“Director-General! They’re coming out again! Margin lots linked to the dollar are pouring out!”

“Insane! It’s pouring out again today! Are you certain it isn’t the futures side? Who the hell is this!”

The Director-General grabbed his head.

“I ran the volume on the futures side and it isn’t them. It’s the margin side!”

“It’s volume out of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange!”

“It’s pouring out of Britain! Hong Kong! America!”

“Director-General, what do we do?”

“What do you mean, what do we do! We defend! If it runs any stronger we’re dead!”

For months now the Bank of Canada had been out of its mind over the strength of the exchange rate.

Foreign Exchange Bureau 2, which handles defending the rate, was in the middle of a war.

The central bank was the final approver of foreign exchange dealing between banks and private parties.

When large FX margin lots poured out, they hit the exchange rate immediately.

Unlike the futures market, the selling poured out through dealers in real time.

Sparks had flown from the bad news going off in America one after another.

Canada’s domestic economy wasn’t good either.

But America was in a worse mess, so the Canadian dollar had shot through the ceiling.

As the rate climbed, people all over the country cheered.

When your own currency is strong, the price of manufactured goods in Canada, which has no factories to speak of, gets cheaper.

Against that, the central bank, which has to keep the rate stable, was a step away from losing its mind.

If the rate isn’t stable, the national plan falls apart.

If export prices rise so exports fall and only imports increase, the country runs a deficit.

With the balance broken, the state’s spending and planning can’t be put together at all.

“Buy. Hold it and release US dollars!”

“Take five billion dollars!”

“Call!”

“Ricky, your team take some too!”

“Okay! Three billion, call!”

Frantically, the Canadian dollar and the US dollar went at each other in the world inside the internet.

Several hours went by in a rush.

The battle was fierce enough to take every scrap of attention they had.

When something went wrong with the Canadian dollar-US dollar rate, the short-term speculators piled on too.

“The volume’s dropping!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. The order flow has broken. It looks like there’s no more selling!”

At some point a staffer shouted in surprise.

The hellish war of rate defense seemed to be over.

Time was left on the clock, and still the Canadian dollar selling had been absorbed.

“Whew…”

Director-General Coleman looked at his monitor and collapsed into his chair.

On a normal day the trading volume runs to twelve billion dollars at the most.

But over a few days the volume had climbed to the forty-billion-dollar level.

Nothing could explain it except FX margin trading, which can’t be controlled at all.

They had pushed in a large share of the foreign currency available to them.

If this situation ran a few days more, they’d have to pull currency in from the US central bank.

For a foreign exchange authority, that’s the worst sequence there is, the one you don’t want to think about.

“Who on earth is it? However much of a mess America is in, to be converting currency this mercilessly…”

Coleman asked his staff.

“The margin side is a shadow with no identity, isn’t it. Somebody seems to have expected the strength, built up a position and then let it go.”

“They’d have made a profit, wouldn’t they?”

“Naturally. Just the swing over a few days is more than seven percent.”

With the war of rate defense easing off, the dealers quietly talked among themselves.

Every one of them was half dead.

“But didn’t the same thing happen with the yen a few months back?”

“Oh! That’s right. It was similar on the yen side then.”

The yen?

Director-General Coleman was listening to his staff when a thought flashed through his head and startled him.

A few months ago, exchange lots had poured out against Canada and against the yen.

It had ended in a short time then, so there was no fallout, but the flow was not what it usually was.

“Couldn’t it be the same investor as then?”

A young new staffer quietly put his opinion forward.

“Come on, surely not~ they aren’t a god, so how would they predict a rate move? Don’t you know it crashed ten percent afterward? FX margin is a table where nobody gets to be the winner.”

“That’s true. Diane, let’s get a drink when we finish today. I’m wrung out.”

“Sure. Let’s go to the usual pub and have a stout.”

Watching the exchange rate graph settle, the dealers let the last of the tension go.

“Hmm…”

Unlike his staff, Director-General Coleman, who had cut his teeth over long years at the Bank of Canada, had an uneasy feeling.

And one picture drew itself in his head.

It can’t be… it’s not possible.

Coleman shook his head.

If today’s events had been planned…

It would be the moment an enormous fortune was born, one that could enter the world rankings in a single stroke.

“Change and hope, is it… they’ve framed it well.”

Robert nodded at the slogan of the Obama campaign he was backing.

American citizens were sick of the Bush administration’s absurd warmongering.

Into that, Obama was raising a storm with an end to the war, health insurance and the rest.

The advertising power of the super PAC Robert was supporting couldn’t be dismissed either.

Yes! We Can!

The advertisements saying we can do it were running for real now.

They didn’t spell it out, but it was a clear signal of support for Obama.

“What will our boss choose next?”

Robert was excited by Obama’s invisible storm.

He couldn’t hold back his astonishment at the young Korean he served as his boss.

Every one of the investments was unorthodox.

The investment funds had been built up within a few days.

Hedge funds and private equity funds were formally in operation in America, Hong Kong, Britain and elsewhere.

He’d brought in dealers he could trust and taken several offices.

A few front-man dealers were pushed out in front.

The advantages of private equity and hedge funds were being used to the letter.

There’s no need to disclose where the capital comes from.

Using tax haven corporations is the basics of tax avoidance.

Ttiriririri. Ttiriririri.

The iPhun Robert had recently acquired rang quietly.

The creature they call a smartphone was a new world.

The chord it played was a treat.

“Boss.”

Robert called him Boss, gladly.

It’s the courtesy owed to the hero who salvaged his life.

“Robert, are you keeping well?”

The boss’s voice is full of energy whenever you hear it.

“Of course. Thanks to you, Boss, I’m having the best time of my life. My friends on Wall Street are calling me the prodigal son returned.”

