sage of this era
“It seems that the rate of spread of the infectious disease is faster than expected. The stock market as well as various economic impacts are expected to occur. In particular, falling oil prices are likely to accelerate further.”
Not only the stock market, but also commodities such as oil and food, and commodities such as gold, which have always been strong during fluctuations, continued to invest.
As the operation of a number of industrial facilities may be suspended in the short or long term due to an infectious disease, we bet on a fall in raw material prices, and a rise in gold and silver.
Entering February 2020, countries around the world began to become aware of the new disease outbreak in China, but the White House was busy fighting with the Senate, where his impeachment proposal was raised.
A very long, dark tunnel of time was approaching for Americans.
“How is Wall Street going?”
“There are not many places that have predicted that the global economy will be severely affected by this infectious disease. There are a few places that have followed our bets, but I think most of them will go well.”
There have been several global infectious diseases since 2000, such as SARS in 2003, H1N1 influenza in 2009, and MERS in 2015.
The financial circles expected that this time too would pass similarly.
Of course, news spread quickly on Wall Street that Eugene, who had been performing on all investments in recent years, was betting on a downturn, but, as always, many investors thought that this time around, Eugene would suffer a huge loss. .
There are always great investors on Wall Street, boasting huge profits from gambling against the others.
But it has always been proven that such investors will end up going bankrupt because of their risky investments.
For that reason, Wall Street believed that Eugene would suffer a major blow from such a bet at any time.
Maybe that’s why there weren’t as many people who blindly followed Eugene’s investment this time.
Numerous analysts predicted that the epidemic would also subside with only a slight impact.
But it didn’t take long for their predictions to be proven completely wrong.
By mid-February, the stock market began to decline, signaling that the future was not going to be smooth.
The spread of the infectious disease was too fast than everyone expected, and as news began to spread that confirmed cases were occurring all over the world, the stock markets of each country fell into a swamp of decline.
And the speed of the fall became steeper and steeper.
“On the Nasdaq, there was a circuit break as soon as the market opened. Everyone is panicking. I don’t know how far the impact of Corona will go.”
Joanna furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at the large monitor with the record-breaking graphs on it.
Now, instead of an unknown infectious disease, the whole world was suffering from a pandemic of a disease that got the name COVID-19.
The stock market fell sharply every day, and Eugene’s assets were increasing at a frightening pace.
Record-breaking returns were piling up on stock futures and options every day, and the masked employees stared at the monitors with red eyes, desperately trying to get a penny out of that profit.
There were times when tens of billions of dollars in revenue were generated a day, so I couldn’t distract myself for a moment.
“Considering the decline in the value of the large-cap stocks we currently own, we have generated $300 billion in profits in the domestic stock market alone.”
This incredible return was made possible by betting against everyone’s expectations.
In just one month, the Nasdaq index plunged 30%, marking a record-breaking plunge, and Bloomberg reported that global stock markets fell by $25.61 trillion in just one month.
In comparison, Eugene earned only a fraction of the money.
“It’s terrible. I’m worried about how long this decline will last.”
As she said that, Joanna’s face was full of excitement.
“Give me all the positions slowly.”
And Eugene once again made a decision that surprised everyone.
“Do you think the decline will stop at this level?”
Joanna asked, tilting her head.
“Perhaps it is very likely. “The Fed said it would cut interest rates to 0%.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t seem to have a big impact, right?”
“From now on, there will be an impact. Not only in the United States, but all countries are afraid of an economic downturn, so we will try to stimulate the economy in various ways. If that happens, too much money will be released in the market.”
Eugene knows that this corona crisis will create a huge bubble in the global stock market.
“So let’s bet with that in mind.”
“I see. Let’s create a screenplay right now.”
Joanna has a bunch of very talented staff. Shortly thereafter, based on Eugene’s prediction, a report was published, taking into account various variables about how the economy will change in the future.
“It will depend on how much money each country is releasing to stimulate the economy.”
The most important issue is this. But no one can answer that.
Still, national leaders did not know the answer to this crisis.
“Trump is probably going to release a lot of money.”
It’s only natural that there is a presidential election this year.
“It will be the same in other countries. So, without knowing anything else, I think the stock market will go up significantly.”
“I will.”
Once the decision was made, everyone began to move quickly.
