South Korea's Kospi has reached extreme volatility levels that investors liken
to meme-stock episodes. Retail demand has surged: the Kospi has recorded 20
trading days this year with closing moves of at least 5%, versus 2 days in all
of 2025. Samsung Electronics has had eight trading days with moves of 10% or
more this year (0 in 2025); SK Hynix has had 11 such days (2 in 2025). Heavy
retail buying of single-stock leveraged ETFs and the outsized influence of the
two mega-cap chip names are amplifying swings. Goldman estimates a 5% move in
Korean equities could trigger about $4.7bn of ETF rebalancing flows as options
dealers hedge, roughly one-eighth of a normal trading day’s turnover.