The rumor had spread far and wide on Wall Street.

The news was that Robert Ryan had landed a blind mark and was on his way back up.

Friends and colleagues who hadn’t been in touch all that time were queuing to have a meal with Robert.

Inside the typhoon that had the financial world starting to fall like leaves in an autumn wind, everyone was making desperate efforts to find safe shelter. (TL Note: 추풍낙엽 — “leaves falling in the autumn wind”; the four-character phrase for a rout in which things go down one after another, with nothing holding.)

Everyone was curious about the identity of the stout rope Robert had hold of.

“Haha. You do know we haven’t even started yet?”

The boss laughed freely.

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

A smile came to Robert’s mouth too.

Listening to the boss always brought a strange kind of belief with it.

The voice was full of a trust that had nothing to do with age.

By his own nature, too, Robert would never slight his benefactor and boss.

“Have you secured all the usable dealers?”

“I’ve handled it as you instructed. Being advised to resign is the fashion on Wall Street these days, so talent is overflowing. There’s practically a line in the lobby to see my face. It’s all thanks to you, Boss.”

Robert threw out a truth that sounded like a joke.

It wasn’t quite a line, but he took calls asking him to take somebody on several times a day.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, Robert, my mind is very much at ease these days.”

“Not at all, Boss. Thank you for trusting me.”

Robert felt the boss’s sincerity.

Truly a large-hearted boss.

The current investment money had passed ten billion dollars comfortably.

And Robert was managing all of it.

By now it was enough to go head to head with the hedge fund godfathers who have made a name for themselves. (TL Note: 자웅을 겨루다 — to contend as male and female bird; the four-character phrase for two rivals settling which of them is the stronger.)

“I’ve sent an investment opinion by email. Have the dealers push it forward.”

“I’ll check it and handle it right away.”

Robert never once offered an opinion of his own.

Every one of the several investment opinions he’d received from the boss so far had been a jackpot.

He’d had all sorts of opinions by email: commodity futures in oil, rice and corn and other food, oil futures covering West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude, mineral futures in iron and metals.

No specific investment instructions came with them.

Only buy and sell opinions, with dates attached.

Even in the futures market the boss didn’t do short-term or ultra-short-term trades.

He always preferred long positions, with rollover as the basis.

The dealers simply bought mechanically, exactly as the confidentiality oath they’d signed on joining required.

Of course, he had them run a certain amount of personal money too.

That was material for gauging the dealers’ ability, and cover for outside eyes.

But the real main investments were handled by the opinion letters.

Profits were being generated exponentially under the names of ten private equity and hedge fund companies.

In under a month the return was 220 percent.

Truly an astonishing return, even on Wall Street.

But the dealers didn’t know the overall returns of the company.

When one investment was settled, they were given another.

The investment corporations were run in a thorough cell structure.

Only the boss, through Robert, could see all of it.

“All right. Keep up the good work. Let’s meet in the winter vacation.”

“What? The winter vacation?”

Robert was briefly thrown by the boss’s sudden phrase.

“In Korea most people call the winter season that. Ha, hahaha.”

The boss laughed awkwardly.

“Yes~.”

Robert believed what the boss said.

He had never once been to Korea.

“Is the political side going well?”

“It’s moving according to your choice, Boss.”

“Please give it particular attention.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Young as he was, the boss understood how world power turns.

That’s one more reason Robert respects the boss.

A boss who reads the table far further ahead than he does.

“Let’s meet in Hong Kong in December.”

“Understood, Boss.”

“I’ll be in touch again.”

“Thank you always, Boss!”

The short international call ended.

“Whew.”

Robert let out a breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

It seems like a conversation with nothing in it, but Robert concentrated on the boss’s words as hard as he could.

The boss’s eyes, the last time they parted.

An enormous giant of desire was hiding inside them.

“It keeps me on edge, it really does.”

Robert shook his head and sat down.

The building is known even on Wall Street for its view.

Through the window behind Robert’s chair, Wall Street could be seen at a glance.

Robert threw one cool glance out of it and settled at his desk.

Tadadadak.

He downloaded the encrypted investment opinion from his email.

He’d been trained thoroughly by the boss, so security was always kept at the highest level.

“Ha!”

In the middle of reading the investment opinion, Robert was horrified.

New investment money had come into several accounts.

Twenty billion dollars.

Twenty billion dollars sounds fine when you say it, but it matches the total annual output of a decent large company.

He read the opinion quickly.

“Good grief.”

Robert let out a gasp of astonishment.

The boss’s investment technique was like a cavalryman shouting charge at an enemy without a second thought.

An invincible Tiger tank charging a plain that might have anti-tank guns and mines laid in it.

“Buy long positions in oil and raw materials futures, including the carried-over contracts… leverage at full throttle… use thirty percent of profits as deposit margin against a margin call… no stock investment… buy calls on oil and raw materials, sell puts… What is this! Where on earth is the safe investment! Total attack with not even a minimum defense…”

Robert shook his head.

No risk-hedging trade appeared anywhere in it.

“The boss’s word is absolute!”

Robert wiped away the doubt rising in his mind.

From the start, he’d given his word to follow the investments entirely.

By reason, and by the knowledge of a life lived in finance, it made no sense—but the boss’s word was law.

“This is an investment technique only a god who knows every current of the world economy could manage…”

Robert stared at the opinion for a long while and then read on through the rest.

“An M&A team to be prepared? Not only global companies but Korean ones? We’ll need a legal team and a merger team too…”

Robert didn’t know the boss’s big picture, but he started planning the next stage from the investment opinion.

One Korean company name that stood out oddly caught his eye.

A Korean company Robert had never even heard of.

“The Dongnyong Group? What do they do?”

(End of Chapter 70)