When all of the existing positions were cleared up and the funds earned so far were used again and leveraged, almost twice as much money was invested in stock markets around the world.
This time, it has decided to increase investment in individual securities as well as derivatives.
Considering the record stock market growth that will continue over the next two years, it was a worthwhile investment.
At the end of March, the G20 leaders decided to inject $4.8 trillion into the market to normalize global finance.
It was the decision everyone in the market had been waiting for. The stock market immediately started rebounding.
“This time the boss was right. Thanks to that, I was able to change positions without much damage.”
It was also Eugene who switched positions the fastest.
As always, he was the one who benefited the most from the bear market, and he was also the one who prepared most accurately for the transition to the bull market.
Wall Street has gathered some of the world’s most brilliant brains, but predicting the world’s economy is no easy feat.
In most cases, rather than predicting the market trend, we have no choice but to follow the market conditions at that time.
While everyone was preparing for a bear market, betting on an uptrend paid off just as much.
“It’s going up at a frightening pace.”
Stock markets around the world, not just the US stock market, begin to rise without hesitation.
What Eugene has been waiting for is not a temporary decline due to the corona virus, but this huge bubble.
Economic activities around the world were virtually paralyzed because of the corona virus, and when economic stagnation overlaps with this, the people’s pockets are empty.
The government had no choice but to release money to overcome this situation.
Again, most of the great investors on Wall Street made the wrong choice.
Legendary investors, including Warren Buffett, were not eager to invest, predicting that the stock market could fall more than 30% in the future due to the impact of the coronavirus.
This time, the ants were more passionate about investing, and they had been enjoying victory for a long time.
“Robert of Goldman Sachs called me crying. I didn’t know it was going to be like this. haha!”
Joanna’s former employee, Robert, who worked with Goldman Sachs, said that he had repeatedly turned down Joanna’s scouting offers.
Now, Eugene is undoubtedly the number one investor on Wall Street, but he even suggested that Joanna return to Goldman Sachs again, saying that such a risky investment would always upset him.
“If you had come when I asked you to come, you would have made a lot of money this time around.”
Even the performance pay that will be given to executive-level personnel, including Joanna, will be astronomical.
Already last month, one Joanna received a bonus of $100 million.
Among Joanna’s team members, there were many traders who earned performance pay that looked like hundreds of thousands of dollars in basic pay just like pocket money.
The amount of money rolled in a season is in the trillions of dollars, and the profit is in the order of 100 billion dollars, so it was natural that the treatment of the team members who earned such money should also be appropriate.
If Robert had accepted Joanna’s offer, he would have made enough money for the rest of his life at this rally.
“Of course, Robert’s fears are not incomprehensible. Even if you were like me, you would have thought it was a dangerous job. Especially if you go to a place like Goldman Sachs.”
Eugene laughed and said.
“Well. So that’s a little weird. In fact, there’s something I’ve always been curious about.”
“What?”
“If you watch the boss from the side, you can see that he is a very careful person, and he is seldom willing to step into dangerous places.”
“Did I?”
“yes. I don’t like to argue, I like to hang out with people and share good things, and I’ve seen them avoid dangerous things as much as possible.”
Sometimes the person next to you knows more about you than you do.
Aides like Joanna and Monica may know more about Eugene than they do.
“But when it comes to investing, I am extremely daring. Do you make radical decisions on investments that are so risky that even I can’t believe it?”
“What. There is no such thing.”
“It’s not that I have particularly great expectations. It’s a decision made by gathering information that everyone knows. It’s just that the results are different from others.”
Joanna said with a look of incomprehension.
Eugene has always been like that. Like Brexit or Trump’s election, they have been betting against everyone with the same information as others.
It was the same this time. He made a different prediction than anyone else for the same situation.
“Robert said so. The true sage of our time is probably the boss.”
“You’re a sage. Isn’t that a big word?”
“no. It’s not lacking in the slightest. That’s what I know best from watching.”
Joanna was speaking in a certain confident voice.
“So, is Robert thinking of moving?”
“Well. I don’t think so. If you move after one race has already been completed, it seems that you will only deal with garbage?”
Joanna said with a smile. As Eugene knows, Robert is a very clever man. But being smart doesn’t necessarily mean being wise.
As always, Robert made the wrong choice this time.
They don’t seem to even realize that the race isn’t over, it’s just the beginning.