The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 360



Only Krnovel

360. New building (4)

Classes also existed in financial hub towers.

The highest floor, the 70th floor, was used as a conference room.

In reality, the 69th floor was the number of floors that the highest class could use.

You might think that Taewoo Securities should use the 69th floor.

Taewoo Securities was using the 20th floor, the lowest floor excluding commercial buildings.

This is because, as the owner, there was no need to use the high floor.

Therefore, the company currently using the 69th floor was Wall Street’s Quantum Fund.

“How does it feel to see a panoramic view of downtown Seoul?”

“What good is the surrounding landscape? Aren’t those Wall Street guys who don’t mind working in their garages as long as they can increase their profits? Me too.”

69th floor of Financial Hub Tower.

I visited Quantum Fund and had tea time with CEO George.

George was a very successful CEO on Wall Street, but his coffee was like plain water from a capsule coffee machine that he could easily drink at any time.

“Wouldn’t it be better if you could make a high rate of return while enjoying a good view?”

“Oh! I guess it’s finally time to implement the secret project.”

“It’s not something big enough to be called a secret project. You can think of it as a practice game. Still, there are ways to make a sure profit.”

CEO George puts down the coffee he was drinking.

He closed the blinds on all the windows and sat back down.

“Let’s talk. What can you do that will make you a sure profit?”

“The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to implement quantitative easing.”

“The third quantitative easing, QE3, was implemented last month. It is unlikely that the stagnant economy will revive no matter how many bonds are purchased.”

After the Lehman crisis, the U.S. economy was not doing well.

Therefore, the U.S. Federal Reserve implemented quantitative easing in various ways.

From QE1, which was aimed at protecting the real estate market, which was hit the hardest, to QE2, which tightened the belt on government spending, it was implemented.

And the last one was QE3, purchasing U.S. government bonds.

Everyone was paying attention to whether QE3 would be the last quantitative easing implemented by the United States, or whether QE4 and QE5 would be introduced.

“It will be difficult to implement quantitative easing indefinitely like this. It will be a burden even for the U.S. government, which holds the hegemony of the dollar tightly.”

“So do you think the U.S. government will raise interest rates?”

“Not right now. In August, the Federal Reserve Chairman announced that the zero interest rate policy would be maintained until the end of 2013, so it would be difficult to reverse it at this point.”

The Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve is not called the President of the World Economy for nothing.

His words had to have weight because not only the U.S. economy but also the world economy fluctuated with his every word.

If you reverse what you said just two months ago.

Because trust was bound to decline, the zero ban policy had to be maintained at least until this year.

“Then when will the time be?”

“It is expected that the Federal Reserve will begin to reduce quantitative easing by the middle of next year.”

“Is this your prediction alone? Or is it a prediction obtained through communication with the White House?”

Representative George knew that I had a close relationship with the White House.

That’s why I asked this question, and his movements could change depending on my answer.

“This is the answer obtained by collecting and analyzing various information. You can trust this information as it is obtained from various sources, including Taewo Group’s own system, Wall Street, and the White House.”

“Can I listen to the scenario in detail? How will this operation proceed?”

“Money is currently flowing into both the stock market and the real estate market due to the third quantitative easing. But what would happen if quantitative easing was scaled back?”

“The stock market will plummet and bond yields will soar.”

It was a kind of formula.

When interest rates are low, money is released.

Conversely, as interest rates rise, money flows out.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to short sell stocks that are greatly affected by interest rates and buy bonds in advance?”

“It’s not bad, but isn’t it too weak? It seems like the least profitable operation you’ve proposed so far.”

“That’s why I said it was a practice game. But this operation doesn’t end here.”

“That’s right! Even if it’s just a practice game, you’re not the person to do something of this scale.”

So far, we have carried out several operations together with Quantum Fund.

Representative George was dissatisfied with each of these operations, which were enough to shake the nation.

“They said that the U.S. Federal Reserve would show signs of reducing quantitative easing in the middle of next year, but they did not say that they would actually proceed with reducing quantitative easing.”

“······Are you saying that the Federal Reserve will not reduce quantitative easing?”

“The entire financial community, including Wall Street, will expect quantitative easing to be reduced, but Taewo Group predicts that the Federal Reserve will maintain quantitative easing until the end of next year.”

The Federal Reserve was an organization that pursued stability.

What if the stock market plummets and bonds soar simply by indicating the intention to reduce quantitative easing?

The tapering off of quantitative easing was to be delayed.

“You’re saying you’re saying you’re going to do quantitative easing, but you’re not doing it.”

“Then what happens if we reduce quantitative easing at the end of next year?”

“The market will fluctuate at least three times a year.”

“It also means that there will be times when we can make a profit three or more times.”

“This is how you are. If it’s on this scale, you can have a lot of fun.”

“No matter how much it is a practice game, shouldn’t you be able to properly play the actual game only if you warm up enough?”

