Chapter 62: Selling the Ruble

Konon is an ordinary citizen of Krisko. He works in a bank and leads a very ordinary life. However, when the economic situation of the entire country continued to deteriorate, and then after this year's Krisko Winter, his ordinary life was completely disrupted.

Like other people in Northern Russia, as the ruble continued to depreciate and prices continued to rise, Konon's family life became increasingly difficult, and even eating had to be carefully calculated.

The only thing that was better for Konong than the others was that because he worked in a bank, he could absorb financial knowledge more quickly and easily than the others. So he invested his spare money in the financial market and made a lot of money by using some insider information he got from the bank. This was the only way he could make ends meet. Of course, at the same time, the salary increase he received from the bank was also the reason why he did not have to go out on the street and sell his possessions like other northern Russians.

That morning, as usual, Konon sneaked out to the securities company. It was still as busy and noisy as ever, with countless people coming and going.

Konon knew that these people all came with the idea of getting rich overnight. Some of them made money, but more of them went bankrupt here. But anyway, with so much capital circulating in such a small place, it still gave the place a kind of morbid vitality.

Konon paid them no mind and went straight to the trading floor, the place with the highest concentration of people. They were sitting or standing in various postures, but their eyes were all fixed on the big screen, not moving.

It was clear that these people were trading stocks and ruble information. Perhaps many of them still did not understand the principles of the financial market, but they all understood that the numbers on the screen were jumping up and down, each time representing a large sum of money. If they could get their hands on this money, they would never be able to spend it in their lifetimes. But this kind of money was not something that ordinary people could handle.

Like them, Konon is also here for the money. Otherwise, he should be working in a bank right now, instead of risking being fired by skipping work and coming here. You have to understand that after the restructuring, the bank is no longer a state-owned enterprise, and the system is much stricter than before. But for Konon, no matter how strict it is, he has to come out, because it is related to his family's bread money tomorrow!

Today, there was something temporary at the bank, so Konon came relatively late, and there were no more seats in the trading hall, so Konon had to take out a newspaper and sit in the hall.

He skillfully took out a pen and notebook and began to record the changes in today's stock prices and the ruble exchange rate as usual, so as to plan his next investment. But at this moment, several people rushed in from the door, pushing many people in their way very roughly. Although these people didn't say a word, they attracted the attention of the entire trading floor and interrupted Konon's train of thought.

'What are you doing? Do you have any rules at all? You can't just cause trouble here! If you do, the security guards will throw you out! And when that happens, our fists won't know where to aim!'

Many people in the hall yelled at these people, all of them were very dissatisfied with their actions, but these people did not buy what they were selling, and continued to walk towards the back of the room as usual. They went up to a service window and shouted directly at the account manager inside, 'Quickly help me sell all the rubles in my account and convert them into US dollars, all of them, immediately, at any price!'

This shouting made all the people who had just been dissatisfied with them and shouting at them freeze for a moment. Originally, after the government of Northern Russia had liberalised the financial market and securities companies had opened their doors, there were quite a lot of people selling rubles every business day, so there was nothing surprising about it. It was just that the answer from the account manager inside next made everyone here unable to remain calm any longer.

'Hello sir, there are currently 200 million rubles in your account. The ruble exchange rate is low at the moment, and you can only convert it to less than 10 million US dollars at most. Are you sure you want to sell all of it?'

The account manager politely told him, but the man simply ignored him and said, 'Sell it all!'

'Okay, sir, but I need to warn you that because the amount of rubles you are selling at once is too large, it is likely to cause market turmoil and further weaken the ruble exchange rate. In the end, you may not be able to get even 9 million US dollars. You should be prepared for this. In addition, the ruble exchange rate will rise slightly every day at the opening of the market. You can do it then...'

The account manager kindly reminded him, but he was not at all grateful. Instead, he impatiently yelled at the account manager, 'I told you to sell everything, can't you understand? Don't deliberately waste my time!'

This remark immediately caused an uproar. It wasn't because he rudely interrupted the account manager, but the amount of money he was selling was not small.

