“I want to go back to before I started investing in stocks. Give me my money back,” one investor wrote.

by

He wasn’t investing.

‘Give me my money back’: South Korean traders’ leveraged SK Hynix, Samsung bets unravel after selloff

South Korean retail investors who piled into leveraged bets on the country’s AI champions are nursing steep losses after a sharp reversal, exposing the risks of the speculative trading boom that helped fuel one of the world’s hottest equity markets.

The pain has been especially acute for holders of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds tied to chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which had surged alongside the AI-driven semiconductor rally, and have now tumbled.

Since the launch of single-stock leveraged ETFs on May 27, Korean retail investors have purchased a net 14 trillion won ($9.4 billion) of them, compared with roughly 2 trillion won by foreign investors, according to KB Financial Group.

As of now, that isn’t working out so well for them. The KODEX SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage ETF — a product designed to deliver twice the daily move in SK Hynix shares — has fallen about 70% from its record high reached in June and is down roughly 50% from its debut, according to LSEG data.

South Korean online trading forums were full of lament, especially after SK Hynix’s record one-day plunge last week.

“I want to go back to before I started investing in stocks. Give me my money back,” one investor wrote.

“You’re determined to kill me,” another said.

The losses underscore how South Korea’s retail investing culture has amplified swings in the country’s technology heavyweights, even as analysts argue the long-term outlook for memory-chip makers remains intact.

Meanwhile: