The Overly Competent Junior Employee

“Good morning, Dokyung-ssi.”

A week later, as Dokyung was preparing for the early morning meeting, he bowed his head to Choi Woojin, who was entering the conference room.

“Good morning, Assistant Manager Woojin.”

“Did you have a good Lunar New Year holiday?”

“Yes, I feel like I had a good rest after a long time.”

“A good rest, you say? You were constantly posting U.S. market updates in the group chat even during the holiday.”

At Choi Woojin’s words, Dokyung sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Holidays like Lunar New Year or Chuseok were essentially vacation periods for everyone involved in stock-related work, including Dokyung.

This was because the domestic stock market closed during the Lunar New Year holiday. Of course, there were other paid holidays like summer vacation when everyone else took off, and annual leave, but it was hard to relax completely.

Even if I took a vacation, the stock market remained open.

“I had to do at least that much for the clients who helped me earn a lot. But you too, Assistant Manager Woojin…”

“Well, I don’t go down to my hometown, so…”

“It would be nice if the U.S. had holidays during our holidays too.”

Choi Woojin chuckled as he approached Dokyung’s side and began helping with the document organization.

“I met up with some college friends during this holiday, after a long time.”

“People from securities firms?”

“No, not those business relationships, but real friends.”

Dokyung continued organizing documents as he listened to Choi Woojin’s words.

“There’s a friend who went to a public corporation, one who became a civil servant, and one who went to a big company. They were all surprised that I don’t drink.”

Dokyung paused his work and looked at Choi Woojin, who continued organizing and talking.

“I told them I couldn’t drink because I had to prepare the U.S. market report for the next day.”

“Hahaha, that seems a bit too restrictive. I had a can of beer with my brother.”

“You might be able to control yourself, Dokyung-ssi, but once I start drinking, I get caught up in the atmosphere and can’t stop. I have to not start in the first place. Anyway, they all asked why I live like this.”

Choi Woojin looked at Dokyung with an expression of disbelief.

“So, I started wondering how our job might look to others.”

“Waking up at 5 AM every day to check the European and U.S. stock markets from the night before, getting to work by 7 AM. Leaving work at 9 PM is considered early. Is that the life?”

As Dokyung spoke jokingly, Choi Woojin burst out laughing.

“Right, that kind of life. But as usual in those gatherings, the topic of annual salary came up, and I told them mine…”

“Did they understand?”

“They understood 200% completely.”

PBs and analysts in securities firms like where Dokyung worked were exceptions to the 52-hour workweek system.

They were subject to discretionary work systems where working hours were left to their own discretion. Of course, the company encouraged 52-hour workweeks, but since performance directly affected salary, they had no choice but to increase their working hours.

“In the end, it’s all about money, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. Money is my first priority too.”

Dokyung empathized with Choi Woojin’s words. Of course, he had dreams of becoming a world-class fund manager, but reality required money.

If this job had required such long working hours while struggling with a low salary, Dokyung would have given up on his dream.

“First priority? Is there a second?”

“Well, the second is my dream.”

“Good money and the chance to achieve your dream… That’s a heavenly job. Then what’s the third?”

“Yes. Once you step into this world, it’s equal for everyone.”

This was the third reason Dokyung found this job attractive.

People like Dokyung from provincial universities had a hard time entering this industry, but once they got in, they could be on equal footing with graduates from prestigious domestic and foreign universities.

Because only performance was the criterion for evaluation.

“Isn’t it interesting? That there’s a job where an employee can earn more than the CEO?”

Choi Woojin nodded in agreement at Dokyung’s words.

This year, the CEO of Yuseong Investment Securities had an annual salary in the late 2 billion won range.

In other large companies, the CEO or chairman would have topped the salary list, but at Yuseong Investment Securities, the highest-paid person was the branch manager of the Leaders Branch.

“Branch Manager Ha Min-jae’s base salary is 82 million won.”

“Looks like you even check our company’s disclosures? There’s no disclosure you don’t look at.”

As Yuseong Investment Securities was a listed company, its business reports were public. The list of top salary earners was disclosed there, and Branch Manager Ha Min-jae, who became the salary king, had a base salary of only 82 million won.

