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At Silverman’s Trading Department, there were over a thousand employees on each floor. Not all of them were traders, but they all were either directly or indirectly participating in the trade. Computers were lined up in a single file, and there were at least four twenty-four-inch monitors placed on each desk. One trader had stacked more than ten monitors that they used to form a partition.
Wall Street’s traders were combat troops who always needed to stay calm and perform high-level calculations. However, they couldn’t control themselves when they lost a lot of money. From time to time, someone either shouted and jumped up in glee, or dragged a hand down their disappointed face.
“Shit! Damn it!”
The reason why the atmosphere of the entire floor turned rough was that one of Pray’s hedge funds suddenly went bankrupt. As soon as the sidecar[1] was activated, most of the traders wrapped both their hands around their heads. Some of them even heaped insults at the screen as the program sales window stopped.
Rumors regarding the crisis of the Pray Group had been circulating already. The group’s profit was dreadful despite Jonathan’s reputation, and there had been discord within the group.
Nonetheless, they were obviously in the direct line of the Jonathan Group. Jonathan himself was the CEO of Pray, and it was home to many stars from the Jonathan Group. Also, Jonathan had to do his best as the group had been formed with only the parent group’s net assets. Therefore, no one had bet that Pray’s crisis would become reality.
“Nilson!”
A colleague rose from the opposite partition. When Nilson raised his head, he saw the sea of devastated faces.
“Pray Group’s hedge funds are all intertwined, right?”
“Yes,” Nilson replied.
“Oh, gosh. Then it means it’s not going to end at a ten billion dollar loss. This is insane!”
“Yeah, it is…”
Everyone, including the two of them, recalled the 8.11 attack in 2001. It wasn’t even the Jonathan Group that collapsed. It was just one of their many affiliated groups, but the entire market was freaking out…
The Jonathan Group’s impact on the financial world was indeed tremendous. If all the firms under them began to fall consecutively...! This time, the Jonathan Group’s time bombs were about to detonate the entire Wall Street, starting with the New York Stock Exchange, instead of the World Trade Center or Pentagon. If Pray Group’s assets were linked to its parent group’s property, it would have been the case. Wall Street would explode, and the economic systems of countries would freeze.
On top of that, the scale of the Jonathan Group’s global business was already so inundated such that no one in the field could keep up with them. After all, ten billion dollars had been lost when one of their hedge fund’s collapsed.
Until noon that day, fears of the impending ruin of the world prevailed in the global financial market. However, the Jonathan Group held an emergency press conference shortly after the market closed.
“...So, we will quickly resolve the Pray situation as soon as possible by disposing of the Jonathan Group’s assets.”
“You have announced that your estimates of consecutive bankruptcies are around one hundred billion dollars. That means it’s the equivalent of a single European Union country’s GDP. Do you think the Jonathan group’s action will alleviate the issue?”
“We are the Jonathan Investment and Finance Group, and congratulations. Those who were aggressive in trading today will earn a great fortune.”
Jonathan meant that there was no need to explain more.
Anyone would have done it too. If they could have predicted where the hundred billion dollars disposal of assets began, it was a golden opportunity to gain the amount that they had to earn over years.
Nilson was busy contacting people in the industry to gather information through a messenger during the past two days. The messenger that Nilson was using was one of the flagship businesses of GOL, where the Jonathan Group was the largest shareholder.
Nilson typed on the keyboard.
- N: Won’t they dispose of GOL? There are rumors that they are expanding FaceNote to the messenger business.
- O: The market capitalization of GOL is thirty billion dollars, and the Jonathan Group has fifty-seven percent of the shareholding. That totals 17.1 billion dollars. If we purchase them in the general market sales without a big deal, we will be able to secure thirteen billion dollars.
- A: What about Googol?
- Z: Don’t you know how much Jonathan loves Googol? The more I think about it, the more I’m certain that they won’t dispose of it in the stock market. Does anyone have the mortgage division of SOB[2] with last month’s sales data?
- O: Three hundred billion dollars in loans in March 2008.
- N: Thanks. There’s no way they will clear up their mortgage loan operation division because they have placed a large portion of their money in SOB’s mortgage loan division. If they close up the mortgage division, it means they are pulling themselves out of the banking industry. They are gaining so much from it, so why would they?
- T: Hey friends, did you guys forget that Jonathan has control over the oil market?
- A: He wouldn’t want to break away because he has control. There’s a high possibility of liquidating corporate stocks, probably the integrated internet store as its growth has slowed down lately. The Nail… If I was Jonathan…
Nilson’s trading had been mainly aimed at blue-chip companies, but since the announcement of Jonathan Group’s disposal of assets, he had displayed all market charts on the monitors.
When he was thinking about something in the back of his mind, the pre-set alarms began to ring loudly.
Ding! Ding!
It was from the crude oil market as large-scale selling orders were concluded.
“It was crude oil!”
When Nilson burst into a startled scream, he saw his fellow traders stamping out of their seats. Magnates from their control tower jumped down to Nilson’s floor, and traders on the floor shouted at them.
“There are too many!”
***
“We just started accepting transactions.”
“Let’s give them time to breathe a bit since they seem to be in a hurry.”
There was a big old scar on the back of the middle-aged man’s hand. People often claimed that you were unlucky if you got bitten by a mad dog.
