Cobalt Gate (4)
Park Geon-hwi always thought he was smarter than everyone else.
He had made steady profits from stock investing so far, and he was sure this time would be no different.
The target price was 50,000 won, but if anything started to look wrong, he had planned to sell immediately and get out. Then, of course, something really did go wrong.
The moment the Jungheung Economic Newspaper article broke, Park Geon-hwi screamed in shock.
“Ah!”
When he had worked at Mirae Investment Securities, he had learned one thing: you didn’t try to catch a falling knife.
He placed a sell order at the daily limit-down price right away. But by then, more than five million shares were already sitting on the sell side.
Until that entire queue moved, he couldn’t sell at all.
But who in their right mind would buy a manipulated stock at a price like this?
He called his cousin at Mirae Investment Securities immediately.
“What’s going on? Is that article true?”
“I don’t know either. Every branch is swamped with people begging us to sell for them. One of my clients put in more than 1 billion won, and it’s chaos right now.”
“N-no, wait. You said before it was true.”
“Who could’ve known the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs was involved in the scheme? Damn it! I’m losing my mind here.”
“Then…”
“I’m too busy to talk right now. I’ll call you later. I’m hanging up.”
The cousin hung up on him unilaterally.
And so, with no trades made at all, an hour passed and the market closed.
Park Geon-hwi barely slept that night.
Tomorrow the limit-down should break, right? I’ll put in an order at the open and sell immediately.
But the next day opened at limit-down again and closed at limit-down again, with no trades executed.
He was supposed to go to work now, but there was no way he could set foot in the office in this state.
He called the company and said, “I’m feeling terrible. I need to rest a few more days.”
With bloodshot eyes from not sleeping properly, he stared at the monitor without blinking.
He had lost the ability to think straight under the endless string of limit-down days.
A stock that opened at limit-down also closed at limit-down. If you looked at the chart, it wasn’t even a red candle or a blue candle anymore—just a blue dot.
When is this damn limit-down streak going to end?
It was the same the next day. And the day after that. It felt like staring at an endless staircase painted blue as it sank into the abyss.
Anyone who had never been hit by a limit-down didn’t know just how much shock and terror it caused.
A stock worth 10,000 won dropped to 7,000 won with one limit-down. Then, if it hit limit-down again the next day, it became 4,900 won.
In just two trading days, more than half of it had vanished.
And after four rounds, more than 75 percent was gone.
The stock that had once touched 38,000 won fell below 10,000 won in just four trading days. The profits he had made up to then disappeared in two days, and after that his principal started being shaved away at a brutal pace.
Even if he wanted to cut his losses, he couldn’t trade at all unless the limit-down line broke.
Every single day felt like hell.
How good would it have been if he could turn back time?
Why the hell did I buy this trash stock?
It was true that a lot of articles had come out recently, but he wouldn’t have bought it just because of that.
The only reason he had gotten interested in it was one thing.
That bastard Kang Seon-woo had bought it after throwing in his entire fortune. Watching that guy make money had made him jealous, so he’d followed him in.
And this was the result.
Goddamn it! Why the hell did I listen to him? If it weren’t for that asshole, I wouldn’t have even looked at this stock.
In the middle of all this, the one small consolation was that he hadn’t been the only one to get wiped out.
Right. At least I’m not the only one who lost money.
From what Kang Seon-woo had said so far, it was obvious he hadn’t known this was a scheme. He had just gotten in early by luck while the price was still climbing.
That punk probably lost everything he made too, right?
Fortunately, the limit-down procession finally stopped at 2,300 won. Once the limit-down was released, trading picked up again and volume exploded.
Now he could sell.
But…
What was the point of cutting losses now?
He wouldn’t even recover one-tenth of what he’d invested.
The sense of loss, the regret, the self-loathing, and the rage all welled up at once, and tears spilled out before he could stop them.
“H-hic… my money… give me back my money, you bastard! H-hic!”
Even after his entire fortune had gone up in smoke, he still had to go to work.
Park Geon-hwi finally dragged himself out of the house after half a month.
When he reached the company, the first place he went was Development Team 3. He wanted to see just how much Kang Seon-woo had lost.
