Human Indicators
Human indicators.
Crypto.
An asset with no real underlying value—at least not while the hedge funds still haven't piled in.
Predicting the future price action is even harder.
It wouldn't be an overstatement to say the whole thing moves on nothing but investor psychology. And that means there are trading methods you can actually use.
"Looks like crypto's really fucked…"
"Community's saying the big hands are dumping."
"For real?"
"Might be smarter to get out before it turns into pure shit."
Human indicators.
Two male students sitting through the same lecture. No real acquaintance, but it was obvious they were in crypto.
Yesterday they were still saying holding was the play.
One was the rational type. The other was the type who got swept along. Usually the first one drove the conversation.
"Calling it pure shit is a bit much, no?"
"Think about it. At the start of the year it was only sitting around a million won. Even if the long-term trend is up, it's gonna give us more of a correction before it climbs."
"And if it keeps dropping?"
"Could just turn into worthless data scraps…"
"Ah—no way!"
They seemed to be doing their own studying—charts, crypto communities, the usual.
Completely pointless.
Stocks maybe. Crypto? You can comb through it all day and still come up empty. Charts are at least somewhat useful as a reference, but for ordinary people who just started investing?
"Just sell for now."
"Yeah."
"We should wait until the 20-day line catches up to the 5-day."
"What's that?"
"Moving average. Term the chart guys use…"
Looking at it at all was worse than not looking. Charts have the answer? Anyone who says that is a scammer, one hundred times out of a hundred.
A chart is just one auxiliary indicator among many.
You must never put blind faith in it. If I had to trust one thing, I'd trust human indicators.
Every so often you find them—investors like those two who somehow manage to be spectacularly wrong every single time.
— Sell order has been filled!
In the end they'd dumped everything. The second the order went through they started fretting that the price was already dropping.
And right when the only direction left is up.
Keep them nearby and they make excellent indicators. All you have to do is trade the exact opposite.
I'd been watching them for the past few days. Their conversations had become a major reference for my own positions.
"You guys sold your coins?"
"Yep!"
"We decided to…"
"Should've sold earlier. I dumped mine yesterday."
"You too?"
There were plenty more. Every crypto junkie in the department was on my watch list. Another human indicator arrived—so idiotically honest it was actually useful.
All thanks to that crypto club fad, or whatever it was.
But even that was starting to look like endgame. Students losing interest in crypto were multiplying by the day.
"What about the club?"
"Not going anymore."
"Felt like a scam from the start! Guy gets lucky, makes some money, then acts like he earned it with pure skill…"
"That's real."
My indicators were vanishing one by one. Truly a pity. The stock market had a hand in it too.
"I'd rather just do stocks."
"Why?"
"There's this freshman, Sora. People say she's insanely good at stocks."
"I know who that is."
"She's completely hot on YouTube right now."
Recent news. It had become a minor buzz. The stock scene itself wasn't mainstream, so there were limits, but—
She looked good on camera.
More than enough to set off a boom in Hankuk University's economics department. The crowd that had flocked to the crypto club was migrating over to the stock club.
Good news for me. More members meant a higher chance of pulling out usable talent.
"So this is Sora?"
"Okay, she's actually fucking gorgeous."
"That's why they're calling her the Stock Absolute Beauty Goddess."
"Her tits are goddamn huge!"
There were minor side effects. Seniors approaching with ulterior motives. Some guys showing up with nothing but ulterior motives. The trash could be filtered out easily enough. Hye-ri was managing the club well, so there wouldn't be problems.
With that talent she could've become a multi-millionaire doing girl cams.
I hadn't recognized her potential for nothing. From the first meeting I'd had a gut feeling. A body that loved the camera. A face that showed her sharp personality and still grabbed the eye. Men lining up just for a chance to get close. If she ever did girl cams on PaprikaTV, I'd bet on a jackpot without hesitation.
Maybe turning her into the stock market's girl cam star this time around wouldn't be so bad either?
The thought crossed my mind. She seemed smart, yet she had this soft spot for getting scammed—if I played it right, it would work. That was a job for later. Right now the pile of homework I had to clear was mountain-high.
"Where's the stock club at?"
"Same building, I think?"
"Let's go together!"
The human indicators were relocating. A shame they were done with crypto, but I'd already extracted the useful intel. Lecture was over, so I stood up from my seat as well.
Same building, they said?
I had somewhere to go.
The crypto club.
It had swollen rapidly of late, riding the wave of the coin surge.
"You're withdrawing from the club? Why would you…"
"Crypto's been rough lately."
"If you just wait, it goes up for sure."
"Except it's not going up."
The end arrived in the most anticlimactic way. Coin prices were falling. That alone was enough for the whole thing to collapse with absurd ease.
Come on, just hold a little longer!