He rose to the position of salary king by receiving a whopping 5.2 billion won in performance bonuses alone.

“That’s why I like this place. If I work hard and perform well, I can be fairly compensated.”

“Right, that’s why I love this job too. Even if there’s a lot of work, I’m happy every March.”

Dokyung smirked at Choi Woojin’s words.

“By the way, did the move go well?”

“Yes. My mother loves the massage chair you gifted us!”

“I should give more. Considering how much I’ve received from you, Dokyung-ssi.”

The two were chatting about various topics while preparing for the meeting when the Seongnam branch employees started coming into the conference room one by one. As Branch Manager Ryu Tae-hwa entered, the meeting began.

“Dokyung-ssi, you’ve liquidated all positions in oil refinery stocks?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Winter has passed, and oil prices have stabilized. When we took positions in oil refinery stocks last year, we bought them with this year’s first-half performance in mind, so I thought now was the perfect timing to liquidate.”

“What about the clients’ returns?”

“They’ve seen average returns of over 20%. The lowest is around 12%.”

At Dokyung’s words, everyone attending the meeting nodded in amazement.

They also admired Dokyung’s tenacity. Holding onto a stock he believed in for so long meant giving up commission income from trading turnover.

“Good job.”

Ryu Tae-hwa nodded and looked at an employee sitting on the opposite side.

“Assistant Manager Oh Seok-hoon.”

“Yes, Branch Manager.”

“Your trading turnover rate seems too high. Is something going on?”

At Ryu Tae-hwa’s question, Oh Seok-hoon’s eyebrow twitched, but he quickly hid his expression and smiled confidently.

“The clients can’t bear the current market situation.”

“The clients?”

“Yes, because the economic situation is so poor… They’re turning their eyes to other sectors.”

Everyone nodded at Oh Seok-hoon’s words. The current stock market had stabilized, but it wasn’t particularly good.

It was a market that repeated rising and falling as if trapped in a box, and at times like these, sector returns diverged dramatically.

“I see. But your returns are too low. At times like these, it seems like the timing when a PB should persuade clients and give them confidence.”

“I’ve told them that too, but the game sector has been doing so well lately.”

Ryu Tae-hwa shook his head at those words.

“What I mean is that there must be a reason for taking a position, and if so, we should avoid selling at a loss.”

“Yes, yes! I understand.”

“Then shall we hear the reason for switching positions to the game sector?”

The Seongnam branch meeting time was like an exam where you had to convince Ryu Tae-hwa. Some cursed him behind his back for being too strict, but Dokyung didn’t dislike these times.

Someone needed to provide oversight when dealing with large sums of money.

Ryu Tae-hwa was taking on that villainous role.

“The development of major games that were being prepared during the COVID period has been delayed, and four major games are scheduled to launch in the first half of this year alone.”

Oh Seok-hoon began his explanation, displaying prepared materials on the screen.

“First, ‘King of the Empire’ by Take Games has achieved the top sales rank in both the Play Store and App Store, and money is flowing into the game sector.”

Dokyung was diligently taking notes on Oh Seok-hoon’s presentation.

Recently, when one stock in a sector showed a big rise, other stocks in the same sector tended to rise together.

Naturally, as Take Games’ stock price rose, the stock prices of companies with upcoming game releases also increased, and the game sector was booming.

“Global investment banks have released reports saying that the Korean market in the first half of this year will be led by the game industry, and with investor sentiment actually being good, I thought there was no reason not to enter.”

“……”

At Oh Seok-hoon’s words, everyone looked at Ryu Tae-hwa, who was nodding while looking at his documents.

When the voice that had been heard for a while stopped, Ryu Tae-hwa raised his head and looked at Oh Seok-hoon with a puzzled expression.

“Is that all?”

“Pardon?”

“You’ve only said things everyone knows, but it seems Assistant Manager Oh Seok-hoon’s personal judgment is missing.”

Ryu Tae-hwa spoke as if he didn’t like that part.

It wasn’t a PB’s job to just say what everyone knows. At the very least, a PB managing client money should have data.

