Powell-ese Listening Test
Once again, a storm howls through the market.
…
…
…
The stocks that had been climbing after Powell's speech had come crashing back down as if that rally had never happened.
Retail investors sat there, mouths hanging open in pure disbelief. They had been cheering the rebound only yesterday.
Nasdaq Composite
7,350.67 ▼162.18 (−2.20%)
It flipped over like a palm. Yesterday's gains were handed straight back, and the index punched clean through the previous low with zero hesitation. Even the wild up-and-down thrashing of the volatility was anything but normal. No wonder market participants couldn't keep their heads straight.
It left countless victims in its wake. They had been swallowed whole by the fear the market itself had manufactured. Rational thought was impossible in a situation like this.
What felt even more stifling was something else entirely.
The simple fact that no one could tell where the market was headed next. There was no standard left to measure anything by.
Come on, it's not the big players.
That kind of community reaction was understandable enough. The market's volatility was abnormal. Was some force out there pulling the strings? Conspiracy theories like that were bound to surface. He might have fallen for them himself once upon a time.
"No I don't!"
Sora was studying US stocks. She had felt firsthand just how much influence they wielded over the global economy. And for that, nothing beat watching the communities. You could feel the market's mood in real time, no filter.
If you don't know the reason, of course you're going to shake with fear.
It was thrashing them up and down with insane force. She had never imagined the volatility could get this violent.
"As if."
But that didn't mean there was no reason at all. Unlike Korea, this wasn't a market the big players could just push around however they liked. People simply didn't know. From a retail investor's perspective, there was information they had no way of accessing.
Yeah, that's how it is.
She had heard it. The way her senior analyzed Powell's remarks had left her eyes wide open. Sleep had fled her completely that late night. The perspective itself was something no ordinary person could reach.
"Thanks for the ₩1,000. I remember what you said, Peongtigi."
There were people like that among her stream viewers too. From what she roughly remembered, he worked at a securities firm. Her dream. Meeting someone currently in the industry filled her with respect. Every now and then he would drop advice like this.
And he was a big player. He had been donating for a while now—amounts large enough to make her jaw drop. Plenty of people like that existed, honestly. Ever since she set the donation limit to ₩1,000 they had gone quiet, but…
"Oh… so even the members aren't completely unified in their views."
Peongtigi still dropped by often. Probably because stocks were their shared field of interest.
So there's that angle too.
He would talk about the current market flow, and she listened with genuine interest. A professional's perspective. The way he looked at the market was different from ordinary people, so it was useful reference.
"There was that part in the speech about judging based on the data. I remember that too."
Fed members split into doves and hawks. The optimistic side were the doves, the negative side the hawks. Peongtigi saw Powell as a dove. The recent market drop was because of the hawkish members.
But my senior's interpretation hits harder.
It was far more concrete. He dissected Powell's remarks down to the individual words. Looking closely, Powell hadn't been a dove at all—he'd been a hawk. Which side was right? That wasn't a judgment she could make. But if it was just about reactions, she wanted to hear it once.
"Sen… I mean, this oppa I know said that if you tear apart Powell's remarks, they weren't that dovish. What do you think?"
She was still calling him senior. Suddenly changing the form of address felt wrong somehow.
If I say senior, people will figure out we're from the same school.
That incident from not long ago. Ever since then she had been careful—careful not to let her personal details leak. That was as far as Sora's thinking went. But some viewers reacted more sensitively.
The big hands who had poured everything into corrupting Sora.
Heh heh, idiots.
He was different from those money-only old men. Jang Ho-yeong watched the group chat and allowed himself a smile of quiet triumph. Buying a streamer's goodwill with donations was the move of an amateur. The only ones you could reel in that way were stupid bitches who knew nothing but cash.
Ah, the data?
Sora, on the other hand. Her education started with a top-tier university. She already had the posture of someone who sought knowledge.
Those upright eyes of hers.
Whether he dropped a million won or a thousand, her reaction never changed. That wasn't something you could fake by playing hard to get. The bitches who put on airs always gave themselves away. The more you raised the amount, the more you hinted you might drop even more, the more seductive and calculating they became.
US stocks really do live and die by the data. After only doing the Korean market, I'd gone numb to that side of things.
She truly had no interest in the money. When the conversation turned to stocks, her expression lit up with even more curiosity.
Which is exactly why she has no choice but to fall for me.
Jang Ho-yeong was the CEO of Peongtigi Asset Management. Exactly as the name said—his job was to inflate the assets of VIP clients.
7. Hyundai Asset US Securities Investment Trust No. 1
8. Kungfu Small-Mid Growth Securities Investment Trust
9. Baro Korea Big Short Investment Trust
10. Peongtigi Nasdaq Index Investment Trust
11. TB US Growth Stock Investment Trust
Those returns. Ranked in the upper tier. One of the funds pulling in the most money in the entire country. From where he stood, the Nasdaq's downtrend wouldn't last much longer. The Powell Put was about to explode into existence any day now.
But that oppa said Powell was hawkish… I really don't know whose words to trust.
Territory ordinary people couldn't see. No wonder Sora found it confusing. If the economy was bad, shouldn't stocks go down?
That's not how it works.
A full year of continuous rate hikes had the economy creaking in places. The early warning sign had been that last unemployment data. Knock, knock. If something similar came out one more time? Even Powell would have no choice but to bend. Wall Street called that the Powell Put.
"CEO."
"Ahem! What is it?"
"Today's report. And with the recent market drop, a number of the VIPs have started voicing complaints."
They would cut rates and open the money spigot. When that happened, the bull market would resume.
You invest when everyone else is drowning in fear.
He hurriedly killed the monitor he had been watching the stream on. No way he could let a subordinate catch him watching a camgirl. But the words he had spoken were sincere. He had no idea who this "oppa" Sora knew was. He had no intention of finding out either. What mattered was that a comparison was being made.
"Call options?"
"Right. We've held the hedges long enough, haven't we?"
"Yes, about that…"
"We haven't had any fun with the stock drop for a while, so this time we need to place a big bet. That should keep the VIPs happy."
The Nasdaq would rebound. Turn crisis into opportunity and make serious money. If he showed her that side of himself…
She'll realize she should be trusting my words over that so-called oppa's, won't she?
He would make her understand just how extraordinary a man he really was.