As club president, Joo Do-kyung couldn't understand it. It wasn't as if he hadn't lived through similar stretches himself. Every time, if you waited, it always rose. The chicks who'd only just started crypto simply didn't grasp that basic truth.
"My friend here just doesn't have conviction about the future of virtual currency, so…"
"I don't even know my own future. How am I supposed to know the future of virtual currency?"
"…"
Members like that weren't one or two. The club members he'd worked so hard to gather started deserting one after another.
"I'm just going to treat it as a fun experience."
"Holding coins just makes me anxious…"
"In the end it doesn't help with job hunting. I'd rather do stocks."
Once the number-one club in the economics department. At its peak it had boasted nearly three hundred members and swaggered around. Now it had been cut to a quarter. Like air hissing out of a balloon, it was shrinking again.
…
Falling coin prices were part of it. But he wasn't blind to the more fundamental reason.
The stock club.
It had been on the news not long ago. Members had made real profits off semiconductor plays, and—
"They're that big, for real."
"Bullshit."
"I'm not lying. Wanna bet fifty thousand?"
"Call. How does a person's chest even get that huge?"
There was Sora. She had appeared on broadcast. She'd already been a known name among those in the know—an iron wall. She never showed up at department drinking nights, barely did any outside activities, so no one had managed to make a move. Now she was on every department student's lips. Still, it shouldn't be a problem yet. Not yet.
Pretty face, great body, and she's good at stocks on top of it…
She was simply too perfect. Across the entire economics department there wasn't a single man who measured up to her. Looks, of course, and ability—department top rank plus that natural gift for stocks. She said her dream was to become a trader. To stand beside a girl like that, you had to become someone who matched her.
He'd thought he could be that person.
I just need to succeed with crypto. Just succeed.
The one area where he could pull ahead. If there was only one, it was crypto. He had recognized the infinite potential coins held. They would both achieve their dreams. And make a mountain of money. Then he would earn the right to stand at her side.
"If a little price drop shakes you this hard, you don't even have the qualifications to invest going forward—"
"Can I ask one question?"
"What? Go ahead!"
"You call it a decentralized currency, so why do we use exchanges, and why do they take fees on top of that? Doesn't that mean we're just being controlled by them?"
"…"
Right now he was only eating humiliation. Watching Do-kyung fail to answer, the remaining members clicked their tongues and left the room. He could only clench his fists and tremble. He hadn't answered because that day simply hadn't arrived yet. Someday it would. Bitcoin's market cap would swell to the scale of nations and plant the world under its feet.
These faithless bastards!
All you had to do was believe and wait for that day. Fail at something that simple and you became the idiots who turned into Overnight Paupers.
Creak—!
A stranger appeared in front of the thoroughly irritated Do-kyung. The clubroom door opened and someone walked in.
"Hey."
"What is it!"
"I came to join the club."
"J-join?"
A guy in sloppy clothes. You didn't need a video to know he was a returning student. Do-kyung, who had been hoping to pad the roster with pretty female members, was less than thrilled, but—
Right. It's not over yet.
He was in no position to be picky about cold water or hot water. To spread the gospel of crypto's value and his own greatness for recognizing it, he needed members.
"May I ask what motivated you to join? Not strictly required, of course."
"Ah, well, I got interested in crypto. Seemed promising."
"You understand the value of crypto! In case you don't know, allow me to explain—it's a future currency based on the revolutionary technology called blockchain, and it is re.al.ly.fuck.ing.awe.some."
"Ah, yes."
Do-kyung, who had spoken without much thought, suddenly found himself energized. Unexpectedly, here was someone who actually got it.
So the world isn't filled with nothing but dead-fish eyes after all.
People who recognized crypto's value. Maybe more of them would keep showing up.
"Everyone, crypto is not finished yet!"
"R-really?"
"Kinda looks finished…"
"I just want to get back to break-even."
"A new comrade has joined us! If you keep the faith, crypto will moon for certain!"
Existing members had only been leaving. Thanks to the new arrival, the clubroom atmosphere managed a small reversal.
From here on I just need to gather them carefully.
He would teach them how good crypto really was. Make sure they never gave up no matter what. Just one rebound. That was all it would take. Then the people still left would become faithful believers—no, investors.
"I should introduce myself properly. I'm Joo Do-kyung, president of the crypto club."
"Is the atmosphere always like this?"
"We've been in a bit of a bear market lately~ A bull market is coming soon, so all you have to do is believe and wait."
"Ah, yes. I'm a total beginner, so I'll just sit in the corner and watch for now."
"That's fine. But your name is…?"
He had been halfway to giving up. Thanks to this, he felt like he'd found the strength to stand again. And he still hadn't heard the name of the person he owed that to.
"Lee Chanuk."