There was a reason why tapering quantitative easing was called a practice game.

Starting with the interest rate hike in the United States, various events will explode like dominoes.

Back then, you had to be more agile, and you could make a lot of money in an instant or lose a lot of money.

“Are we going to play this practice game by ourselves, or are we going to play together with the baby birds waiting for food?”

“We want to proceed with companies that passed the test.”

The test meant the Crimean incident.

Information on the Crimea incident was provided to all companies residing in the financial hub tower.

I added that I was asked to be careful not to let information leak out.

“When conducting an operation like this, the internal enemy is the most dangerous. Those who do not even manage information properly are not qualified to participate in the operation.”

“Through informants planted on Wall Street, we were identifying which financial companies were leaking information to the outside world.”

“So, is there anyone you can trust? They are people who would sell anything for money, so I think they sold all the information as well.”

“As CEO George said, most companies leaked information either intentionally or accidentally. Still, about 10 companies were paying a lot of attention to security.”

It could have been just 10 places.

Wall Street, Europe, Japan, etc. A huge number of financial companies have moved into financial towers.

There were 10 of them, so it was clear that the number was small, but it was more than I expected.

“The guys who sold the information must be sick to their stomachs. They’re going to have a lot of fun through this operation.”

“Once you’ve experienced it, wouldn’t you think that you should value the information coming from the financial tower? Seeing the 10 financial companies that joined us through this operation earning high profits can raise awareness.”

“Now that I know how much it costs to talk recklessly, I will make sure to stop you from joining.”

In the United States, all attention was now focused on the presidential election.

So even if we moved, we could act proactively because no one would be interested.

“CEO George, please stay centered.”

“The guys on Wall Street only care about their own benefit, so they tend to make unexpected moves. I will give them signals when to move and when to withdraw. And I will give a firm warning that financial companies that make unexpected actions this time will be excluded from the next operation.”

“Once they get a taste of the returns, they will start to take care of themselves. So, we should have a lot of fun with this practice match.”

Financial companies were ultimately organizations for money.

It was a place where you could do anything as long as you could make money.

If we only realized that we could earn high profits if we listened carefully, we could turn greedy hyenas into loyal hunting dogs.

Of course, it would be a hyena pretending to be a hunting dog.

No matter how much I changed my appearance, I was still a hyena in the end, so I always had to be careful.

* * *

November 6, 2012.

The US presidential election was held.

Because the United States is such a large land and populated by so many people, it was not until the afternoon of the next day that the outline of the winner began to emerge.

That’s why I went to Captain Kang’s office on the evening of November 7th with beer in hand.

President Han and Captain Kang were already eating beer and snacks and watching the vote counting results closely.

“Is there some outline now?”

“Fortunately, President Obama’s reelection is certain.”

“I told you it would happen. Why are you worried?”

“Opinion polls from just a month ago showed that the Republican candidate was ahead. Moreover, a typhoon hit the eastern part of the United States.”

President Obama has always been ahead in public opinion polls.

However, in October, a month before the presidential election, the approval ratings of Republican candidates began to rise rapidly.

President Obama was pushed to second place for over 20 days.

“When a natural disaster like a typhoon occurs, the approval rating of the incumbent president tends to drop.”

“Thanks to President Obama’s good handling of the situation, he was able to recover his fallen approval rating. If he had made a small mistake, the result could have been overturned.”

Natural disasters cannot be prevented.

However, responding to natural disasters was the responsibility of the government, and President Obama demonstrated a level of response that was satisfactory to the public.

“The Republican candidate’s slip of the tongue also had an impact.”

“After making an outrageous statement about spending too much money on disaster prevention and countermeasures, the typhoon struck and I was cornered. If I hadn’t said that, the gap would have been narrowed even further than it is now.”

“That’s probably why it’s said that presidents are made in heaven.”

President Obama benefited from natural disasters.

On the other hand, the Republican candidate suffered losses, so it would not be wrong to say that this election was decided by heaven.

“Now that the U.S. presidential election is over, CEO Han will be busy.”

“We are monitoring the U.S. Federal Reserve 24 hours a day. And we are preparing step by step to purchase and sell bonds with financial tower financial companies.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve was also unable to make any major moves during the presidential election period.

Therefore, it would take about half a year after the presidential election to see any movement toward reducing quantitative easing.

So, if we prepare step by step from now on, we can meet the timing accurately.

“President Han can move on like that, but how is Captain Kang doing?”

“Preparations for the Korean presidential election are also progressing steadily. The ruling party and the pan-opposition candidates are fighting fiercely due to the push-up strategy. However, there is not much difference in the approval rating gap. The three candidates are back-and-forth with a gap of less than 1%. there is.”

The month after the US presidential election.

There was no time to rest as the presidential election was underway in Korea.

Fortunately, the US presidential election went as I expected, so it was a bit of a let-down, but unlike the US presidential election, the Korean presidential election involved complex dynamics.