Chapter 67: The Donghak Ant Movement
Chapter 67: The Donghak Ant Movement
The United States declared a national state of emergency.
Economically, the airline, travel, and hotel industries took a severe hit, leading to mass unemployment.
Non-farm payrolls fell by 700,000, and the unemployment rate jumped by 0.9% in a single month.
Sales of cars, furniture, and real estate plummeted one after another, a catastrophe that even brought factories to a halt.
It was at that exact moment that I invested $12 billion.
- Let's goooo!
- Threw in my salary. Threw in my home equity loan. Threw in my overdraft, obviously. Sold my car and threw that in. Anything else I can throw in?
- Pump it!
- Heave!
- Ho!
- Heave!
- Ho!
It felt just like reading a crypto forum.
But this was a stock market forum.
In Korea, the Donghak Ant Movement was underway.
As COVID-19 spread from January, foreign investors fled the Korean stock market in droves.
The flood of sell-offs caused a continuous decline, but that was when individual investors started buying.
“How long are we going to be ants?”
“The big players cash out, the institutions cash out, the foreigners cash out!”
“I’m sick and tired of being the one left holding the bag.”
“Let’s protect our own livelihoods!”
Small, powerless, pitiful ants.
The ants, who had been trampled on from all sides, stepped up and bought the massive volume of stocks flooding the market.
It was a development that financial institutions and black-haired foreigners could never have imagined.
- This is the bottom.
- It’ll go up eventually!
- A 10% spike!!!!
- Whoaaaaaa!
- We will protect the KOSPI.
Korea’s flagship companies.
The Donghak Ants bought up shares of Isung Electronics and Mirae Motors. They were also actively investing in pharmaceutical and biotech stocks.
They possessed not only economic knowledge but also a fierce determination for financial success.
‘Interesting.’
I browsed Korean communities, watching the Donghak Ant Movement unfold.
It was nothing to scoff at; every time the KOSPI fell, they invested trillions of won to buy up stocks.
It’s because of new phenomena like this that the stock market is impossible to predict completely.
If it were possible, global investment banks like JPMorgan would have swept up all the profits.
In reality, even giant banks and hedge funds were going bankrupt from a single miscalculation.
Financial institutions managing trillions of dollars were, by nature, incredibly greedy for returns.
They actively invested in risk and had even caused a financial crisis in the United States just twelve years prior.
‘The Donghak Ants aren’t being swept away by foreigners or institutions. It must be thanks to their increased financial literacy and patience.’
I had bought $12 billion worth of stocks on the NYSE and $500 million in call options.
I felt like I had become a Donghak Ant myself.
Then, while browsing a community forum, I found my own name.
- [Title] Heard Kim Shin invested a crazy amount of money in the NYSE.
It was a title I couldn’t help but click.
[ Kim Shin is sweeping up Tesla. He's actively buying up several stocks that have fallen hard.
A rumor is spreading like wildfire that he made a huge deal with JPMorgan.
Is the legendary Kim Shin, our big bro, with us on this?
ㄴ Is this for real?
ㄴ Stop lying.
ㄴ Who are you to know what Kim Shin is doing?
ㄴ I'm in Manhattan. Work at an investment firm. News travels fast in this world.
ㄴ It's a fact that Kim Shin is in New York. Saw him buying canned coffee and meat at a Korean mart.
ㄴ That was hilarious. A guy with at least 15 trillion won was comparing prices on discounted canned coffee. ]
“Ahem.”
Of all things, someone had taken a picture of me buying canned coffee.
I wasn’t a celebrity, and while I could have asked for the photo to be taken down, I didn’t bother.
Thanks to that, a viral image of me picking out a can of coffee, then switching to the one on sale, was making the rounds in Korea.
‘Can’t resist a buy-one-get-one-free deal.’
I had made an insane amount of money, but the eating habits I’d had my whole life weren’t going anywhere.
While in the US, I felt an overwhelming pressure to finish every last bit of my fried eggs and sausages.
[ ㄴ Kim Shin is in a different league. We're ants, he's a massive whale.