“W-well…”

“You don’t have any?”

“…I’m sorry. I didn’t prepare that.”

At Oh Seok-hoon’s words, Ryu Tae-hwa put down the pen he was holding and looked at everyone.

“We’ll end today’s meeting here. I hope today and this week will be days where everyone thinks about what’s best for our clients. Assistant Manager Oh Seok-hoon, let’s talk.”

Ryu Tae-hwa stood up, gathered his documents, and left the conference room, with Oh Seok-hoon following behind him.

The meeting ended in an uneasy atmosphere.

“Assistant Manager Seok-hoon seems to be under a lot of pressure lately.”

“I know. I talked to him about the market recently, and he was being extremely stubborn. That’s not like him.”

“Is it because the market’s bad? He seems like someone being chased by something.”

As employees leaving the conference room talked about Oh Seok-hoon, Dokyung, who was cleaning up the room, overheard their conversation.

“He seemed too irritable for it to be just because the market’s bad.”

“Well, it’s not something we need to worry about.”

The employees said this as they left the conference room, but Dokyung continued cleaning with a worried expression.

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“Game stocks…”

Back in his room, Dokyung searched for game stocks before the market opened.

Just yesterday, stocks in the game sector had risen 4%. Looking at individual companies, Take Games had risen over 20%, clearly showing money flowing into game stocks. Over half of the KOSDAQ trading volume was in game stocks.

“Ah, this is tricky.”

Dokyung didn’t view game stocks very favorably.

History repeats itself, and the stock market, in particular, was a tiresome repetition of history.

In times of poor economic conditions like now, after cyclical stocks represented by oil refinery stocks led the stock market, defensive stocks always took the lead.

When interest rates rose, game stocks, IT, and software stocks always performed poorly.

“It seems like it’s time for defensive stocks.”

Defensive stocks referred to electricity, gas, pharmaceuticals, liquor, tobacco, casinos, and other sectors that weren’t greatly affected by economic conditions.

Because they weren’t affected by the economy, they were called economy-insensitive stocks, while their opposites, cyclical stocks, were called economy-sensitive stocks.

“Isn’t it madness for money to be rushing into games at this time…”

Money floating around the stock market looking for good news was pouring into the game sector just because of expectations for Take Games’ new release sales.

“If they lure in a bunch of retail investors and then dump…”

Foreign investment banks and institutional investors invested in areas where money was flowing, boosting stock prices.

And when retail investors started to be attracted, they often slowly passed on their holdings to these retail investors.

Furthermore, they made profits even on falling stock prices by short-selling these stocks.

It was said they were profiting from both directions in a boxed market that went up and down.

As Dokyung searched various materials, he came across an interesting post.

[What’s with Yuseong Investment Securities lowering Take Games’ target price at this time?]

It was a post on a stock community, and it seemed that Dokyung’s company had issued a report this morning lowering the target price for game stocks.

Given the characteristics of the Korean stock market where there weren’t many sell reports, lowering the target price was essentially saying to sell the stock.

“Who issued this?”

Dokyung downloaded and opened the report, and he chuckled when he saw the analyst’s name at the top.

As he was checking the report, Dokyung picked up the phone on his desk and dialed somewhere.

Beep. Beep. Beep-

Only the sound of an unanswered call was heard, so Dokyung put down the phone and took out his mobile phone.

Then he found a phone number and pressed the call button.

Ring ring-

This time the call went through.

-Oh, Dokyung-ssi. It’s nice to hear from you after a while, but I’m currently…

“Assistant Manager Yeon-ji. Have you been well? I know you must be busy right now.”

-Sigh…

A deep sigh could be heard from the other end of the line.

“I’m sorry to bother you when you’re so busy, but I’ll be coming to headquarters during lunch time. Could you spare some time?”

-You want to meet?

“Yes, there’s something I’d like to ask you about. Do you not have time?”

-…Alright. Let’s meet during lunch. I’ll text you the location.

“Okay, I’ll see you then.”

After hanging up, Dokyung read through Lee Yeon-ji’s report displayed on his monitor screen once more, as if finding it intriguing.