Most people expected there would be some decline, but believed that closing the stock market for four days had allowed the shock to be fully absorbed, and that the Fed's sudden 0.5 percent benchmark rate cut would provide solid downside support.
Instead, when the New York stock market reopened on the 17th, it turned into a rout, with the Dow plunging as much as 711 points intraday, the largest drop in its history at the time.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also fell 6.7 percent and 4.85 percent respectively, making it, quite literally, the worst day imaginable.
Experts' forecasts that investors would show patriotism and buy stocks instead of dumping them proved utterly wrong.
When the sell-off continued the following day, even major Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds, which had pledged to restrain stock sales in order to prevent a market collapse, finally ran out of patience.
Once they joined the wave of selling, all three major indices plunged into a seemingly bottomless abyss, plunging investors into despair.
The collapse of the New York stock market spread like a virulent infection, crossing the Pacific almost immediately and rippling through Asia and Europe, triggering a global stock market meltdown.
[For more than a week now, major stock markets around the world have been unable to escape a sharp downturn, with investors gripped by panic. The domestic stock market has also continued to fall, wiping out more than 400 billion won in market capitalization in a single day today....]
Woo Hyo-seop, an assistant manager at a mid-sized company, came home after work, had dinner, and was sitting on the sofa watching television.
When the evening business news came on, his expression darkened slightly.
A few months earlier, at the suggestion of a bank clerk, he had put the money from a matured savings account into a fund. With the stock market falling day after day, there was no way he could feel at ease.
A flash of regret crossed his mind that he should have just gone back to a regular savings plan, but the money was already tied up in the fund.
'Should I just cancel the fund now and pull the money out?'
But with the stock market having plunged so sharply, the fund's returns were surely deep in the red. The thought of locking in a loss made it hard to decide.
"Damn it. This is driving me crazy."
When he let out the complaint in frustration, his wife, who happened to be bringing over some sliced apples for dessert, widened her eyes.
"Why are you groaning like that? Is your stomach bothering you or something?"
"It's nothing."
Woo Hyo-seop quickly brushed it off.
"What is it? You're acting suspicious."
His wife shot him a sideways glance, then sat down beside him and speared a piece of apple with a fork, holding it out to him.
Woo Hyo-seop's heart started pounding at the thought that she might find out about the fund, but he forced himself to look calm and chewed on the apple.
As the crisp, sweet flavor gradually eased his mood, his wife suddenly spoke as if something had just occurred to her.
"Remember how it was noisy upstairs last night? I ran into the woman from the unit above when I went out to throw out the trash earlier."
"Oh. What were they fighting about?"
"Well, apparently her husband had been secretly trading stocks and ended up losing twenty million won!"
"Khk! Cough, hack."
"Oh my! Are you okay?"
When Woo Hyo-seop erupted into a fit of loud coughing, his startled wife patted his back.
"I-I'm fine."
"What's wrong all of a sudden? Did something go down the wrong way?"
"Uh, yeah. I think a piece of apple got stuck in my throat."
"You should chew your food properly."
With a sigh of "Good grief," his wife told him to wait a moment and headed into the kitchen.
As he stole a glance at her taking a bottle of water from the fridge and pouring it into a glass, Woo Hyo-seop's face twisted in distress.
"Damn it, of all times…"
"Honey. What did you just say?"
At his wife's question as she came back over, Woo Hyo-seop quickly smoothed out the frown that had crept onto his face.
"I didn't say anything."
"Are you really okay? You've been muttering to yourself a lot lately. You're acting strange."
"It's just that work has been busy."
Blaming the company for no good reason, he silently hoped that the conversation about the upstairs couple would end there.
But his wife still seemed to have more to say, because the moment she set the cup down, she continued.
"Still, it was something worth having a huge fight over. Every time I ran into him in the elevator, he seemed perfectly normal. Who would've thought he'd pull something like that?"
"Ahem. It's not like he had an affair. He was just trying to grow his money and had some bad luck. Do you really have to put it that way?"
"Are you taking his side just because he's a man?"