Unlike Park Geon-hwi, who looked half-dead from not eating or sleeping properly, Kang Seon-woo looked fairly normal.
“Oh! I heard you were off sick. You okay?”
Instead of answering, Park Geon-hwi asked the question he was really desperate to know.
“Are you okay, Seon-woo?”
“Yeah. About what?”
Park Geon-hwi snorted inwardly.
Playing dumb, huh.
Even if he looked fine on the outside, he had to be rotting on the inside just like he was.
“KNC International has been limit-down every day. By now, haven’t you been forced into liquidation?”
Kang Seon-woo shook his head.
“I sold all of that a long time ago.”
Park Geon-hwi’s eyes went wide.
“W-what? You sold it all?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t lie. It was limit-down the whole time. How could you sell?”
“I sold before it hit limit-down.”
“Ha… what kind of nonsense is that?”
Then Cha Su-yeon, who was standing nearby, smiled and said, “It’s true. Seon-woo said his friend thought it had gone up about as far as it would, so he sold everything. Thanks to that, I made a little money too.”
Other employees chimed in one after another.
“He even bought pizza for the whole development team to celebrate making money.”
“And then it started limit-downing the very next day.”
“I was shocked when I saw that.”
“Your friend must be really good at stocks.”
“How did he sell so perfectly, like he was psychic?”
Park Geon-hwi was too stunned to think straight.
What the hell? I lost my entire fortune, and this bastard sold at the top? Why me… why am I the only one ending up like this?
Kang Seon-woo looked at Park Geon-hwi and said, “Oh! Did you buy that stock too?”
“No, I—”
“My friend says it’s going to be delisted later. If you’re holding it, sell right now.”
“W-what did you say?”
Kang Seon-woo wore a face full of genuine concern.
“You might feel bad hearing that the stock you own is going to be delisted, but I’m telling you this for your own good, Geon-hwi. Take it seriously.”
The instant he heard that, it felt like his stomach turned upside down.
Before he knew it, Park Geon-hwi had grabbed Kang Seon-woo by the collar and shouted, “Hey, you little punk! Who the hell are you to say my stock’s getting delisted or not?”
I couldn’t help letting out a crooked smile as I watched the news.
How far had this scheme spread, exactly?
It would probably end here with a few scapegoats being cut loose. I didn’t know anything beyond that either, so there was nothing more I could leak.
Most manipulated stocks don’t reveal their true nature until after they’ve already collapsed. By then, the syndicates have long since taken the money and vanished.
It was extremely rare for the truth to come out before the scheme had even made its money, like it had this time.
In fact, the people who had participated in the manipulation were said to have suffered enormous losses.
Foreign Ministry employees, analysts, and others had supposedly lost anywhere from tens of millions of won to several billion won each.
That was thanks to the Jungheung Economic Newspaper moving so quickly.
Reporter Min Hong-soo had done far better than I’d expected.
I did worry that he might get fired over this, but… if he hadn’t done it, he would’ve quit anyway. So it wasn’t my problem.
I could always push him hard again if another piece of information came my way later.
That was what I was thinking when Seon-woo raised his hand and asked, “There’s one thing I’m curious about.”
“Go ahead.”
“So they’ve proven there was no cobalt mine, just stock manipulation.”
“Yeah.”
“Then that company is basically worthless.”
“Right.”
“So what are these people buying the stock for now?”
“...”
Surprisingly, even with all the related parties being arrested one after another, the stock was still trading actively.
The price, which had fallen to 860 won, had bounced back and broken above 1,000 won today.
Seon-woo let out an admiring whistle. “Whoa! An 18 percent gain? Seriously?”
“Well, even a dead cat bounces if you drop it from high enough.”
When a stock keeps crashing, it eventually bounces at some point.
That’s called a dead cat bounce. The important part isn’t that it bounces—it’s that it’s dead.
So what if the stock rebounds? The company is already as good as dead.
And yet, because a stock that had once traded near 40,000 won now looked cheap at 1,000 won, trading volume exploded.
Of course, institutions and foreigners wouldn’t even dip a toe into a stock like that. The only people buying and day-trading here were individual investors.
It would be delisted in a few years anyway, but that had nothing to do with us.
Because by then, we’d already stripped it clean and gotten out long ago.