The Overly Competent Junior Employee

‘Wait, where did Woojin-ssi get that information?’

‘It’s really reassuring to have Woojin-ssi at the branch.’

‘So that’s why Choi Woojin is doing so well.’

Among the PBs at Seongnam Branch, Choi Woojin is known as a fountain of information.

While all PBs scrambled to gather information flowing within the market, the presence of Choi Woojin in the next room meant that those at Seongnam Branch didn’t have to beg others for information.

They just needed to bring a drink and ask Woojin.

‘How does Choi Woojin-ssi have such a knack for information?’

‘His college friend works at that asset management company.’

‘As expected, Korea University Business School graduates really do look out for each other. It’s different indeed.’

When other PBs made such comments without knowing the truth, Choi Woojin just laughed it off.

In fact, Choi Woojin had entered the securities industry with dreams of becoming a prop trader.

Prop traders, who buy and sell stocks using the company’s own capital, were called the ‘flowers of the securities industry.’ If the securities world was depicted in a movie, the protagonist would most likely be a prop trader.

‘I got a 500 million won bonus this time.’

Choi Woojin’s dream of becoming a prop trader was largely influenced by a college friend who had entered the workforce a year before him.

‘500 million? For just a second-year employee?’

‘I made quite a profit for the company by selling at the peak of this bull market.’

His friend was legendary among their peers. With his skills honed through stock market clubs and multiple victories in mock investment competitions, he was hired by a famous asset management company right after graduation.

Starting to perform from his first year, he was earning bonuses in the hundreds of millions by his second year. Seeing this, Choi Woojin decided on his path.

And Korea University’s Business School had many influential figures in the securities industry, offering numerous opportunities.

‘Can you code in C++, Java, or Python?’

At his first interview, filled with high hopes, Choi Woojin was struck dumb by the question directed at him.

The wall of financial engineering that had swept the securities industry in just a year had come crashing down on him.

It was no longer an era of trading based on technical chart analysis or reading market fundamentals and macro factors.

‘This might be difficult for us.’

Now it was the age of algorithmic and quantitative trading, where computer programs were written to buy and sell stocks under specific conditions. Even the prop trader positions, once called the flowers of the stock market, were mostly occupied by engineering graduates with little connection to stocks.

At first, Woojin thought he should learn programming, but he decided to change his mind. If he couldn’t be a trader, he could choose another profession.

‘Let’s use the weapon I have.’

If Dokyung had chosen the path of a counter staff employee while looking for an opportunity to change positions, Choi Woojin chose the path of a PB.

And from then on, he actively used the weapon he possessed: ‘school connections.’ As soon as he got employed, he opened a credit account and started by buying drinks for his college friends.

Starting with friends at the headquarters of the top 1 and 2 securities firms, all the way to those at Yuseong Investment Securities.

At one point, he spent so much money building networks with them that everyone asked if he had won the lottery.

‘Thanks to Woojin-ssi, the average return rate of the branch PBs rose this month.’

And this network gave Woojin wings the moment he shed his junior PB label.

Using the information gained from his network, he grew clients’ assets while also attracting substantial funds.

And while others were just becoming assistant managers, Woojin became a deputy manager.

High salary and large bonuses followed, and he was filled with dreams of becoming the industry’s top PB.

“Pardon? Where did you hear that?”

“Oh, uh…?”

If it weren’t for the junior PB in front of him, he might still be lost in the arrogance of thinking he was the best.

“Why? Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s just such good information.”

“Ah, Dokyung-ssi! I’m really not joking, I’m totally shocked.”

As Woojin spoke as if he was taken aback, Dokyung nodded with a brightened expression.

“It’s true. This was the most necessary information at this point in time.”

“Really?”

At Dokyung’s words, Woojin calmed his surprised heart and looked at Dokyung.

“Yes, I was in the middle of organizing the friendly shareholdings.”

Saying this, Dokyung approached the whiteboard at one side of the room and picked up a board marker.

“If we calculate the friendly shareholdings excluding domestic individual investors, DU has 31.66%, while Steellife and foreign investors have 34.04%.”

“Steellife is ahead by about 2%.”

“DU won’t transfer their treasury shares to a white knight. It’s too risky.”

“That’s legally risky these days too.”

In the past, companies often sold treasury shares to white knights to secure management stability, but in today’s market where individual investors are smarter, doing such a thing would be tantamount to losing individual investors’ proxies.

“Even if Steellife is dangling carrots to win over individual investors right now, not all individual investors will side with Steellife.”

“Because the promises Steellife is making are things DU could do too.”

At Choi Woojin’s answer, Dokyung pointed at him once with the board marker as if to say he was correct, then spoke.

“Yes, that’s true. And also, is Carl Sutton, who’s behind Steellife, really a clean character? Probably not.”

“Right, exactly. Carl Sutton has been exposed too much.”

His mythical corporate raiding stories had already been published in books and articles, exposing much of his strategic positioning.

If Carl Sutton succeeded in his attack by boosting the stock price, he would ultimately restructure the subsidiaries for additional profit before selling the company to someone else.

“There’s nothing left in the places Carl Sutton has stripped and left.”

“Then in this fight, Dokyung-ssi…”

“Yes, in the end, DU will win. Now that Taesan has decided to side with DU, all the shares held by domestic institutional investors will support DU.”

Dokyung looked at Choi Woojin with an expression full of confidence.

“Carl Sutton will now start dancing with his knife using his techniques.”

“You mean Carl Sutton knows this too?”

“Yes, he knows he has no chance if domestic institutions support DU. So what Carl Sutton will do is obvious.”

Carl Sutton didn’t fight losing battles.

Even if he failed in his corporate raid, in hindsight, he would still be left with enormous spoils.

Carl Sutton didn’t make reckless attacks. Each punch he threw was a critical hit to his opponent.

