[News Culture] South Korea’s stock market boom came to an abrupt and punishing end in the first half of 2026, leaving a trail of heavy losses among retail investors.
The KOSPI surged past 9,000 before tumbling to around 6,000 in just two months. Leveraged products that had attracted investors with the promise of amplified returns lost as much as 80 percent, hitting those in their 20s and 30s particularly hard.
A Rush Into Double-Leverage Products Ends in Heavy Losses
Single-stock products offering twice the daily return of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix became an instant market sensation following their launch in May.
Trading value reached approximately 28 trillion won in just three days, driven by investors seeking outsized gains with limited capital. The products quickly emerged as a symbol of the speculative fervor sweeping through the market.
The mood shifted sharply once stock prices began to fall.
As the KOSPI entered a steep correction, the products dropped by more than 60 percent on average, with some losing close to 80 percent. Their daily reset structure meant that repeated market swings continued to eat away at investors’ principal, making recovery increasingly difficult even when the underlying shares rebounded.
Market safeguards, including sidecars and circuit breakers, were triggered more than 30 times during the same period. The extreme volatility dealt a particularly severe blow to retail investors focused on short-term trades.
Regulators eventually acknowledged that speculative demand had overheated and that investor protections had failed to keep pace. By then, however, the damage had already spread throughout the market.
Young Investors Turn to Debt as the Wealth Gap Widens
Investors in their 20s and 30s emerged as the most vulnerable group in the sell-off.
With many believing that wages alone could no longer provide a realistic path to homeownership or financial security, younger investors increasingly turned to high-risk products. Some lost hundreds of millions of won after investing money saved for marriage, while others borrowed through student loans and credit-card loans to stay in the market.
Social media and online communities intensified the pressure.
Posts showcasing rapid profits created a fear of missing out, encouraging inexperienced investors to take positions without fully understanding the risks. Many college students relied heavily on YouTube and social media for financial information, leaving them exposed to exaggerated claims and unverified advice.
Illegal stock-tip groups and unlicensed advisers moved quickly to exploit that anxiety.
One group charged members an annual fee of 5.8 million won while telling them to “sell everything but their underwear and buy leverage.” Such operators collected large membership fees and pushed subscribers toward highly volatile products, often without providing adequate risk warnings.
In some cases, disputes between investors and group operators escalated beyond financial conflict and led to criminal incidents.
Experts say the losses reflect a deeper failure in financial education. Many investors entered the market without understanding the mechanics of leveraged products, including the way repeated price swings can steadily erode returns.
The combination of desperation for quick gains, easy access to debt and an information gap between investors and advisers turned a market correction into a broader social crisis.
MBC’s PD Note examines the forces behind the collapse in its episode “Buying Risk: Leverage and Young Investors,” tracing how speculative products, online investment culture and regulatory blind spots placed a generation’s savings at risk.
The episode airs Aug. 4 at 10:20 p.m.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
Copyright ⓒ 뉴스컬처 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지
본 콘텐츠는 뉴스픽 파트너스에서 공유된 콘텐츠입니다.