That's 200 million rubles. Even after the recent crisis in the Khreshchatyk, the ruble has depreciated very significantly, but it's not to the point of toilet paper. It can still be exchanged for nearly 10 million US dollars, and even if it depreciates some more, there's still 9 million US dollars left. And if you come every morning when the ruble exchange rate is rising, you can even exchange an extra 1 million US dollars with a bit of luck.

But now, how can this person not be curious and surprised that he has sold all of them without caring?

Konon felt something was wrong at first. Driven by curiosity, he took the initiative to push his way through the crowd and asked him, 'My friend, why are you selling rubles so much? Is something wrong?'

The man looked back at him and said, 'I don't know you, so why should I tell you?'

Konnon was not discouraged or discouraged. On the contrary, he was even more enthusiastic. Konnon explained to him, 'Here, so many people don't know each other, but everyone's resources can be shared with each other, because everyone understands that the economic situation in northern Russia is currently very bad, and the Western countries are invading our economy. If we don't unite, there is no way to fight back.'

But the other person still said coldly, 'That's you, it has nothing to do with me. I just want to sell off the rubles, that's my behaviour.'

Konon still smiled and said, 'I understand, this is indeed your behaviour, and in theory it has nothing to do with us. But the problem is that we are all investing here, and your behaviour of selling off the rubles will lead to the continued devaluation of the ruble, which will affect our interests. Do you think you can leave here peacefully if you don't say something?'

Kornon's words made the man's heart jump. He subconsciously glanced around, and the people next to him stared at him in unison.

Under the gaze of so many people, and with Kornon's threat hanging over him, the man seemed a little guilty. After thinking for a moment, he said to Kornon, 'Okay, it doesn't matter if I tell you, but I have to say something first. I don't know much, and I'm just doing someone else a favour.'

Konong kept shaking his head and said, 'That's fine, as long as you tell us everything you know.'

The man then nodded and said, 'Actually, there's nothing complicated about it. My boss told me that the ruble will experience an even greater devaluation trend in the future, just like the first day of trading in a securities company. So he told me to sell everything at any price, no matter how low.'

This statement was like a heavy bomb. It stunned everyone when it was said.

Everyone here is in finance, so they all understand what he meant by this sentence. What everyone doesn't understand is that the exchange rate of the ruble has been very stable over this period of time, so why is it suddenly plummeting? Is this really giving people a way out? Or is he setting a trap?

Everyone was thinking this, and Konon was thinking the same thing at this time, but he was more concerned about the fact that he had just exchanged rubles, and if he followed him in exchanging rubles now, would it be a good deal or not.

But reality did not intend to give him much time to consider. Just as everyone was in a daze, another group of people rushed into the trading hall. Like the previous group, they also rushed straight to the counter after entering, and shouted at the account manager inside, 'Sell the rubles! I want to sell all the 500 million rubles I have and exchange them for US dollars!'

The words of this group of people once again shocked everyone, including Konon. Konon's eyes widened, and he found what was happening unbelievable.

Judging from the actions of the account manager behind the counter, their words were true. They really were going to dump the rubles they had in their hands, and I'm afraid they really did have that much money.

But here's the problem: why would they do that? Nothing was obviously going on in Northern Russia right now!

When something unusual happens, there's always a catch. From what was happening in front of him, Kernong instinctively sensed that there was a problem. He subconsciously sensed that there was a huge conspiracy.

However, this was only a flash of inspiration for Konon, because as soon as the people who sold 500 million rubles had finished speaking, someone else reacted immediately and rushed to the counter, shouting the same thing as them: 'Quick, help me exchange my rubles for dollars too, quickly!'

This person's actions were like a bolt from the blue, suddenly waking everyone up. They immediately followed suit, rushing to the counter one after the other, shouting that they wanted to sell rubles for dollars.

Konon was naturally part of this mass selling of rubles. Although he had a little bit of reason left and felt that there was something wrong with this, when he saw that everyone in the trading hall was rushing to the counter to sell their rubles, he knew that he could no longer think about waiting. Because no matter what the problem was, he was certain of one thing: after today, the ruble would definitely plummet.

Having confirmed this situation, Konon naturally could not control himself and could only sell the rubles in his hands first.

But while Konon and the other Northern Russians were frantically selling rubles, none of them noticed that the two groups of people who started the trend were both wearing smiles of success on their faces.

!!!