February 21, New York. Michael Herrington's office.

For days, Michael hadn't been able to take his eyes off the natural gas chart.

A month ago the price had been hovering in the mid-to-high three-dollar range; now it had sunk to the low twos.

At first, he'd thought it was a correction.

Winter wasn't over yet, and he'd expected that one more cold snap would bring heating demand back.

But spring had come to America far too early.

Temperatures rose faster than expected, and natural gas consumption fell.

Supply didn't drop easily, and storage was ample.

Investors riding the long side held on at first.

They believed it would bounce.

But as the price kept slipping, one after another they started dumping their positions.

The more sellers there were, the further the price fell, and each new drop triggered more stop-losses.

The harder the chart nosedived, the more the whole market was swept up in fear.

"Insane……."

Michael leaned toward the monitor.

The low twos. It was hard to believe a price like that had formed in little more than a month.

And naturally, one person came to mind.

Ha Tae-ung, the young Korean he'd met in St Moritz.

He'd come over to America and, over hamburgers, told him spring was coming early to America.

At the time, he'd thought it a rather amusing piece of analysis.

Not anymore.

He'd been right! Right enough to give you goosebumps!

On the screen beside it, Michael pulled up his trading account.

A hundred million dollars. The money he'd put in as a test after hearing Ha Tae-ung out.

It wasn't a sum that weighed on him. He'd called him a friend, but even then he hadn't trusted him completely.

So he'd bet just this much. He checked the return on the screen, and his face twisted oddly.

Past fifty percent!

"……Damn it."

It was a number he should have been happy about. Strangely, a curse came out first.

"I didn't have enough faith."

What if it had been a billion dollars instead of a hundred million? No — what if he'd put in…