Reverse

Chris had been thinking of how to stop the growth of Open Traders since handling the project at the Bank of Sicara. He thought: “How can a little individual like me cause disruption to a fast-growing monster?” To him, Open Traders is a monster that consumes consumers and grows in strength with each meal. All the episodes of Stranger Things grew his vivid imagination.

The months were going in reverse, from June to May to April. All these months, Chris had been looking up investment forums feverishly. His routine on Sunday nights would be surfing the web on his hobbies. Besides the usual baseball and music sites, he added a new topic for Sunday’s surfing; Investment blogs and forums.

An investment forum thread posted on 12 May caught his attention.

“Nothing’s free. You pay nothing and you get nothing.”

Vigilante

He read through the entire post by the author with the nick “Vigilante”. It was well written. The author explained the different types of brokerages and listed the strengths and weaknesses of each. He/She argued that a zero-commission brokerage might not be what its name suggests. No names were mentioned but Chris thought that it should be Open Traders because they are the most prominent new brokerage now. He decided to message “Vigilante” privately. The tricky issue was time. As time traveled in reverse, he could not message him into the future. Every correspondence must end by midnight before it went back to the day before. “Vigilante” would have no recollection of the conversations the day before.

Knowing that no way could he establish a meaningful follow-up with “Vigilante”, Chris decided to track “Vigilante”s posts. He noticed that the author posted on every Sunday of the month and on Saturdays occasionally for the months of April and May. Every time, Chris saw “Vigilante”s post, he would comment on them. In addition, he started posting on the forums too. His posts would be about white-collar crimes in the finance industry, warnings about over-trading, and leverages. He started writing and posting with the intention to warn the investors’ community about the potential harm that Open Traders could bring to the market.

Chris wanted to meet “Vigilante” in person. On 28 April 2019, he sent a private message to “Vigilante”.

“Hi Vigillante, can I meet you in person? I wanna hear your views about Open Traders.”

“No, it’s inconvenient. We can chat through email.”

“Alright.”

He was determined to find out the identity of “Vigilante”. Moments later, he gave his friend Stewart, a geek working in IT a call.

“Hi Stewart.”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Can I trace the physical location of someone who posted on a forum?”

“Well, you can’t get the exact postal address of an IP address. You can only track the IP address down to its city location.”

“But what about those scammers and spammers who were nailed and caught in person?”

“Chris, that’s law enforcement. Only the authorities can subpoena the Internet Service Provider of the criminal and demand the exact location of the person’s computer. You know, this isn’t TV. I’m talking about real life.”

“I see.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Hmm... I like this forummer’s post. I want to know who is this person.”

“You know, Chris, just do it the old fashion way, text, email, asked for the contact, and meet up.”

“I did...and I’m rejected. Anyway, I will stick to text. Cya.”

“Ok. Bye.”

After knowing the near impossibility of finding out the identity of Vigilante, he turned his attention to the possible key personnel involved in Open Traders.

“Elly’s Uncle! David...That shrewd businessman. It’d be challenging to dig out any shady deals of his. He probably has his back covered. I have to get into someone close to him...ahh...not Elly. She isn’t even here. Maybe his personal assistant, if he has one or his subordinates.”

10 days have passed. It was a Thursday morning, Chris entered the lift in his office. David and another young man were also in it.

“Hi David, you’re here for a meeting?”

“Yeah. How’s it going?”

“Pretty much the same. Is he your colleague?”

“My personal assistant, Herbie.”

Herbie nodded his head in acknowledgment.

“Herbie, I will be having a private lunch with the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) after the meeting. There is a cafe that sells vegan food down the street. It’s called..erm...Greenie. Meet me at the car park at 2 pm.”

“Yes Sir.”

The lift stopped at the 11th floor and the 2 of them exited.

“Cya.”

“Alright. Cheers.”

Chris had a plan.

“Greenie for lunch. He should be there alone. It’s a good time to find out something about David through him.”

Lunch approached and Chris headed down to Greenie. Vegetarian food is never a choice for him. This is not about food now. It is just to fill him up and get him going for his true intentions.

Chris ordered his food and looked around the cafe. He saw Herbie sitting at a table by himself in the far right corner. He took his food and went to him.

“Hi Herbie? I am Chris, the guy in the lift with you in the morning. Mind if I could share the table with you?”

Herbie looked at all the tables in the cafe. Sure enough, all were taken during the lunch hour.

“Yeah.”

Chris started the conversation with Herbie about the food and weather. As Herbie opens up, Chris began to ask about his work.

“Mate, are you new to David’s company?”

“Been here for about 2 months now.”

“Just curious. Why do you choose to work here?”

“Money. Future money, I called it.”

“Your boss pays you well?”

“It’s about the same as others in the industry. David is one of the tops. I reckoned that I could learn much from the best in the business. When I am ready to venture on my own, the potential is limitless. That’s what I called ‘Future Money’.”

“Are you guys on the verge of a huge deal?”

Herbie stared at him and answered in a composed and calm manner.

“That is for us to know and you to find out in the future. Every deal is a big deal to us. We are professionals.”

“Yeah, I get it.”

Herbie had nothing negative to say about David. Each time Chris suggested any negative rumours that he had heard about David, Herbie would brush it off. Sensing that all efforts would be futile, Chris took Herbie’s name card and kept him in his network. It might be useful in the future.

They finished the lunch and Herbie went to pick up his boss. Chris knew that getting into the most intimate network of David would be difficult. He felt like this is David vs Goliath and David is Goliath. He needed a head shot at this Goliath named David but he could find none. It is back to the drawing board for Chris again. He needed new strategies to carry out his sense of justice to stop the relentless corporate greed.