ㄴ Heard he has a ton of Bitcoin too.
ㄴ That's just a rumor. Didn't he sell it all a while ago?
ㄴ If Kim Shin bought in, is it worth getting our hopes up?
ㄴ Don't believe all those investment success stories on YouTube. They're probably exaggerated.
ㄴ The put options were real, though. He even showed his account balance back then.
ㄴ If this investment succeeds too... damn. ]
It was fun to find my name on a forum instead of in a YouTube video.
‘It’ll be embarrassing if this investment fails, though.’
Is there such a thing as a risk-free investment?
This was an investment that followed my gut feeling that an opportunity had arrived.
“Yes. The UK economy isn’t in great shape either. Italy is paralyzed.”
Ellie was glued to her computer and phone all day.
She rarely took off the headset and microphone that sat on her small head.
“I sold off the oil company stocks before they started to seriously decline. I don’t think they’ll recover this year. The department store sector is also...”
After helping me with my work for a few days, she was now diligently calling her other clients, briefing them on their investments.
When she had to report a loss, she was harshly berated and shed a few tears.
I hesitated, unsure of how to comfort her, but she quickly composed herself and bravely called her next client.
‘She works so hard.’
I had come to New York for Ellie, who would have been all alone, but there was nothing more for me to do here.
Every day, she worked from home, and all I did was watch her and cook meals.
“I’m thinking of heading back to San Francisco tomorrow.”
“Really? That’s a shame.”
A cycle of brief encounters and farewells.
We both had egos that had been formed not in our twenties, but in our teens or even earlier.
Reading books alone, going to school, making our own food, worrying about money.
We had grown accustomed to being alone, and as a result, we didn’t trust people easily.
When I got married, I think I did it with Han Chae-won simply because everyone else was doing it.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever… been truly in love.’
The fact that I couldn’t trust people wasn’t entirely Han Chae-won’s fault.
Though her fault probably amounted to about 98%.
“Meow.”
That night, a cat in a thin slip dress came to my bed again.
Knowing we wouldn’t see each other for a while, we spent an even more passionate night together.
* * *
- Park Hwa-young: Assistant Manager Na! What should I do? Should I keep buying puts? The market is falling, so that’s the right move, right?
- Go Bo-kyung: I also think it’s going to keep falling because of COVID.
The Arcor group chat.
The female employees shared their thoughts, and the male employees eagerly chimed in.
- Lee Jeong-shin: I agree, puts are the way to go! We’ve made a killing so far by trusting you, Assistant Manager Na.
- Jeong Chan-soo: Kim Shin said the market would go up, but… wouldn’t puts be better at least until the end of this week?
- Park So-jin: I think sticking with the current trend looks good ^^
- Go Bo-kyung: Kim Shin did say to just use his advice as a reference.
Reading the opinions of a few employees in the group chat, Na Sang-guk was lost in thought.
‘These fools. Getting arrogant after making a little money.’
It was a stark reminder of his own past self, a pup who knew nothing.
What had happened when he didn’t believe what Kim Shin had said and kept buying Ripple?
He had never seen an asset crash so quickly in his life.
Na Sang-guk typed a message into the group chat on his computer.
- Na Sang-guk: Hmm. I was just about to mention that.
- Na Sang-guk: The market has fallen a lot so far. The drop has been bigger than the intrinsic value of the companies.
- Na Sang-guk: I was just thinking that the market trend might be about to change.
- Na Sang-guk: But it seems Kim Shin, who is a greater master than I, has pinpointed the exact timing and made his move.
- Na Sang-guk: As of this moment, I am switching to calls.
- Park Hwa-young: What?
- Go Bo-kyung: For real?
- Na Sang-guk: I’m going to take an aggressive buy position.
Na Sang-guk paid no more attention to the group chat and immediately launched his stock trading program.
He was going to buy, no questions asked.
When it came to the stock market, he trusted Kim Shin more than his own father, mother, or even himself.
“Oh, god of investment. Please, let it work this time too!”
* * *
San Francisco.
The moment I returned to my mansion via private jet, the phone calls were incessant.
