3000万韩元门槛生效，韩国散户开始放弃杠杆ETF转买美股正股

Odaily News: After South Korean financial regulators raised the investment threshold for single-stock leveraged products, Korean retail investors ("Seohak ants") have begun adjusting their overseas portfolios, reducing holdings in high-leverage products and shifting toward directly buying U.S. stocks.

According to data from the Korea Securities Depository on the 5th, since the minimum cash margin for single-stock leveraged products was raised to 30 million KRW on August 1, Tesla 2x leveraged product TSLL has seen notable capital outflows. Korean investors still net purchased approximately $14.58 million of TSLL on the 3rd, but purchases plummeted to $1.56 million on the 4th, while sell-offs rose to $8.68 million, turning into a net sell of $7.11 million that day.

By comparison, enthusiasm for buying Tesla's underlying stock has visibly strengthened. Korean investors net purchased approximately $42.3 million of Tesla shares from the 3rd to the 4th, exceeding the net purchase scale of TSLL during the same period by more than fivefold.

A similar trend has emerged in semiconductor stocks. Korean investors have been selling leveraged products tied to Micron and SanDisk while pivoting to purchasing the underlying shares. Specifically, Micron's 2x leveraged product swung from a net purchase of $10.81 million on the 3rd to a net sell of $15.98 million on the 4th; SanDisk's two 2x leveraged products also flipped from net purchases of $17.74 million to net sells of $33.74 million. During the same period, Micron and SanDisk underlying stocks saw net inflows of approximately $148 million and $145 million, respectively.

South Korean financial regulators previously announced that, starting July 31, the minimum margin requirement for domestic and overseas single-stock leveraged products would be raised from 10 million KRW (including collateral securities) to 30 million KRW in cash only. Existing investors must also meet the new standard when making additional purchases.

The new rules allow investors to sell existing leveraged products, but if cash margin is insufficient, they cannot continue making additional purchases. Regulators stated that implementing the policy early is intended to reduce market risks and prevent funds from shifting to overseas single-stock leveraged products like Tesla and Nvidia if only Korean leveraged products were restricted.

South Korean regulators believe single-stock leveraged products carry risks of capital concentration and structural risks where daily return resets lead to loss accumulation. Regardless of listing location, the underlying risk is identical.

However, some investors oppose this, arguing that volatility issues in the Korean stock market should not spill over to overseas investment products. They point out that Korean investors bearing an additional 30 million KRW cash threshold may weaken their competitive position relative to global investors.

Currently, leveraged ETFs tracking multi-stock indices such as SOXL and KORU are not subject to this restriction, as regulators consider their investment targets to be diversified indices with higher risk dispersion than single-stock leveraged products. (Daum)