Demand for protection against a South Korean stock market decline is surging: Put option open interest in the South Korea ETF, EWY, is up to ~880,000 contracts, the highest in at least 12 months. The total number of outstanding put option contracts has QUADRUPLED over the last several weeks. By comparison, call option open interest has increased +80,000 over the same period, to ~400,000 contracts, near the highest in a year. To put this into perspective, both put and call option open interest stood at ~50,000 contracts in January 2026. Meanwhile, EWY declined -14% on Friday, posting its largest daily drop since the 2020 pandemic crash. Investors are rushing to hedge against a correction in South Korea.(The Kobeissi Letter)