Chapter 65: I'll Buy Tesla Even if $50 is Too Expensive
Chapter 65: I'll Buy Tesla Even if $50 is Too Expensive
Twelve billion dollars.
With such a large amount to invest, playing the stock market was fun.
"A large volume of Apple stock is coming onto the market, at a price 4% lower than yesterday."
"Then we should buy."
"How much?"
"Within a range that won't affect the market price. Let's start with a hundred million dollars."
"Got it."
Ellie's penthouse.
Since there was only one desktop computer, I set up a separate laptop to work on.
I had selected several promising stocks to invest in, but there needed to be a sufficient volume available.
Moreover, it was necessary to get them at a low price if possible.
A price lower than yesterday.
A price cheaper than last week.
I was investing with the expectation that the direction of the plummeting stock market would change, but I couldn't neglect the effort to increase the profit margin by even 1%.
One percent of twelve billion dollars was a staggering 120 million dollars.
Earth Resource was enjoying an unprecedented growth rate, but its 300-some employees had yet to earn that much money.
'That's about four years of net profit for Arcor's Korean branch.'
With Ellie's help, I became more serious about investing.
It was true that I had looked down on those working in the financial sector, seeing funds that lost their clients' money.
However, financiers were the ones who utilized their professional knowledge and worked hard to increase profit margins by even 0.01%.
Because growing their clients' money was the path to their own success.
"Etsy is down 7% from yesterday."
"Etsy?"
"It's an e-commerce company that deals in handmade goods. Its market cap is about four billion dollars. Notably, they're saying they'll be making handmade masks now."
"Let's invest just thirty million dollars."
"I'll set it aside and spread the investment over a few days."
Thanks to Ellie's help, I was able to discover and invest in a variety of stocks.
Lunch was a simple affair of sandwiches and coffee.
Focusing on investing, I had no time to cook at all.
"What about Nvidia?"
"The graphics card company?"
"Yes."
It was a company Oh Myeong-woo absolutely loved.
The kind of company that made you want to buy every new graphics card series they released.
When they recorded a dramatic performance improvement in benchmarks, you just couldn't resist buying one.
Especially if a new game had great reviews and you could run it on full settings with a high frame rate!
Whether he played a game at 50 frames per second or could stably pull 60 FPS was a very important matter to Oh Myeong-woo.
It was also a very important company in relation to crypto.
The computing power of graphics cards was superior to CPUs, so they were widely used for mining.
Back when Bitcoin mining was popular, Nvidia's graphics cards were so scarce they were hard to find.
'The stay-at-home economy. Since people can't go out, they're bound to play more games.'
An investment with a solid basis.
The company's market cap was over a whopping 200 billion dollars.
Just when I thought I had a lot of money, seeing these colossal companies humbled me.
Considering its competitiveness and market share in the graphics card sector, it was a company well worth investing in.
"Let's invest one billion dollars."
"Yes, I understand."
Ellie was there to help, but when I made a decision, she followed it without question.
"What about PayPal?"
"Online payments will increase, so we should buy."
"How about Peloton?"
"What's that?"
"It's a company that makes home workout equipment."
Hearing Ellie, I looked up information about the company.
Market cap of five billion dollars.
'To think there'd come a day when a five-billion-dollar market cap feels cheap.'
The US stock market had monsters with market caps exceeding 100 billion dollars, making the smaller ones look cute in comparison.
Of course, by Korean standards, a company worth six trillion won would be quite large.
"Home workouts, huh."
It was a field that hadn't received much attention before.
The contactless era.
For people who needed to exercise, COVID could be quite distressing.
People who enjoy working out, people who can't stand to lose muscle mass.
"Is it a company you know?"
"Yes. They release a lot of products. The profit margin on home workout equipment is high, so if sales are strong, I think the stock price could jump significantly."
"That's possible."
I decided to invest 200 million dollars in Peloton as well.
I bought stock in the video conferencing company, Zoom.
With Dr. Lee Ho-yeon's help, I invested in pharmaceutical companies.
Of course, I didn't ask him to pick specific stocks for me.
He must be busy enough with vaccine development; I didn't want to burden him with unnecessary requests.
- Kim Shin: Besides Biolife, what other companies might be able to develop a COVID vaccine quickly?
- Kim Shin: It doesn't have to be a sure thing. It would be great if you could just briefly tell me based on your knowledge.
- Lee Ho-yeon: Moderna.
- Lee Ho-yeon: It was established for the research of a Harvard Medical School professor I know, so it doesn't have a long history.
- Lee Ho-yeon: Nevertheless, they likely possess incredible technology regarding mRNA. If they've chosen the mRNA method to shorten the vaccine development period, they should be able to create one quickly.
- Kim Shin: Thank you for letting me know, despite how busy you must be.
There was something I realized after meeting many ophthalmologists.
If you want to know who the best doctor for cataract surgery is, the surest way is to ask another doctor.
Because competitors in the same field know the most about each other.
"Ellie. I'm going to invest in Moderna."
"How much?"
A quick search showed it was a company with a market cap of over twenty billion dollars.
That made it easy to decide on the investment amount.
"Eight hundred million dollars. The worse COVID gets, the better it will be for a pharmaceutical company's stock price, right?"
"Yes, I understand."
Since twelve billion dollars was a lot of money, I invested a considerable amount in Apple and Microsoft.
And then, Tesla!
A company that countless people were watching with interest.
I couldn't forget the feeling of driving a Tesla for the first time after coming to the US.
Even now, whenever I occasionally drive Oh Myeong-woo's car, I'm amazed by its acceleration and the ever-improving user experience.