This man was Isaac Rothschild, and he had been in that exact situation. His family business had been in terrible shape since a mad dog bit his hand in the middle of a Bilderberg conference in 2003. It was correct to say that his family had been tied up since then.
The Korean Na Seon-Hu’s group was always the problem. Whenever the world’s capital flow went against the Club’s resolution, his group was always behind the cases including Iraq’s restoration and oil field development projects, the crisis in global material markets in 2004, and the IMF’s period in Greece. Na Seon-Hu’s group had always camped these in advance and ambushed them.
The most painful loss happened when the Jonathan Group, one of Na Seon-Hu’s groups, led North America’s property up phase. Isaac originally had that plan, but his firm was pushed to the side as the Jonathan Group aggressively entered the mortgage market one step ahead of him. Every day, Isaac received reports about the astronomical figures that Jonathan Group had earned during the time which should have been his.
Then, Isaac finally got an opportunity.
The Pray Incident… Na Seon-Hu must be human like the rest of us. Nice.
He felt that this was the moment to escape the jinx on the back of his hand, so he grabbed his phone. He had never called Na Seon-Hu in the past, but there was no reason to hesitate now. Na Seon-Hu’s business was in crisis, and Isaac thought he was the only one who could save them. He also believed Na Seon-Hu would have no choice but to comply with his unreasonable demands.
<Isaac: Hello, I’m Isaac Rothschild.>
<Jonathan: Hi, I’m Jonathan Hunter. It’s my first time talking to you, but it doesn’t feel like it.>
<Isaac: We should have kept in touch from the very beginning, but I don’t believe it’s too late now. Isn’t this the perfect time for both of our groups to get closer?>
<Jonathan: …>
Although Isaac had known about the growth of Na Seon-Hu’s group, he couldn’t interrupt it as their capital had a great impact on the entire global economy. Also, the Bilderberg Club was determined to leave them alone because they had grown too big to handle. They were even directly influencing the Club.
Isaac was very pleased with Jonathan’s silence since it was his chance to give some kind advice to those who were destroying themselves with greed.
You should have sorted out your holdings instead of jumping into the crude oil market, haha.
<Isaac: We are the ones who are handling large-scale sales. But I realized that Gillian also began clearing them. I contacted you to let you know that it’s difficult for us to accept all the supplies.>
<Jonathan: Well, we have never asked for such a thing, and it’s up to the market. Many participants are accepting our deals even if it’s not the Rothchild family.>
Isaac snorted because, from his perspective, Jonathan was acting as if he didn’t care but he was actually feeling devastated. Isaac suspected that Jonathan would want to throw his cell phone away right now.
<Isaac: When? I know it’s hard to concede, but your deal won’t be concluded without our cooperation.>
<Jonathan: I will be honest with you. Don’t you think this is too much for our first conversation? I’m not talking to you to hear you ridicule me. Just get to the point.>
<Isaac: You need to return the oil market to the original owner, Jonathan.>
<Jonathan: …>
Jonathan became silent again. The more the silence lingered, the bigger the smile on Isaac’s face became.
<Isaac: I want you to withdraw completely from all transactions including spot and futures trading. If you are thinking of ending it in the one hundred million dollars range… We have planned to give an immediate response to your action.>
<Jonathan: Isaac! This is too much! Even a con man can’t say that.>
<Isaac: Calm down. Also, it’s not just the Jonathan Group.>
<Jonathan: What do you mean?>
<Isaac: I’m sorry. You must have no authority, so please tell your boss that if he doesn’t pull the Gillian Group out at the same time, the Pray crisis won’t end only with Pray.>
<Jonathan: Keuk, keuk. No one would ever believe that we are having such a conversation. Are you threatening me?>
As Jonathan mentioned, it was a low-quality conversation. Isaac felt like he had gone back to his teens, and there was no reason to wrap up the obvious contents in fancy economic terms. It felt like he was a teenager again, fighting over a girl they both had a crush on. He knew that Jonathan wouldn’t hang up even if he was swearing at him. Isaac was determined to do anything if he could chain Na Seon-Hu’s groups.
It was then. A new voice came out over Isaac’s phone.
<There will be no complete withdrawal.>
<Isaac: And you are?>
<Seon-Hu: Most people call me John Doe, but you know my name.>
<Isaac: I’d like to show you my respect regardless of our difference in age, Na Seon-Hu.>
<Seon-Hu: Ah, that’s bullshit. I can hear your mocking laugh all the way here. I’m telling you right now that the Rothschild family will never be able to monopolize the oil market.>
<Isaac: Are you trying to say that when the Jonathan Group collapses, the entire world goes to the worst?>
<Seon-Hu: The U.S. government and the IMF will have no choice but to support us as an exception. Even without the Rothschild family’s capital, we will be absolutely fine.>
<Isaac: Is it because you have never lost before? You haven’t learned how to accept defeat. I will consider that you didn’t take my deal, then.>
Isaac was really about to hang up, and he could do as much as he wanted.
<Seon-Hu: W…wait!>
<Isaac: Go ahead.>
<Seon-Hu: Do you really want to take the oil market? With shares in other companies as collateral…>
Then, Isaac interrupted Seon-Hu. He laughed and spoke again.
<Isaac: Then, I would need to take Jonathan Group’s mortgage business as well.>
1. A trading management system that is introduced to stabilize the spot market when the futures market fluctuates rapidly. They do so by minimizing the impact on the spot market. ☜
2. Sun of Bank. ☜