Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

CEO Park quickly changed the subject.

“How is your business with H Group? Did they increase the volume of their product order?”

“Yes. It’s steadily on the rise.”

“I wanted to see you today, Mr. Chairman Goo, because it has been a while, and also I wanted to ask you to focus more on the product quality for our product order.”

That was obviously a pretense. The very reason why CEO Park wanted to see Gun-Ho in person that day was to let him know about Party Leader Jin-Woo Lee’s special lecture in Gwangju City, and what information was about to spread out.

Gun-Ho played along with him.

“Don’t worry about it. We are striving to produce good quality products every day for our client companies.”

“Well, I should get going now,” said CEO Park as he started the engine of his car. Gun-Ho got out of the car and walked toward his Bentley.

“Chan-Ho, what do you think about us having lunch in Itaewon Town today?”

“That sounds good, sir. But, the thing is that many restaurants in Itaewon Town are open starting dinnertime because there are a lot of bars there.”

“Really? Well, we certainly don’t want to search around for a parking space for nothing. Let’s just have a bowl of hot soup with rice in the Samgakji area then.”

“Yes, sir.”

After having a soup with rice in the Samgakji area, Gun-Ho came back to his office in GH Building, Sinsa Town. He decided to make a strategy about how he was going to use the information that CEO Park had given to him earlier that day, while having his afternoon coffee. At first, he moved 120 billion won that he had received from GH Mobile to his stock account with Gangbuk Stock Brokerage Company. With the previous balance of 220 billion won, he now had 340 billion won in his account with Gangbuk Stock Brokerage Company. He had an additional 330 billion won in Gangnam Stock Brokerage Company.

“Alright. I have 670 billion won now.”

Gun-Ho checked Dyeon Korea’s stock price in the stock market. The price was around 25,000 won as before. But, Gun-Ho knew that it was not a good idea to purchase a massive number of Dyeon Korea’s shares in a short period of time, since its trading volume was usually low.

‘The number of Dyeon Korea’s shares that can be available to trade in the stock market is only 6 million. Its major shareholders— W Chemicals and Lymondell Dyeon— are holding most of its shares anyway. So, the value of its stock available in the market is only 150 billion won assuming that the unit share price is 25,000 won.

I wonder how many of its shares I can purchase within 10 days; that’s the time given to me until Party Leader Jin-Woo Lee announces his intention to run for President. It seems that there are currently not many shares in the stock market. No one seems to have that inside information to push the stock market to become vigorous again for Dyeon Korea’s stock. What am I going to do then?

In addition, if I purchase a substantial number of its shares, I will become a major shareholder of Dyeon Korea, and I will have to make a public announcement about it. And, my name— Gun-Ho Goo— can be popped out in the process. That wouldn’t certainly look good. I can be accused of illegal insider trading. Even though I no longer have nothing to do with Dyeon Korea. In the public eyes, I am a former president of Dyeon Korea, which sounds somewhat like I am still related to the company. Especially, if I buy a significant number of Dyeon Korea’s shares at this point, they will surely investigate me and my practice on it.’

The information that A Electronics Group’s CEO Park had given to Gun-Ho was certainly very good inside information; however, Gun-Ho thought that it might not be as useful as it sounded for him in his current situation. The best he could do in order to use the information to make money was to buy Dyeon Korea’s shares of maybe about 3 million, just like he did last time. But, Gun-Ho was now loaded with 670 billion won. The stock market with Dyeon Korea’s stock looked to be a small playground for him.

“The stock market is certainly a good playground for me, but Dyeon Korea’s stock wouldn’t bring me as much profits as I desire with my current capacity. If I can put my hands on large cap stocks such as A Electronics Group’s stock, that would be great. But, the thing is that A Group’s Chairman is already known to not be involved in politics at all. So, its stock price won’t be affected by political information such as his son-in-law’s declaration to run for President.”

But, Gun-Ho still checked A Electronics Group’s stock price.

“Huh? What is this?”

The trading volume of A Electronics Group’s stock already started increasing substantially, which was unusual. Because of its expensive unit share price, its stock price increased only by 4% though.

Gun-Ho thought, ‘Someone is purchasing A Electronics Group’s stock for a substantial number of them. Someone is gathering several hundreds of billions won worth stock right now!’

A Electronics Group was a conglomerate company with 15,000 workers and an annual sales of 15 trillion won. Its unit share price was 120,000 won. It was definitely a large cap stock. Its market capitalization was 8 billion won.

“Well, even though I put all of my 670 billion won in purchasing this stock, it will only take me 3 days to spend them all.”

Gun-Ho was hesitating though. He was not sure if it was an absolutely good idea for him to put all of his money to buy A Electronics Group’s stock, and whether it was a good time to do so.

‘Its stock price increased already very recently. Someone already started buying the stock, and the price increased steeply already. This stock is being purchased by little investors, not institutional investors such as the Military Mutual Aid Association or National Pension Service; they are not even foreign investors. There has to be something that I don’t know, which is affecting it. Maybe there was a rumor about it that I’m not aware of.

If I enter into this stock market right now, maybe I wouldn’t be able to make as much money as I would have made if I joined earlier. Its price is already too high. However, assuming that A Electronics Group’s CEO Park had said was true, its stock price will continuously increase until the announcement day!

Okay. Let me think… I don’t have to worry about being accused of illegal insider trading with A Electronics Group’s stock. Even though people find out that I purchase a massive number of its stock, that is fine. It is true that I’m the president of one of their vendor companies. But, that’s not enough to accuse me of illegal insider trading. I’m going to buy this stock on my knee and will sell it to my shoulder.’

Gun-Ho began to buy A Electronics Group’s stock right away. His purchasing continued the following day. All he could think of and focus on was to buy the specific stock. A small company’s stock such as Dyeon Korea’s fluctuated easily. Its price went up quickly and also went down quickly. However, large cap stocks such as A Electronics Group tended to move slowly in price and also in their trading volume. But, because of the information that Gun-Ho had, Gun-Ho was confident that he would make at least 30% out of this.

Gun-Ho called for Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh.

“Please go to the next-door office and ask President Son to come to my office.”

As she realized that she would have to visit GH Asset Management Company next door, Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh took out her mirror and checked her appearance. She probably wanted to look pretty to the young fund managers working in that office.

A moment later, President Son entered Gun-Ho’s office.

“How is the business going? Are the new hires doing good?”

“They don’t make mistakes; I can tell you that, sir. But, they are also too careful in making an investment. So, they are not really making enough profits right now.”

“Hmm, really?”

“The good thing though is that they make their investment decision strictly based on charts, data, and analysis on a stock’s trading volume. They don’t even trust the rumors from Yeouido stock street.”

“That’s the investment methods that we need to promote, isn’t it? That’s good. It’s important to make profits, but we shouldn’t lose money either.”

“That’s right, sir.”

“Umm, I want you to buy some Dyeon Korea’s stock.”

“Do we have reliable information about it, just like last time, sir?”

“I can’t tell you that.”