"Even Missed the Cut-off Point to Cut Losses"... Retail Investors Turn Pale in 'Panic'

[Anchor]

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

Reported by Hong Yeongjae.

[Reporter]

Gazing at their accounts stained blue, individual investors let out sighs.

[Kwon Hyun-min / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: I have Samsung Electronics and SK Square. They dropped a lot this morning (the 15th). I woke up at 8 o'clock and watched from 8. My heart sank 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 over the fact that prices plummeted so fast they even missed the timing to cut their losses.

[Choi Su-jung / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: Jensen Huang even visited, and I made my choice after seeing that. People kept talking about semiconductors, semiconductors. I'm not planning to cut my losses. (Because the drop is too big?) Yes, it's big. That's also a big reason. I just can't cut my losses.]

The sudden plunge is all the more baffling because volatility had been decreasing following regulations on single-stock leverage ETFs.

The KOSPI 200 Volatility Index, often called the "Korean-style fear index," recorded its third-largest surge ever, closing at its highest level in a month and a half.

[Individual Investor: My mother invested in Hynix and got completely ruined. She originally traded 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 eventually makes a profit.]

The damage is also mounting for retail investors who traded on borrowed money.

The scale of forced liquidation—where securities firms forcibly sell off stocks held by investors who fail to repay borrowed funds—surpassed 89.3 billion won yesterday (the 14th), marking the highest level in about two months. It is estimated that an even larger amount came out today.

Online communities have been flooded with reactions saying people 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 treasury stock buybacks, and the National Pension Service reportedly lacking the capacity for additional purchases due to the suspension of its first-half rebalancing, anxiety that the bottom is nowhere in sight is spreading among investors.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News / Video reporting: Choi Ho-jun, Video editing: Jeon Min-gyu, Design: Park Cheon-woong)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.