Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho had nothing to do in the mornings since the auction class started in the afternoon.

All he did was reading an economic newspaper and surfing the web.

“I don’t have to feel pressured. Even though I don’t make money for a year, it will cost me only about 20 million won.”

Gun-Ho sometimes went to a public library to read books he hadn’t have time for. He read some liberal arts books or business books.

“Maybe I should invest some money in stocks. I don’t want to invest a lot because it’s risky. Let’s try 50 million won.”

Gun-Ho studied stock charts.

“By looking at the trading volume and the moving average lines, Daehan Logistics, Lotte Chemical, and QM Steel look good. In addition, Daehan Logistics is on the market for M&A. Once it is sold to a big company, its stock price will hike. Lotte Chemical looks good too. QM Steel produces stainless steel pipes and it has a low debt ratio.”

Gun-Ho had work experience in accounting, in addition to his studies in accounting at Zhejiang University. He could quickly read a company’s financial statements. Gun-Ho selected these three companies and traded them on a daily basis. He sometimes lost and sometimes gained. His eyes hurt after looking at his computer monitor for long hours.

“They said that Daehan Logistics had been on the market but I don’t see any movement related to it. Its stock price doesn’t move and it’s annoying. They said that CJ, Kumho Asiana Group, and Lotte Group are interested in acquiring it, but nothing happened yet.”

Gun-Ho’s expectation toward Daehan Logistics lowered. The volume of Lotte Chemical got low. Many of their products are exported to overseas including China, but the stock trading volume became low. Let’s sell them once the price recovers to the original price I purchased at.”

Gun-Ho didn’t make money from Lotte Chemical either.

“The chart and the trading volume looks good. I’m not sure who is pressing the price.”

Gun-Ho made some money from QM Steel.

“I invested 10 million won into QM Steel and the price went up by 3.5%. Even after I subtract the stock trading fee, I still made 300,000 won.”

Gun-Ho went to an ATM close to his office-tel and withdrew 300,000 won he just made from the QM Steel stock trading.

“It’s not bad at all. I made 300,000 won in two days.”

Gun-Ho went to Gyeongbang Department Store, and bought t-shirts and a jacket with the 300,000 won; he felt like it was free money. He had an extravagant meal in a restaurant located on the top of the department store building.

“Let’s sell some of Daehan Logistics and Lotte Chemical, and put them into QM Steel.”

Gun-Ho invested 300,000 more in QM Steel and had fun doing something else.

QM Steel had potential. On the following day, Gun-Ho closely monitored the stock movement of QM Steel. Its stock price was exceeding the market price, and Gun-Ho sold his stocks at a good price while monitoring the one-minute chart.

“I made 200,000 won today.”

Once Gun-Ho started making money by stock trading with QM Steel, he didn’t want to do anything else but doing stocks in his office-tel.

“It’s time to go to the auction class. Should I skip the class today? Or should I go? The stock market is still open.”

Gun-Ho decided to go to the class.

“I should know about auction and I already paid for the course. It’s hard to take my eyes off the stock chart though.”

The instructor of the auction class explained about how to participate in an auction at a courthouse.

“There are a lot of websites showing the auction items. To have more details on the items, you can register certain websites by paying a small membership fee. If you see one you really like, you will have to go see it yourself.”

The auction was interesting, maybe because it is easily found in daily life.

“Before you go see the item yourself, you should read and understand the information provided by the court website. Once a property is sold at an auction, it releases the financial institution’s debt; however, you have to be careful with the issues with a tenant, right of superficies, and the Imchi right.”

A student raised his hand and asked a question.

“What is Imchi right? I saw a banner on a building on the way to the class today; it said it was exercising its Imchi right.”

“Imchi right is a legal term. It is created when one party entrusted money or objects to another party, and the receiving party promised to keep it safe. Usually, the construction company or renovation company exercise this right when they didn’t get paid for their work.”

Gun-Ho was not sure if he fully understood what the instructor said.

“A legal term is always difficult to understand.”

Gun-Ho spent money more easily than before since he had been making some money from day trading. He now took a taxi instead of a bus or subway when he came home from his auction class in the private institution in Yongsan to his office-tel in Yeongdeungpo.

“A bus doesn’t run often and I don’t get a seat on a bus after the class because the bus is often full during the hours.”

The taxi fare was not a big deal to Gun-Ho anymore.

There was no auction class today.

Gun-Ho felt lazy cooking his breakfast. He went to a porridge house close to his office-tel to have his breakfast; he had a vegetable porridge.

“Let’s do the day trading with QM Steel today unless I see other exceptionally good stocks that exceed the average market price.”

Gun-Ho sat his desk and opened the online stock trading website and logged in by entering his login ID, password, and his authorization certificate.

“Huh? What is this? The price stays the same and the trading volume is zero?”

It was strange. Gun-Ho clicked the official announcement.

“What? The company might be delisted and they are looking into it right now? Its president is accused of embezzlement? I invested 30 million won in QM Steel. Trading of this stock is not allowed until all become clear. F*ck! I can’t touch my money until then.”

Stock investment was difficult. Gun-Ho spent time studying about stocks and analyzing financial statements, and he carefully selected bottom-priced stocks to play with, but still, this sort of things happened to him.

An investigation of delisting of a company occurred when there was; embezzlement, breach of duty, fabricating a sales report or giving inaccurate publicly available information in bad faith, that was material enough to affect an investors’ decision. Gun-Ho entered the stock discussion forum where he could get various information.

“The president took the company’s money and ran away.”

“The majority shareholder entity of QM Steel will start its rehabilitation process.”

“That president committed embezzlement before, and he did it again during his probation period and already flew to another country.”

All sorts of rumors came out.

Gun-Ho felt drained. What if he invested all of his 1,170 million won into the QM Steel stocks? The thought of it terrified him.

“Whoa, it’s not difficult to lose everything in a day.”

What Chairman Lee said crossed Gun-Ho’s mind.

“I don’t do stocks because I can’t figure out the other player’s cards. That’s why I don’t do stocks.”

Gun-Ho could picture Chairman Lee smiling.

“What if they decided to delist the company stock? I will likely lose my shares. They might declare bankruptcy. Sh*t!”

Gun-Ho was so worried that he didn’t even feel hungry for lunch.

“I lose 30 million won from my investment in QM Steel; if I add my living cost and the office-tel rent of 20 million won to it, I will lose 50 million won in total for the year… I can lose all of the money I made from China gradually in this way!”

Gun-Ho felt scared.