Bad Call
When an American investor in Vietnam bets everything on a sure thing, the gains he makes are nothing he could ever expect
By Eric W. Gershman
Literary Fiction,15 minutes | Courtesy of Free Spirit Press
The tornado had kicked out almost everything in Saigon, including the air conditioning in the Sofitel Hotel, so the only comfortable place to make a phone call was from the sidewalk, where a dirty breeze stirred.
Across the ocean, the head trader at Greenrock Partners answered the phone in Miami. “You're up early!” he said.
“10am is not early, Ben. What’s our position?”
“I don’t know Stan, you tell me, you're Director of Research.”
Across the narrow street, a shabby lunch booth was preparing steaming Pho and Banh Mi sandwiches.
Stan laid out the plan. “Our position is we buy 5 million barrels at the open tomorrow and sell before the close.”
“That’s a $128 million trade if my arithmetic is correct. Twenty percent of the firm’s capital,” Ben replied.