Chapter 24: Past Life Returner Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Emily was unable to believe, much less accept the situation. Jonathan was one of the many who had just graduated from being a junior level broker and trader. Guys like him could be seen by the hundreds on Wall Street. Moreover, there had been recent rumors that Jonathan’s past performance at both had been less than lackluster around her alumnus.

Yet, impossibly, a guy like him had achieved an impossible success that would go down in financial history in the span of a single day. With a stake of less than a million dollars, Jonathan had pocketed ten billion dollars in just two months. It was an incredible record that would be forever unbroken.

Jonathan? That Jonathan did this?

She and other teammates talked about this whenever they ate together. While they spoke every day, the conclusion was always the same. There was only one way that Jonathan could have made such a nonsensical profit.

As Jonathan had hinted, he had placed his entire fortune on maximum leverage. He had liquidated his assets in a suicidal manner, and unbelievably it had worked. It was miraculous luck, and even if gods of fortune such as Tyche from Greek mythology, Ganesha from Indian mythology, and others from all over the world had graced Jonathan, it still did not cover it. He was the monkey that had written Shakespeare. (EN: Tyche, in Greek religion, was the goddess of chance, a capricious dispenser of good and ill fortune. Ganesha is the Hindu god of wisdom, success and good luck. The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. In fact, the monkey would almost surely type every possible finite text an infinite number of times. ^_^ )

‘He had been boasting and congratulating us on entering the major playing field…and now he’s having us perform this farce.’

Emily sighed as she looked down at her briefcase. She was certain that Jonathan was drunk in his success. Wall Street was full of people who overestimated momentary luck as an unbeatable winning streak, and Emily knew this better than anyone else. She had been one of them, and although she had repented, her ruin had become irrevocable.

Therefore, she had come in running when Jonathan called her. Emily had thought this was her second chance at Wall Street, but…

“Really, why?”

Emily wanted to throw her briefcase off the nearest bridge, as it was full of documents that proved she was an imbecile. When this bet is made between the banks and Jonathan Investments, her regained position will disappear.

‘If he wants to throw money away like that, give it to me.’

Emily’s destination was right in front of her, as she was at the head offices of DP Krump, one of the top four firms in the financial field. She had been pacing at the front of the door for thirty minutes even though it was almost time for her appointment. She had to stop Jonathan but had no way to contact him. She had strict orders to follow the instructions, and Emily grabbed her brick sized cell phone. (EN: This was the ‘90s. )

Emily thought she had made a mistake in making the call, as her mood became even gloomier. Eventually, she entered the massive bank like a cow walking into the slaughterhouse. The wait was not long since she had already scheduled a meeting.

“I’m Emily from Jonathan Investments.”

While Emily offered her business card, she thought it would become useless soon. Only a single ordinary employee from DP Krump had come into the meeting, who did not even have the authority to make decisions. Emily placed the documents, and as the employee looked over them, he scratched his head and stroked his nose.

“It’s a new type of swap transaction, and you seemed to have prepared a lot.”

Emily agreed that this had taken much preparation, as she had been impressed by the expertise that had gone into Jonathan’s product proposal. However, trash was trash.

“I have to tell you that I will look over this as usual, but I do not want to waste your time. Who will accept such a deal like this?”

The employee was polite, and Emily thought it was inevitable that the DP Krump employee had misunderstood the proposal.

“Jonathan Investments is position B, and we will take the position where we would only make profit when Hong Kong short-term interest rate increases over 100%.”

“What?”

The employee picked up the documents again, and she looked at his face while waiting for him to speak. It was just as Emily had guessed, as his facial muscles were working desperately to hide his laughter. He was doing his best to do so and quickly got out of the room, saying that he had no authority over this. Emily covered her reddening face.

After a short while, new employees from DP Krump came in, and they had more weight this time. A team leader, who could make decisions, and three subordinates were added to the mix. They greeted each other, and the new people began to confirm the documents.

“A swap transaction of this kind is unprecedented. It takes a long time to create a new product, and to build such a market with Hong Kong bonds…” (EN: What is a swap transaction? A contract to exchange two financial liabilities. For example, swapping fixed interest-rate debts for variable-rate debts. They are commonly used to enable a borrower to change the basis of interest payments and will often incur a fee.)

“We are aware.”

“However, since you had made such immaculat