“This is Harry Buchanan. I’m calling because you’ve become a shareholder in our company.”
Hundreds of millions of dollars.
For companies I had invested over a billion dollars in, the CEO or CFO called me directly.
“I determined that your stock price was low compared to the company’s value. I have no intention of participating on the board of directors.”
“I see.”
I wouldn’t be receiving calls like this for just any investment.
It seemed I had become quite the whale in the stock market.
Though, of course, the truly massive companies like Google and Apple didn’t call.
“You’ve invested an enormous amount of capital into the NYSE recently.”
Producer Seong Ho-jin.
That evening, I had an interview with the film crew, which I hadn’t been able to do while in New York.
The rumor that I had bought stocks had already spread far and wide, so this was the very first question.
“Yes, that’s correct. It was based on my judgment that the market decline due to COVID-19 was excessive.”
“How much did you invest?”
“I bought $12 billion worth of stocks and invested $500 million in call options.”
“The scale is just on another level.”
Producer Seong Ho-jin, the writers, and the cameramen all looked dumbfounded.
The guts to invest $12 billion in one go.
“I bought a variety of stocks. The market could fall further for now due to fear. However, I believe times like these are buying opportunities, and as for how the stock prices will move from here, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Even while filming the segment for YouTube, I didn’t mention specific stocks.
I didn’t want to be accused of market manipulation by encouraging people to invest.
I carefully stated my views on investing and repeatedly emphasized that the stock market was still in a precarious state.
“We’ll upload today’s video right away.”
“Right away?”
“Full, unedited videos are popular these days. Your investments are especially important content, sir.”
Whether it went up or down.
Having invested over $12 billion, I was bound to attract the attention of the Korean media and the public.
- Kim Shin Makes Massive Investment in NYSE.
- [Breaking] Kim Shin: Market Decline Due to COVID Fears is Excessive.
- Korea's Richest Man, Kim Shin: "The Worst is Over."
- Kim Shin Believes the Stock Market Has Bottomed Out.
- Kim Shin: "The Only Way is Up!"
As soon as the video was uploaded to YouTube, I didn’t even have time to check the comments.
In less than ten minutes, articles from Korean media outlets came pouring out.
‘This is really beyond imagination.’
I could understand the online tabloids, but even the headlines from major newspapers were sensational.
- [NYSE] Kim Shin: "Buy Undervalued IT Companies!"
- Kim Shin's Advice to the Donghak Ants: "To the US Market, Let's Go!"
- Kim Shin's Crisis Investment. A Massive Jackpot is Coming.
“Did I really say that?”
I had been deliberately careful with every word I said.
Watching the YouTube video again, I was sure my tone hadn’t been nearly that strong.
In any case, what was done was done, and it was true that I had bet on the overall rise of the NYSE.
‘I’ll probably get some flak if the market drops.’
Stock market experts are usually wrong anyway, so it probably wouldn’t be a big deal.
And then I went to sleep and woke up the next day.
I woke up, had breakfast, and was about to play a ranked match.
But I couldn’t resist my curiosity and logged into my brokerage account.
‘It’ll probably take some more time to hit rock bottom. I expect it to fall for a while.’
Buying stocks at the absolute bottom is just greedy. That’s why I had factored in a potential additional drop of 10-20%.
- Total Assets: $12,952,873,142
The stock prices had fallen a little while I was making my $12 billion investment.
Which meant that my wealth had increased by $1,015,240,000 in a single day.
“How did my money increase this much?”
My net worth had grown by over a trillion won.
I grabbed my phone, opened an American financial news site, and scanned the articles to see what had happened.
- Dow Jones Surges 1,000 Points at Opening!
- New York State Death Toll Declines, Light at the End of a Dark Tunnel.
- Hopes of COVID-19 Abating, OPEC Agrees to Production Cuts.
- Boeing, Apple, and All Other Sectors on the Rise.
- US Pharmaceutical Company Gilead Sciences Ramps Up Production of COVID Treatment Remdesivir.
- Former Fed Chair Yellen: "Congress Should Allow the Fed to Purchase Equities."
