28 trillion ETFs plus 38 trillion in margin loans, all tied to just two stocks In this Korean bull market, retail investors are the absolute driving force. Their leverage mainly comes from two sources: margin loans borrowed from brokerages and single-stock leveraged ETFs, which were approved late last year and only launched on May 27 this year. The latter is a new bombshell. The 2x daily leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung and SK Hynix saw their asset size skyrocket to 1.07 trillion KRW on the first day of trading, marking the largest in Korean history. By June 1, these two products had already attracted nearly 28 trillion KRW, with 93,000 retail investors jumping in. Now, let’s look at margin loans—on June 23, they hit a record high of 38.48 trillion KRW. Combined, the leverage exposure of Korean retail investors in the stock market reached about 60 trillion KRW, or roughly $40 billion, by the end of May. If China were to open up leveraged ETFs, the appetite for risk would definitely rival Korea’s.