rock-paper-scissors!"

You didn't need book knowledge to learn that fire was hot. Getting burned yourself was the fastest way.

Also, I just kind of want to hit her.

Her half-witted antics got on his nerves. Maybe if he smacked her like a broken appliance, she'd start working again.

"Guek!"

"Guek!"

He won just enough. Two clean forehead flicks dead-center in a row, and only then did he feel a little better.

"M-my head hurts so much."

"Of course it hurts. You got hit."

She clutched her reddened forehead and trembled. He had expected her to start bawling, but she was surprisingly tough.

Has she gotten hit a lot somewhere?

Anyway, the goal was achieved. Two hits delivered — whether she fixed herself or not was up to the appliance.

"This is a little weird."

"What is?"

"Getting hit and studying stocks don't seem related at all, is what it is!"

"Oh."

Maybe she had improved a little. But he hadn't just been hitting her at random either. When you failed at stocks — he was teaching her with her body just how painful that was.

"Huh."

"You're so dumb you only throw rock after scissors."

"Bom-i's pattern got read, is what it is. This oppa is a little smart, is what it is."

Time to make episode two a hit as well.

Delicious TV.

"So he wasn't an ordinary student?"

"No, sir. According to the report from the intelligence team…"

Gyo-iku-sang's public humiliation had become a much bigger issue than it appeared on the surface.

I thought he looked like a student with potential, but…

Food service companies were in an uproar. Plenty of them had hired Gyo-iku-sang as a consultant, and now they needed to find an expert to replace him. Naturally, attention fixed on the student who had appeared on the broadcast.

"They call him Sonik-jwa."

"Sonik-jwa?"

"Yes. He's a well-known Super Retail in the securities world. Have you heard of him?"

"Ahem! I've heard the name, yes."

Baek Hwa-seon, CEO of Food Market, was one of them. His staff had investigated the student's identity on his orders, and new information had been added to the file.

Sonik-jwa? That market-condition ghost who never misses?