'They've gone through trial and error, but production volume is finally increasing as planned.'
Tesla sold cars but operated at a loss in production.
Since electric cars don't emit carbon, they made a profit by selling carbon credits to other companies.
That side income amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars each year, which was quite lucrative.
'The auto industry is all about economies of scale.'
Why had Mirae Motors consistently strived to be one of the top five in the world?
It was to gain a price advantage, as manufacturing costs decrease the more you produce.
As Tesla's production volume increases and factory efficiency improves, they're expected to turn a profit in vehicle production and sales starting around next year.
Finally turning a profit in their core business.
"Ellie. What about Tesla?"
"Even considering its revenue and net income so far, a market cap of fifty billion dollars for an auto company isn't exactly cheap."
"That's true, isn't it? Its market cap is much larger than GM's or Ford's."
"Yes. At fifty dollars a share, shouldn't we be cautious about investing?"
Tesla's stock price hadn't changed much in the last six years.
Lately, it had been shunned by everyone in the stock market except for its die-hard fans.
Nevertheless, Tesla was still new and technologically ahead of the curve.
The stocks I was buying now weren't for holding for a month or two; I was looking at two years or more.
I intended to abide by the adage of investing in time.
"Let's buy Tesla."
"How much are you thinking?"
A market cap of fifty billion dollars.
It would be hard to buy too much, but it was a company I'd regret buying only a little of.
I hadn't lived for a very long time, but I'd experienced several hit products that created trends.
The companies that made products that provided amazing experiences always ended up doing extremely well later on.
Tesla had seen many ups and downs, but it had overcome its weaknesses and shown steady growth.
I decided to believe in that potential.
"I'm thinking of putting four billion dollars into Tesla."
"Really? That's close to an 8% stake."
Once I started buying, Tesla's corporate value could rise.
It was a heavily traded stock, so the impact would be lessened, but still.
"Yeah. I want to become a major shareholder of Tesla."
* * *
"Damn it. Have you seen the articles about the Source Shopping Mall they just launched? They're using Source Coin as bait, and their sales are growing fast."
"Mmm. They're not wavering despite our fierce attacks."
Jim and Kwon Do-jin.
Having been rejected for a partnership with Earth Resource, they had launched various types of attacks.
They used the media and celebrities to try to shake things up, and influential crypto exchanges refused to list Source Coin.
Other coins would usually see their prices plummet by more than half and be shunned by investors under such circumstances.
- To the mooooon!
- We can have high hopes for Source Coin, right?
- Shopped my heart out. Got 100,000 Source Coins. Feels more rewarding than a bank deposit.
- [Info] The reason why Source Coin is bound to rise?
- Source Coin isn't just a simple coin. Haha.
- Over 2 million people mining it worldwide!
- Since Source Coins are being released through the shopping mall, there's some trading activity. This is good news.
- The future is Source Coin.
The Source Coin project was spreading beyond Korea to the US and other parts of Asia.
So far, only a few exchanges supported its trading.
The supply of Source Coin was not large to begin with, and few people were willing to sell.
It hadn't gained mainstream popularity due to low trading volume, but its name was spreading rapidly through communities.
"Do-jin. I thought partnering with Source Coin would have many advantages. If their growth continues like this, it could threaten our business."
"That's right. If it rises on investor hype and people get interested, it will affect the prices of the coins we hold."
They weren't collaborating with all the crypto influencers on social media.
There were celebrities and business figures with influence in various fields.
What would happen if those who had a following based on their successful investments started talking about Source Coin?
It could trigger trading of the massively released Source Coins.
The crypto market feeds on people's attention.
It had the potential to become a major coin, a monster that could destroy the rules and balance they had established.
* * *
The Arcor group chat.
- Na Sang-guk: The stock market is the worst every day lately. The person who makes a profit at a time like this is a true master.
Na Sang-guk was talking about investing.
- Na Sang-guk: The first rule of investing is not to lose money.
- Na Sang-guk: If you lose 30%, you need a 40% gain to recover it. Got it?
- Na Sang-guk: But a true master makes a profit even in a bear market.
- Jeong Min-kyung: How?
- Na Sang-guk: You buy puts. You observe the market and bet aggressively.
- Go Bo-kyung: Oh! That's amazing. So that's how you made a profit.
- Na Sang-guk: A 1,000% return in one month. It's awkward to say it myself, but that's an income even financial experts in the country can't achieve.
Na Sang-guk had experienced bitter failure over the past two years.
Crypto investing.
He even played a part in losing a coworker's wedding funds.
The reason he shamelessly continued to work at the company was because he was destined to succeed in the future anyway.
'After hitting it big with a few investments, I'll expand to the US. Invest in startups in Silicon Valley. And if I hit one big options play in the massive US financial market!'
Investing is all about that one big shot!
His dream resembled someone else's—Kim Shin's.
After hearing that Kim Shin had bought put options...
'All in with my entire forty million won, let's goooooo!'
He shouted "Let's go!" and jumped on the put option bandwagon.
And surprisingly, his returns skyrocketed.
In the US, derivatives could be sold at any time.
200%.
300%.
400%.
'How is the rate of return increasing like elementary school arithmetic?'
Flustered by the unbelievable results, he still waited patiently.
'Kim Shin hasn't sold. That's reason enough to wait.'
In the end, Kim Shin's investment yielded a 52.5-fold return.
Although he had followed late, he was able to get a return of over tenfold.
'My forty million won became four hundred million?'
Not only did he make up for all his previous losses, but he also earned ten years' worth of his Arcor salary.
The person he had been jealous of had suddenly become his role model.