A building in New York City.
Five n 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 n 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 investnt firm, but their performance has been solid. Lately, they’ve been quietly focusing on stock investnts.”
“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?”
“So guy nad Charlie Kim holds 99% of the shares. A guy nad Jas 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. Sothing feels off.”
“Ha, look who’s getting cautious. The mighty George himself.”
The CEOs of the major investnt banks were less wary of Dreamhigh, but George had a gut feeling.
He’d seen their pattern—always moving faster than him.
xico’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 ga.
Buying and selling ti.
Derivatives, where anything and everything could be traded.
A gamble where one’s gain is another’s loss.
Arican-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 investnt banks were creating and distributing various options.
It was a ga 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 ti, 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.
“ too. I’m in.”
No one expected Wall Street to lose.
Even Kyungyeong, while following my lead, seed 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.
Sotis these amounts exceeded hedge fund capital by several tis—or even dozens of tis.
In a global forex market where over $1 trillion is traded daily, $10 billion wasn’t much in the grand sche.
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. Sothing even better’s coming.”
And just as I predicted, the Thai governnt 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 governnt will eventually surrender.”
They even took the extre asure 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 judgnt.
The hedge fund alliance regrouped for another strike.
anwhile, 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 Investnt 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 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 governnt 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 governnt 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 know when it’s done.”
Futures and options were a zero-sum ga.
One man’s gain was another’s loss.
Enemies were inevitable—but that didn’t an I had to destroy them.
This currency war over the baht ended in a hedge fund victory. But the true winners... were and Dreamhigh Investnt.
Han Kyungyeong was now a respected figure on Wall Street—a full-fledged mber 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.
― 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 ca 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. Ti to throw so money around.”
― Heh. You got it.
After a long call with Kyungyeong, I hung up.
The unexpected profits ant 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 ant for everyone.
‘Ti 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 Agreent—a de facto bankruptcy.
It shocked the public and the governnt that even a top-10 chaebol could fall.
And yet the governnt’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 ti for Eva, who’d been in Hong Kong, to return to Korea.
When we t at the airport, she greeted with a bright smile.
“Hey! Boss.”
“Welco 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 sowhere to go.”
“Oh? Hotel?”
I ignored the look she gave 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 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.
Ho to Future Investnt.
Eva stared up at the building in silence.
< I Didn’t See This Coming Either > End.
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