Free Web NovelA building in New York City.
Five men were gathered, deep in discussion.
“George, you’ll be the face of the baht attack again, right?”
The man called George nodded.
“Of course. I’m the frontman.”
“Hahaha. We’ll be following you closely, then.”
These five men were the ones leading the currency war against Asia.
“We took quite a hit in Japan. Who the hell are these Dreamhigh guys?”
“They’re a new investment firm, but their performance has been solid. Lately, they’ve been quietly focusing on stock investments.”
“They’ll definitely follow us in. Vultures, those bastards.”
George Soros didn’t bother to hide his hostility toward Han Kyungyeong.
“Haha. Still, aren’t they under you? Not even real competition.”
Click Morgan, CEO of JPMorgan, threw out a pacifying remark, and George’s expression eased slightly.
“Who owns that company?”
“Some guy named Charlie Kim holds 99% of the shares. A guy named James holds the other 1%. The rest is shrouded in mystery.”
“I’ll lead the attack. You guys keep an eye on Dreamhigh. If they take a different position, we’ll need insurance. Something feels off.”
“Ha, look who’s getting cautious. The mighty George himself.”
The CEOs of the major investment banks were less wary of Dreamhigh, but George had a gut feeling.
He’d seen their pattern—always moving faster than him.
Mexico’s peso, Japan’s yen.
They always got in earlier and exited sooner. That’s how he ended up taking losses—he knew it well.
Sure, he still made profits by continuing the attacks afterward, but the feeling of defeat was undeniable.
And so, without even realizing it, Han Kyungyeong had attracted the full attention of Wall Street’s titans.
* * *
Options were a simple game.
Buying and selling time.
Derivatives, where anything and everything could be traded.
A gamble where one’s gain is another’s loss.
American-style options could be exercised at any point before maturity.
The attack on the Thai baht began with the stock market.
Led by George Soros, Wall Street’s predators pounced.
Thai stock prices plunged over 10%, and fear swept through investors.
“Kyungyeong, get ready. Dreamhigh employees are matching Wall Street’s position—put $1 billion on the drop. You take a $1.5 billion bet on the opposite. I’ll match that.”
― Okay. Standing by.
Even before the real baht attack began, a flurry of options trading had already started.
Wall Street investment banks were creating and distributing various options.
It was a game with a 90% win rate. These astronomical options were being traded for pennies.
The leading players in the baht attack included Soros, Stanley Druckenmiller, Julian Robertson, Leon Cooperman, and forex dealer teams from JPMorgan, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs.
They shorted the baht and then sold tens of billions of baht all at once to force the price down.
At that time, the baht’s value was 26 per US dollar.
Dreamhigh in New York went along with Wall Street, betting $10 billion on the decline, while Kyungyeong and I took the opposite positions.
― Position secured.
“Me too. I’m in.”
No one expected Wall Street to lose.
Even Kyungyeong, while following my lead, seemed to have his doubts.
What made hedge fund attacks so terrifying was the followers—the second wave.
Speculative capital that had no coordination with the original hedge funds quickly jumped in, hoping to pick up scraps.
Sometimes these amounts exceeded hedge fund capital by several times—or even dozens of times. freēwebnovel.com
In a global forex market where over $1 trillion is traded daily, $10 billion wasn’t much in the grand scheme.
But with the followers, the amount ballooned rapidly.
Speculators betting on the baht’s fall were already preparing their victory toasts.
But Thailand’s response defied expectations.
At the request of the Bank of Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong joined forces in a coordinated defense.
The Southeast Asian alliance bought up massive amounts of baht dumped on the market by the hedge funds, stabilizing the price.
― Whoa... I didn’t see that coming.
“Wait. Something even better’s coming.”
And just as I predicted, the Thai government delivered a blow.
On May 22, they adopted a dual exchange rate system—a powerful counterpunch to the hedge fund alliance.
― You predicted this?
“Of course. Now, tell the U.S. corporations to buy up all the cheap options hitting the market. And start liquidating the options held by all six firms.”
― What? Keep betting on the drop?
“The Thai government will eventually surrender.”
They even took the extreme measure of banning foreign bank branches in Thailand from selling baht overseas.
The hedge fund alliance had lost.
The baht didn’t fall—it slightly rose.
Thailand had won. And I had won.
But the predators wouldn’t give up so easily.
While they hesitated, I had Dreamhigh’s U.S. entity buying up cheap options being dumped by panicking investors.
Fear clouded judgment.
The hedge fund alliance regrouped for another strike.
Meanwhile, the followers were already offloading their options at half price.
That’s when Han Kyungyeong entered the picture—and to the hedge funds, he was like a ray of light.
Dreamhigh Investment began snapping up every option on the market at a discount, helping the hedge funds recover.
― Just like you said, I got in touch with the hedge funds. I’ve joined the attack.
“Good job. You’re part of the cartel now. Congrats. That’s not a club just anyone gets into.”
