South Korean retail investors' leverage remains high - CFD balances close to historical highs We have been talking about financing accounts and leveraged ETFs in the Korean stock market, and now CFD data can also show the leverage level of Korean investors. According to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association, the outstanding balance of Korean CFD has increased by approximately 1.3 trillion Korean won, or nearly 65%, in the past year. Currently, it has reached approximately 3.3 trillion Korean won, equivalent to 2.2 billion US dollars, which is near a historical high. CFD can be understood as another type of stock leverage tool. Investors do not need to actually hold stocks, they only need to provide about 40% margin to obtain complete stock exposure, with a maximum leverage of 2.5 times. When prices rise, CFD can amplify returns. Once the stock price falls, insufficient margin will trigger a call for protection. If investors do not continue to pay, their positions will be directly liquidated, just like cryptocurrency contracts. This round of CFD funds is also focused on the most popular AI semiconductor stocks in South Korea. SK Hynix's CFD exposure increased by approximately 25 times to $158.6 million, and Samsung Electronics' CFD balance also increased by approximately 5 times to $146.4 million. The demand for HBM is increasing, storage prices are rising, and the profit expectations of Hynix and Samsung continue to strengthen. The stronger the fundamentals, the more willing retail investors are to use leverage to expand their positions. As mentioned earlier, over 1.2 million leveraged accounts in South Korea have received margin call notifications this year, of which approximately 320000 to 360000 accounts have been directly liquidated by securities firms. The risk of CFD will continue to be transmitted to the spot market, as banks and securities firms usually need to hold or trade corresponding stocks in order to hedge their clients' CFD positions. After the customer is forcibly liquidated, the bank also needs to sell the corresponding spot position to release the hedge. The stock price fell, investors' margin was insufficient, triggering a strong flat. Banks sold stocks such as Hynix and Samsung, and spot sales continued to cause the stock price to fall. The final outcome is still a mechanical deleveraging process. South Korea has suspended the listing of new single stock leveraged ETFs, indicating that regulators are also concerned about the impact of individual investor leverage on market stability. However, suspending new products will not automatically eliminate existing financing accounts, leveraged ETFs, and CFD positions, as there is still a large amount of funds in the Korean market that need to be passively adjusted in volatility. These positions are mainly concentrated in index weighted stocks such as Hynix and Samsung. As long as the stock price fluctuates sufficiently, it may further amplify the rise and fall of the index through hedging and closing mechanisms. So looking at Korean semiconductors now, AI demand, chip exports, HBM orders, and storage prices are certainly important, but the leverage structure in the market is still the most important, at least for now. @Gate Crypto、 US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, South Korean stocks, gold CFD、 Predicting one-stop trading in the market