'I lost $14,000 in a month': Investors hit by Korean stock market's wild swings
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Kospi index more than doubled from the start of 2025 to peak above 9,000 points in mid-June, then plunged to 5,500 within weeks before partially recovering to about 6,800 — a drop BNY's Wee Khoon Chong called 'one of the sharpest corrections' comparable to Covid-19 and the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
- Margin calls hit an estimated 1.2 million South Korean personal investor accounts by the end of July — roughly 1 in every 30 working-age adults — driven by leveraged bets on AI-related tech stocks, per source figures.
- Yongjoon Kim, a bank worker, lost 20 million won (~$14,000) in July on tech investments that slumped ~25%, money earmarked for a home ahead of his wedding; his fiancée Gaeon Lee said watching their home savings take a hit was 'a wake-up call.'
- Chanyong Park watched his Nvidia shares soar more than 1,000%, then pivoted profits into SK Hynix — a bet that cost him ~$10,000 and put his October plans to launch his own business in doubt.
- College student Soomin Yi pooled money with a friend on SK Hynix after 'fomo,' saying they 'did not study investing seriously' and now wish they had sold at the June peak of 3 million won per share rather than chasing a speculated rise to 5 million won.
- Societe Generale's Frank Benzimra flagged Japan's Nikkei 225 as moving in tandem with the Kospi's swings, while noting broader diversified markets like the Topix or US equities are unlikely to see comparable volatility.
Why it matters: Roughly one in 30 working-age South Korean adults now sits on a margin call tied to leveraged tech bets, extending the damage from institutional portfolio losses into household savings meant for homes, weddings, and small businesses. Societe Generale said Japan's Nikkei 225 is already moving in lockstep with the Kospi, suggesting the volatility is spreading across other AI-heavy Asian indexes even as diversified markets hold steadier.
Ask SkimNews