― Haa... You think they know who you are?
“There’s no such thing as a permanent secret. But the longer we delay it, the better. For now, just wait and follow their lead. I’ll step back and observe. Let me know if anything weird happens.”
Our call ended.
A wide grin spread across my face.
‘So, $30 billion bet on Thailand’s victory, with a 700% return rate... that’s $210 billion, right?’
This had all started with just $500 million.
No losses. Just endless wins. The profit was enormous.
‘Still not enough. Don’t get cocky.’
$210 billion was no small amount—but there were people who had even more.
And those people never showed their faces. They pulled the strings from behind the curtain.
Even without them, there were bigger players. Even $210 billion wasn’t enough to say I could take on Japan and win.
As the storm over the Thai baht settled, Thailand’s finance minister was replaced.
The new minister, Thanong Bidaya, was a 49-year-old economist.
Having learned economics from books rather than the field, he went straight for shock therapy—closing failing banks to revive the economy.
But reality was brutal.
The Thai government had burned through all its foreign reserves defending the baht, and though it ordered 16 financial institutions to suspend operations, it was already too late.
On July 1, Hong Kong was handed over to China. Fireworks lit up the sky, and President Jiang Zemin declared the end of Western imperialism.
But the very next day, Thailand surrendered to the hedge fund alliance.
Not a war of bullets, but of money. A new kind of imperialism had triumphed.
― Dude! This is insane!
“What’s the situation now?”
― 30 baht. 600% return.
“Hold your position. Wait.”
― What? You’re not cashing out?
“Just wait.”
It was a battle now between the hedge fund alliance and other speculative capital.
The Thai government had already surrendered. The followers—those who had taken the opposite position—had no power left.
Three hours before the market closed—
“Sell everything.”
― Got it. Hey! Dump it all!
I could hear Han Kyungyeong ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) barking orders to staff in English.
I smiled and waited for him to speak again.
― Liquidation order sent.
“Close out everything before end of day.”
― Huh? We could probably ride half of them to maturity.
“We’ve made enough. Know when to get out. Greed only makes enemies.”
― Got it.
“Let me know when it’s done.”
Futures and options were a zero-sum game.
One man’s gain was another’s loss.
Enemies were inevitable—but that didn’t mean I had to destroy them.
This currency war over the baht ended in a hedge fund victory. But the true winners... were me and Dreamhigh Investment.
Han Kyungyeong was now a respected figure on Wall Street—a full-fledged member of the cartel.
Wall Street is more exclusive than people think.
They don’t easily let outsiders in.
So more than the profits, it was the connection that really mattered. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
― Muhyuk...
Han Kyungyeong’s voice trembled.
This was no leveraged gamble. If we lost, we lost real capital.
“What?”
― Final liquidation total: $420 billion. The cheap options we scooped up exceeded all expectations. This is insane.
“What? $420 billion?!”
A 2,000% return.
Before my regression, the highest options return ever recorded—by 2020—was 4,879%.
But this was on a completely different scale of capital.
“Explain.”
― The baht’s decline was way steeper than expected. The more it dropped, the more our returns rose. When we liquidated, it came out to that figure.
Because of my interference, the fall was even steeper than in the original history. Our profit was double what I expected.
“Damn... I didn’t see this coming either. You did great. Make sure the staff gets huge bonuses. Time to throw some money around.”
― Heh. You got it.
After a long call with Kyungyeong, I hung up.
The unexpected profits meant I’d need to slightly adjust my plans.
Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines—I’d step back from those for now and let the hedge funds have their share.
Too much profit was a problem.
We’d taken half of the pie that was meant for everyone.
‘Time for a little break.’
Now that the Thailand situation was wrapped up, I turned my full attention back to Korea.
In the end, Ashin Group entered the Standstill Agreement—a de facto bankruptcy.
It shocked the public and the government that even a top-10 chaebol could fall.
And yet the government’s response remained complacent.
Every politician and businessman was still blind.
They only cared about winning the election. Obsessed with boasting that Korea had hit $10,000 GDP per capita, they poured all their foreign reserves into defending the currency.
And that blind pride is what triggered the currency crisis.
It was time for Eva, who’d been in Hong Kong, to return to Korea.
When we met at the airport, she greeted me with a bright smile.
“Hey! Boss.”
“Welcome back. Everything went well?”
“Thanks to you. Had to stare at the faces of those HSBC old geezers though. Haha.”
Eva’s laugh turned heads. Her exotic looks certainly drew attention.
“Get in. We have somewhere to go.”
“Oh? Hotel?”
I ignored the look she gave me and got in the car.
She grumbled under her breath and followed.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
The car sped into Seoul with me and Eva inside.
We arrived at a newly completed building in Daechi-dong, still undergoing interior work.
“This is where we’ll devour all of Korea.”
The Future Building.
Home to Future Investment.
Eva stared up at the building in silence.
< I Didn’t See This Coming Either > End.