Every time he threw a punch, the market responded with fiery support, and that support was reflected in explosively rising stock prices.

“From now on, Carl Sutton and Steellife will pretend to engage in a share battle.”

“You mean they’ll find a black knight?”

A black knight referred to shares that sided with the attacker in a hostile takeover.

“Yes. They’ll probably try to bring Core Partners, the Hong Kong-based asset management company, to their side.”

“Then the market will think things are turning in Carl Sutton’s favor.”

Dokyung nodded at Choi Woojin’s words. If the share quantities of the attacker and defender appear similar on the surface, what’s left is…

“And they’ll scoop up the shares released into the market.”

Secondly, they will buy the stocks that have been released into the market. This will cause the stock price to rise, and those already holding DU stocks won’t sell to the market.

If the volume of shares available in the market naturally decreases, what happens? The price will inevitably explode.

“So while Carl Sutton is dancing with his knife, we just need to time our exit?”

“Yes. We need to find the peak timing before Carl Sutton and Steellife pull out.”

“Alright. Then what should I do?”

“I need information, just like now.”

Choi Woojin had started to feel bad about only receiving help from Dokyung in several incidents. Now he wanted to find something he could do to help even in these processes.

At Dokyung’s words, Choi Woojin smiled and nodded.

“That’s what I’m best at.”

“And there’s one more thing.”

At Dokyung’s words that there was one more thing, Choi Woojin looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Help me persuade everyone.”

“Everyone? Who? The places that have already noticed the same thing as us will be rushing in.”

“We need to take our position before they rush in. Now is the perfect time.”

“So who are we trying to persuade?”

At Choi Woojin’s question, Dokyung opened his mouth, and at the words that came out of Dokyung’s mouth, Choi Woojin’s posture stiffened as if his breath had caught.

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“A new week has begun.”

Three days later, the week at Yuseong Investment Securities’ Seongnam Branch was starting with a meeting as usual.

Recently, the atmosphere in the conference room had been rather lifeless, and everything came down to performance issues.

“Despite the recent difficulties, you’ve all brought in new funds, which has helped us breathe a little easier.”

Branch Manager Ryu Tae-hwa seemed to have read the atmosphere and was trying to lighten the mood. He thought that if he put pressure on the employees regarding performance, it would only make the branch atmosphere more rigid.

“I’m particularly grateful that you’re following my opinion and sacrificing your individual performance.”

Of course, not all PBs were restraining their trading turnover according to Ryu Tae-hwa’s opinion, but most were following the branch manager’s lead.

“I’ve been thinking about the branch’s and your individual performance, and it seems a good product has come out in the wrap account recently, so I’d like to introduce it to you.”

Wrap accounts were fund-type products that securities firms had been rushing to launch recently.

Unlike general funds, they had no sales or redemption fees, and they were products with high customer participation and many advantages for clients, as investment experts consulted one-on-one with clients to understand their tendencies and execute investments.

It was a product that aligned in many ways with Ryu Tae-hwa’s philosophy.

“In this product’s case, clients can directly instruct investments and check investment contents in real-time, making it beneficial for clients.”

However, this meant that a product beneficial to clients was disadvantageous to PBs.

Moreover, they had to attract clients and then hand them over to the wrap account team at headquarters. For PBs who earned individual income through sales commissions, it was an unappealing product for various reasons.

“Recently, headquarters issued a notice saying they would recognize client attraction for this product as PB performance on a per-case basis.”

Wrap accounts were profitable for securities firms the more they sold. Instead of sales or redemption fees, they could earn fixed annual fees for stable revenue.

Headquarters, eager to attract clients, said they would recognize client attraction as PB performance.

“They said they would recognize 30% of the annual fixed fee as PB performance, so it seems we can secure a more stable pipeline (fixed income). What do you all think?”

At this groundbreaking proposal from headquarters, the PBs looked at Ryu Tae-hwa in surprise.

For PBs, handing clients over to headquarters after attracting them had the advantage of less conflict with clients.

However, they had been worried that directing new clients to products would reduce their income, but if headquarters recognized a portion of the revenue share as performance, this concern could be somewhat alleviated.

It was essentially creating fixed performance for PBs.

For Ryu Tae-hwa, this was a good opportunity that came at just the right time to give them some breathing room.

“The issue is that the notice said they would only recognize it as performance for accounts with deposits of 30 million won or more.”

Of course, 30 million won wasn’t a difficult amount for clients using PB services. However, these products usually had a minimum holding period, which could be off-putting from the client’s perspective.

“I’d like you all to think about this and give your unfiltered opinions at the next meeting. Is there anyone who’d like to share their thoughts now?”

At Ryu Tae-hwa’s words, Choi Woojin looked at Dokyung, and Dokyung nodded once before speaking up.

“Branch Manager.”

Hearing his name called, Ryu Tae-hwa looked at Dokyung, and everyone’s attention turned to Dokyung sitting at the far end.

“I think there might be a better way than attracting new clients.”

“A better way?”

“Yes, how about explaining the product to existing PB service clients?”

At Dokyung’s question, Ryu Tae-hwa shook his head.

“I thought about that approach too, but from the perspective of existing clients, they already have positions, and the very idea of transferring existing PBs’ pipelines to a product…”

“There’s another way.”

“Another way?”

“We adjust the current clients’ portfolios to extract short-term profits. Then we recommend investing those profits in the product.”

“Is there a way to extract profits in the short term? The current market…”

At Ryu Tae-hwa’s question, Dokyung looked at Choi Woojin, and Choi Woojin quickly displayed briefing materials on the screen.

“There is. A way to extract profits in the short term without doing anything.”

Everyone, after checking the screen, swallowed hard as they alternated between looking at Dokyung’s confident expression and the screen.