Friday morning.
Doyoon opened his brokerage app on the subway ride to work.
Aitek.
Current price: 2,350 won.
Up 6.8% from the previous day.
His heart raced.
But it was different from Taeseong Electronics.
When Taeseong Electronics went up, he had felt relieved.
When Aitek went up, he checked.
Why had it gone up?
He searched the news.
“Aitek Signs Exclusive Supply Contract for Taeseong Electronics’ New-Line Equipment Components.”
Doyoon read the screen again.
Exclusive supply.
In the future he remembered, Aitek had been a key component supplier to Taeseong Electronics.
But it hadn’t been exclusive.
There had been two competitors.
Another variable.
Doyoon thought.
A variable moving in a better direction than he remembered.
When Taeseong Electronics announced its new investment, this could have been news that became an unforeseen negative factor.
This time, it was a positive factor stronger than his memories suggested.
It wasn’t that his memories were wrong. Reality was moving at a different speed from them.
Doyoon took out his notebook.
Aitek variable log. Exclusive supply contract → Information absent from memory. Moving faster and more forcefully than memory predicted. A good variable is still a variable. Don’t let your guard down.
He arrived at the office.
The moment he sat down, Seoyeon approached him.
“Doyoon, did you see this?”
Seoyeon showed him her phone screen.
It was the news about Aitek’s exclusive supply contract.
“I saw it.”
“Isn’t this company connected to Seongjin Jeongmil, the one in our client data?”
Doyoon’s hand stopped.
Seoyeon had connected Aitek to Seongjin Jeongmil.
She wasn’t investing in Aitek.
She wasn’t even interested in stocks.
But she knew Seongjin Jeongmil’s sales were rising from the client data, and the moment she saw the news about Aitek, she had traced the supply chain.
“What’s wrong?”
Seoyeon looked at Doyoon’s expression.
“Nothing. You’re right. They’re connected.”
“I knew it. So this is why Seongjin Jeongmil’s sales have been going up.”
Seoyeon nodded and returned to her desk.
Doyoon watched her walk away.
She’s getting closer and closer.
Even without knowing Aitek, she was reading Aitek’s supply chain.
Even without knowing stocks, she was seeing the market’s flow.
Seoyeon was entering Doyoon’s world faster than his memories had predicted.
Lunchtime.
Doyoon went up to the rooftop.
He called Han Taesik.
“Aitek went up.”
“I saw. Exclusive supply.”
“That wasn’t in my memories.”
Han Taesik was silent for a moment.
“It’s moving in a good direction, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
Doyoon leaned against the railing.
“Because a good variable is still a variable.”
Han Taesik laughed.
“You’ve grown a lot.”
“What?”
“Before, you would’ve simply been happy when good news came. Now you ask why it’s good first.”
Doyoon couldn’t say anything.
Han Taesik continued.
“Do you know what you need to do when a variable is favorable?”
“I don’t.”
“Adjust your expectations.”
“My expectations?”
“If things are moving in a better direction than your memories, your target price has to change too. If you hold on to the target price from your memories, you’ll sell too early if the market keeps climbing, or too late if it doesn’t.”
Doyoon wrote it down in his notebook.
Adjust expectations. Target price from memory: 8,000 won (one year). Reality’s speed: Faster than memory. → Don’t fix the target price to memory. → Adjust it to the market’s speed.
3:00 p.m.
The market closed.
Aitek’s closing price: 2,420 won.
Up 10% from the previous day.
Doyoon’s unrealized gain was +11%.
Doyoon stared at the numbers.
It was faster than Taeseong Electronics.
It had taken Taeseong Electronics a week to reach +7.8%.
Aitek had reached +11% in two days.
Fast.
Doyoon thought.
Fast wasn’t necessarily good.
Something that rose quickly could fall just as quickly.
Han Taesik’s words came back to him.
Adjust your expectations.
After work.
The convenience store in front of the office.
Doyoon bought a coffee and came outside.
Seoyeon was standing in front of the store.
“Oh, Seoyeon.”
“Doyoon, are you heading home?”
“Yes.”
The two of them walked side by side.
Seoyeon spoke first.
“I was thinking after seeing the news about Aitek today.”
“About what?”
“If Seongjin Jeongmil’s sales are going up because of Aitek, then what’s making Aitek’s sales go up?”
Doyoon didn’t stop walking.
“Taeseong Electronics.”
“Then what’s making Taeseong Electronics’ sales go up?”
“Semiconductor demand.”
“Then what’s making semiconductor demand go up?”
Doyoon looked at Seoyeon.
She was serious.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“I don’t know. I just want to follow it all the way to the end.”
Doyoon thought for a moment.
Seoyeon wasn’t interested in investing.
She wasn’t asking these questions because she wanted to make money.
She simply wanted to see where the numbers ended, out of pure curiosity.
“Seoyeon.”
“Yes?”
“At the end of that question, you’ll find people.”
“People?”
“Semiconductor demand goes up because people buy more smartphones, build more servers, and put more chips in their cars.”
Seoyeon nodded.
“So in the end, there are people at the end of every number.”
“Yes.”
Seoyeon smiled as they walked.
“When you look at numbers, do you see people?”
“I try to.”
“So that’s why you see them that way.”
“See what?”
“The numbers. Differently from everyone else.”
Doyoon couldn’t answer.
Seoyeon stopped in front of the subway station.
“Doyoon.”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to keep updating that data, so tell me if you want to see it.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.”
Seoyeon smiled.
“I’m having fun too.”
Seoyeon went through the turnstiles.
Doyoon watched her walk away.
I’m having fun.
That was what Seoyeon had said.
She wasn’t doing it to help Doyoon.
She was doing it because she found it interesting.
That made it weigh more heavily on Doyoon.
At the same time.
Choi Minseok was staring at Aitek’s chart in his room.
2,420 won.
Up 10% at the close.
Minseok’s unrealized gain was +10%.
Minseok smiled.
The same stock as Doyoon.
Moving in the same direction as Doyoon.
A return similar to Doyoon’s.
But Minseok knew.
The same return didn’t mean the same thing.
Doyoon must have bought Aitek at 2,180 won.
Minseok had bought it at 2,200.
A 20-won difference.
Twenty won was nothing.
But those 20 won were proof that Doyoon had moved first.
Minseok opened his memo pad.
Aitek. +10%. In two days. Exclusive supply news. Didn’t see it coming. Did Doyoon not see it coming either?
Note: Kang Doyoon. Doyoon didn’t look surprised this morning. Aitek opened at +6.8%, but Doyoon’s expression was the same as always. There were only two reasons he hadn’t looked surprised. He already knew. Or he was used to hiding his surprise.
Minseok closed the memo pad.
Then he looked up at the ceiling.
Doyoon.
You haven’t forgotten how to be surprised, have you? Maybe you’ve forgotten how to show it.
Minseok closed his eyes.
Aitek was only the beginning.
Since they were holding the same stock, they were riding the same wave from here on out.
Who would get off first, riding that same wave?
That was what would set the two of them apart.
Minseok opened the memo pad again.
He added one more sentence to the last line.
When the next variable comes, I’ll watch how Doyoon moves. That’s when I’ll see the real Doyoon.