Faced with her sharp glare, Woo Hyo-seop immediately backed down.
"No, that's not what I mean."
"If you're going to manage your finances, you should either put the money in a savings account or buy a shop and collect rent. Why take risks with stocks?"
"Even if you do savings, you only get six or seven percent in interest. And to buy a shop, you'd need at least seventy million won. That's way too much money upfront."
Without realizing it, Woo Hyo-seop had slipped into defending the upstairs husband.
His wife folded her arms and stared at him from the sofa.
"At least you don't lose your principal."
"Mm…"
When Woo Hyo-seop failed to respond and fell silent, his wife grew even more animated.
"If he was going to trade stocks in secret, he should've at least made money. Losing half of it and still keeping it a secret. Of course he's going to get an earful!"
"…It was cut in half?"
When Woo Hyo-seop asked with a dejected expression, his wife nodded.
"Yes. The woman upstairs didn't even know. She had already put down a deposit to buy a shop, planning to combine it with the rotating savings payout she just received. It's a real mess."
"Didn't you say the upstairs husband is a salaryman like me?"
"That's right. I heard he works at Hyundai Motors."
Woo Hyo-seop opened his mouth in surprise.
"What? I thought he was about my age. Where did he get the money to buy a shop?"
Lowering her voice as if sharing a secret, his wife replied,
"You know the Jugong apartment complex across from Building 107."
"You mean the one across the two-lane road?"
"Yeah. The shop there. It's on the second floor and only about twenty-six square meters, so I guess it was listed pretty cheap. And it's an old place, more than fifteen years old."
"Figures."
Woo Hyo-seop nodded with a look of understanding.
"The building's old and a bit rundown, but residents from the Jugong apartments use that shopping strip a lot, so business is decent. It's the kind of place you can rent out without worrying about vacancies. Now it's the woman upstairs who's left with a headache because of her husband."
"Huh."
Hearing the whole story, it was hard not to sigh.
Even though it had nothing to do with him, Woo Hyo-seop felt oddly uneasy and averted his gaze.
"Now she suddenly has to come up with another twenty million won. Can you imagine how furious and miserable she must feel?"
In the middle of her rant, his wife suddenly shot Woo Hyo-seop a sharp look.
"I know exactly how that feels, having money blown on stocks."
"T-that's totally different. I lost money in a fund. I didn't trade stocks."
"However you slice it, it's still money lost because of stocks."
Woo Hyo-seop resented his wife's inability to distinguish between funds and stocks, but he kept his mouth shut.
From sheer married-man instinct, he knew that trying to explain would only invite even bigger trouble.
"I'm telling you this just in case. Never touch anything with the word 'stock' in it again. Got it?"
"Y-yeah, I got it."
Woo Hyo-seop nodded, feeling his stomach drop.
'This is bad.'
His only option now was to rush to the bank during lunch tomorrow, cancel the fund, and switch back to a savings account.
If he wanted to keep his wife from finding out, he would have to cover the losses with his emergency cash, and if that still wasn't enough, he would have to borrow money to make up the difference.
'Getting into that fund is going to wipe out my emergency savings.'
With a sense of bitter despair, Woo Hyo-seop shed tears of blood inwardly and resolved never to touch a fund again.
***
The next day.
As Woo Hyo-seop sat in the bank's waiting area, a chime sounded, and he sprang to his feet and headed for the open counter.
"Welcome. How can I help you?"
A bank clerk with short hair and a name tag that read Lee Jeong-yeon greeted him with a smile.
On closer look, she was the very employee who had recommended the fund to him in the first place.
Determined not to fall for any sweet talk this time, Woo Hyo-seop steeled himself and handed over the bankbook and seal he was holding.
"I'm here to cancel my fund."
Lee Jeong-yeon took the bankbook, opened it, and checked the details on her computer, then tilted her head with a puzzled expression.
"If you cancel now, you'll be taking a loss. If it's not urgent, wouldn't it be better to hold it until maturity?"
There it is. I knew she'd say that!
Woo Hyo-seop snorted and replied curtly.
