Blackwood International 2
Following my instructions, David immediately shorted Blackwood International stock and bought up every put option he could find on the market.
From that point on, every drop in Blackwood International’s stock price would become our profit.
I did feel a little sorry for the shareholders, but it couldn’t be helped. Investing was an act of making money. Once you started shorting, you had to push the price down as far as possible.
I called Trish O'Connor right away.
She answered brightly.
"What is it? Asking me on a date, maybe?"
"Something even better than that."
At that, Trish’s voice changed.
"Don’t tell me…?"
"Yep. What else would I have to give you except a scoop?"
She let out a shriek of excitement.
"Aaaah! What kind of scoop?"
"You know what’s going on with Blackwood International right now, don’t you?"
"Yes. The servers are down and the network can’t be accessed, right?"
"That’s ransomware. The malware encrypted all their data. They won’t be able to crack it anytime soon."
Trish was stunned by what I said.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"What’s your source?"
"None."
"Huh?"
"I guess you could call it a gut feeling."
"……."
"I’m not joking. I just sent you an email, so can you write the article right away?"
"You said you had no source."
"You don’t trust me?"
"I do, but……."
Then why was she trailing off like that?
I said firmly, "My word is the source."
"……."
Everyone was watching the situation at the Blackwood Hotel.
At first, people thought the system would be restored within an hour or two, but the delay dragged on longer than expected, and all kinds of speculation began to swirl.
Maybe an employee had accidentally shut off the power. Maybe there had been an explosion or a fire in the server room. Maybe links to a terrorist organization had been found, and the FBI had taken the servers offline. And so on.
Some people even brought up ransomware. But no one took that seriously.
Then the WST article went live, and everything changed.
David Lockhart didn’t just claim it was ransomware; he also publicly announced that he had gone short.
In fact, a massive wave of sell orders had already hit the market just before the article appeared.
With the shock from the Thomas Motors disaster still lingering, the Continue Capital CEO’s words were more than enough to move the market.
As soon as the WST article came out, Blackwood International’s stock plunged another 10 percent.
The stock boards went wild.
Most people thought it was nonsense.
And that made sense, because they hadn’t presented a single piece of evidence. But unlike public opinion, hedge funds moved quickly.
They watched market conditions closely and gathered information to determine whether the article was true.
Michael Preston, the head of Shark Management, called an emergency meeting.
"Is it really ransomware?"
"We don’t know yet."
"What is Blackwood saying?"
"They haven’t made any statement at this point."
Buying stock first and then releasing a buy report, or shorting first and then releasing a sell report, was a common hedge fund tactic.
The only thing that mattered was whether the report was true or not.
If they had spread false rumors to drag down the stock, they could be prosecuted for violating securities law. If it was proven that they’d done it deliberately, they’d be going to prison.
Was he really that sure it was true?
Michael held David’s ability in high regard. And he valued his ethics just as highly.
There was no way David would do anything that went against his own principles or tarnished his reputation.
It had to be information he’d obtained in advance, just like with Thomas Motors.
If he was going all-out on the short, did that mean he thought the ransomware couldn’t be broken in the short term?
Even as he thought that, the stock kept falling.
If he hesitated, he would miss the timing.
Michael Preston gave the order.
"We short too."
"Understood."
Shark Management moved immediately to short the stock.
So did the other hedge funds.
After Continue Capital released its report, the other hedge funds shorted the stock just as expected.
As the price fell, the short sellers swarmed in like sharks smelling blood, driving it down even further. Some investors stepped in to buy, arguing that the decline had gone too far, but they weren’t enough to stop the slide.
There was only one way to stop it.
Blackwood International had to restore its servers.
But contrary to expectations, the servers still weren’t restored by the next day, and the chaos continued.
With customer inquiries flooding in, Blackwood finally issued an official statement.
"We are currently under a ransomware attack, and our servers are locked. We have confirmed that there is no data leakage, and we are doing everything we can to restore service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience to our customers."
The announcement sent the market into another frenzy.
Blackwood International Fails to Restore Servers for a Second Day
Ransomware Attacks Grow Stronger, Putting Other Companies on Alert
Three Months Ago, Manus Department Store Also Shut Down for Three Days Because of Ransomware
Ransomware Threats in a Digital Society: What Can Be Done?
Could Blackwood Hotel Customer Information Have Been Leaked?
Blackwood insisted that no data had leaked, but hardly anyone believed it at face value.
If information had gotten out, they’d be facing a class-action lawsuit, and that might force them to shut down altogether.
I checked Blackwood International’s stock price.
The $237 price had fallen to just $120 in only two days. Compared with before the incident, it had lost nearly half its value.
More than $25 billion in market cap had vanished, and the company had even been overtaken by Dalton Hotel, the number two player in the industry.
The Continue Capital employees watching the crash all looked at a loss for words.
Edward Benson shook his head and said, "I thought they taught us that the larger the fund gets, the lower the returns become……."
David gave a dry laugh.
"That’s what I learned too. I guess we were taught wrong."
It was extremely rare for a company this massive to collapse so sharply in such a short period of time. And to time an investment that precisely was, in truth, almost impossible.
Continue Capital had gone all in on the decline just before the crash.
After expenses, the return over two days was roughly double. Their $1.8 billion investment had swelled to $3.6 billion.
Given the holding period, it was an absurd rate of return.
And Han Miru had done that impossible thing again.
Lee Dong-ho muttered before he could stop himself, "How is he even making that possible?"
Then Kim Beom-seok, standing beside him, said, "You taught him well, didn’t you?"
He happened to say it in English, which startled the other employees into looking at Lee Dong-ho.
"Huh? You taught the boss?"
"R-Really? Is that true?"
"How on earth did you……?"
Flustered, Lee Dong-ho waved both hands.
"N-no, that’s not what I meant. I just explained the work process. Don’t misunderstand."
The market hated uncertainty more than anything.
No one could say for sure how much damage this incident would cause to the company. That was why stocks tended to rise even more when they rose, and fall even harder when they fell.
Still, this was a bit much.
I wasn’t remembering it perfectly, but I was pretty sure it had only fallen 35 percent even after the ransomware was confirmed.
If things were different from the first timeline, there was only one reason.
…….
Was it because of me?
After Continue Capital released its sell report, the hedge funds had smelled blood in the water and rushed in like a pack of sharks, dumping short positions in a frenzy.
And Continue Capital kept pouring fuel on the fire.
I called David right away.
"Liquidate every position."
"Understood."
Thinking we’d made enough already, he didn’t object.
But I had no intention of stopping there.
"And buy Blackwood stock and call options immediately."
His response came half a beat late.
"……What?"
Closing a short position and buying immediately at the same time meant flipping to the opposite side in an instant. Up until a moment ago, we had been betting on a collapse; now we were betting on a surge.
He probably had never invested that way before.
"We’re basically at the bottom now. That means the only direction left is up."
"If they can’t break the ransomware, or if data has leaked, the stock could fall even further than this."
"Don’t worry. According to Syd, there was no data leakage. And the ransomware will be resolved. Then the data will be restored, and the stock will return to its original level."
Based on the current price, that meant it would double.
David, still sounding unconvinced, asked, "How can you be sure of that?"
I was sure because I knew the future.
If I invested freely just because I knew the future, people might start looking at me suspiciously. But this time, there was no reason for that concern at all.
Because……
"We can solve this problem ourselves."