"Even Missed the Timing to Cut Losses"... Retail Investors Turn Pale in Panic

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As the KOSPI has plummeted by more than 20% since last week, individual investors are letting out deep sighs. The fear index, which measures volatility in the stock market, has surged. With no way of knowing where the bottom is, investors are gripped by anxiety.

Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the story.

[Reporter]

Looking at their accounts dyed in blue, retail investors let out sighs.

[Kwon Hyun-min / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: I have Samsung Electronics and SK Square. They dropped a lot this morning. I woke up at 8 and started watching from 8. My heart felt choked up and I felt terrible.]

Since the 6th, the drop in the KOSPI has reached 21%. In particular, market capitalization leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plunged by 24% and 31%, respectively.

Investors are agonizing, saying the drop happened so fast that they even missed the timing to cut their losses.

[Choi Su-jung / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: Jensen Huang came, and I made my choice seeing that. Everyone kept talking about semiconductors. I am not going to cut my losses. (Because the drop is too big?) It is big. That is also huge. I just cannot cut my losses.]

With volatility having subsided following regulations on single-stock leverage ETFs, the sudden crash has left investors even more bewildered.

The KOSPI 200 Volatility Index, also known as the "Korean-style fear index," recorded the third-highest surge in history, closing at its highest level in a month and a half.

[Individual Investor: My mother invested in Hynix and was completely ruined. She used to do Bitcoin, but she said, 'Taking all that out and putting it into stocks turned out even worse.' I guess she won't be able to withdraw until she averages down and makes a profit someday.]

The damage to retail investors who bought stocks on borrowed money is also growing.

Forced liquidations, where securities firms forcibly dispose of held stocks because borrowed funds cannot be repaid, exceeded 89.3 billion won yesterday (the 14th), marking the highest level in about two months. It is estimated that even more came out today.

Online reactions poured in, with people saying they have lost the will to work or that keeping money in savings accounts is much more comforting.

With Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix finishing their share buybacks, and the National Pension Service reportedly lacking the capacity for additional purchases due to the suspension of first-half rebalancing, anxiety is spreading among investors that the bottom is nowhere in sight.

(Photo courtesy of Choi Ho-jun | Video by Jeon Mingyu | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.