"The market's been bad lately, so if I leave it, the losses will just keep growing. Please just cancel it."
"…Pardon?"
Lee Jeong-yeon looked at Woo Hyo-seop with an expression of disbelief.
"You're currently up seventy percent."
"?"
A brief exchange of confused looks followed, and then Woo Hyo-seop blurted out in shock,
"What? Losing half wasn't enough, I'm down seventy percent? Did you people run the fund like garbage and just skim fees off the top? What is this!"
"It's not minus. You're up seventy percent."
"Uh… what?"
Only then did Woo Hyo-seop fully grasp what she was saying, blinking rapidly.
"…Up?"
"Yes. As of now, you're sitting at a seventy percent gain. If you cancel early, after deducting the fees, your return will drop to fifty percent. Would you still like to cancel?"
Unable to believe what he was hearing, Woo Hyo-seop instinctively leaned forward.
"But there was a terrorist attack in the U.S., the stock market crashed, and everyone's in chaos. How could this possibly be a gain instead of a loss?"
"I explained this when you first signed up. Unlike other fund products, this is a blind fund personally managed by Chairman Park Seok-won."
"Ah. Now that you mention it…"
He remembered signing the paperwork almost as if he had been hypnotized by the promotional pamphlet.
With such a handsome face and the title of the richest man in the world, an inexplicable sense of trust had surged up inside him.
"A little while ago, there was even a newspaper article saying Chairman Park Seok-won made a huge fortune during this market crash. So naturally, wouldn't the performance of the funds he manages together be good as well?"
"Ah…"
Woo Hyo-seop let out a short exclamation.
He felt foolish for not having connected the dots sooner.
"The returns could still grow even more, so it would be a shame to cancel early… but if you truly need the money, there's nothing we can do."
"W-wait!"
Woo Hyo-seop shouted, urgently thrusting out his hand.
"I've changed my mind! I'll just keep it."
"Oh my. Is that so?"
With a gentle smile on her lips, Lee Jeong-yeon handed the bankbook back to him.
Once outside, Woo Hyo-seop stopped in front of the bank and cautiously opened the bankbook.
When he saw that the return really did read +70%, the corners of his mouth shot up so high they nearly reached his ears.
"Hehehe. I've already made 8.6 million won in profit! This is an absolute jackpot."
Grinning like a madman, Woo Hyo-seop carefully tucked the bankbook into his inside pocket and headed back to work.
And it wasn't just Woo Hyo-seop.
Many other fund investors, startled by the market crash, had rushed to their banks intending to cancel their funds, only to be stunned by the incredible returns and leave with broad smiles on their faces.
***
September 29, 2001. Manhattan, New York.
Seok-won was sitting on the balcony of the Plaza Hotel penthouse, speaking on the phone with his mother in Seoul.
"I'm sorry I couldn't come see you for Chuseok."
[It's because of work, so don't worry about it. More importantly, it's already been almost a month since you went to the United States. When are you coming back?]
"Things are mostly wrapped up, so I should be able to return next month."
[All right. Always take care of your health, and make sure to stay in touch.]
"I will."
Seok-won lowered the phone from his ear and gazed for a moment at Central Park spread out beyond the balcony railing.
Just then, a familiar voice came from behind him.
"Enjoying the morning air?"
When he turned around, Landon was standing there with a smile, dressed in a navy suit, as if he had arrived without a sound.
"Welcome."
After briefly meeting his gaze, Seok-won took a few steps and moved into the living room.
As he naturally sat down in the center seat with one leg crossed, Landon followed and took his place on the sofa to the right.
"How's the market mood ahead of tomorrow's FOMC meeting?"
Landon shrugged as he answered.
"Expectations of an additional rate cut have softened the downward trend a bit, but investor sentiment is still poor. It doesn't look like a rebound is likely."
"Relieving a market already saturated with fear won't be easy."
With his fingers interlaced and resting on the armrest of the sofa, Seok-won spoke in a slightly subdued voice.
"Starting today, let's gradually begin unwinding our positions."
"…!"