South Korea will require new investors in single-stock leveraged exchange-traded
funds to complete a simulated trading exercise, the Financial Services
Commission said. New investors must complete at least five days of simulated
trading totaling no less than five hours; the rule applies to domestic and
overseas investors and takes effect August 19. The step is the latest tightening
after a market crash that caused investor losses of tens of billions of dollars
and follows criticism that leveraged products linked to Samsung Electronics and
SK Hynix amplified KOSPI volatility. Regulators had earlier raised minimum cash
margin for such trades to KRW30m (about $21k) and extended mandatory online
training for new investors to three hours.
