"I really must catch some today…"

President Mun, on his way to Future Asset's Myeongdong branch, said it to President Song, who had come along with him.

"I've lost count of how many days I've failed to catch any. I've been putting orders in at the limit price since the week before last and nothing gets filled."

"That's because there's nobody selling."

President Song produced the plain answer.

But it was not as though President Mun did not know it.

He had simply been grumbling out of regret.

And the President Song who had answered was of the same mind as President Mun.

"I wish the people who caught it down at the bottom would shake some loose. If they've made ten times their money and more, oughtn't they to make room for somebody else?"

"Would you do it, if it were you?"

"…Well, halfway, perhaps."

"That isn't making room for anyone, is it — that's realizing a profit."

"You could see it that way too…"

Feeling it awkward even as he said it, President Song hurriedly changed the subject.

"I couldn't catch any at all, so I've told my children as well. Open accounts and put orders in at the limit price, no matter what."

"So your children have gone to another branch?"

"No. They do it at home."

"They do it at home?"

President Mun opened his eyes wide and asked it.

"Good heavens. How can the man not know this. These days you can trade through a program called a home trading system. Put in your digital certificate and connect by computer, and it's an age when you can buy and sell stock as you please."

"You mean they can use one of the terminals at the branch?"

"Not that — I'm telling you, you can do it on a computer."

"Really?"

President Mun wore an expression of astonishment, as at something heard for the first time.

"There was such a thing?"

"The world has got so much better and you didn't know that?"

"Set me aside — but if you knew about it, why aren't you…