They are in fact gambling it. Betting on margin like it's 1928. These are not investments, this is a casino.

Hard to believe that when trillions of dollars has been wiped out. Average Korean retail equity investors have been trading with leverage that would make WSB blush.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EKS11/ (1YR chart)

South Korea's KOSPI closes at 6-month low as chipmakers slump on AI worries - https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-kosp... - October 14th, 2026

South Korean investors suffer US$1.7B losses from leveraged ETFs - https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capital-m... - October 7th, 2026

Chaos in Korea's market is sending shockwaves through US chip stocks - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075817 - October 2026

South Korean leveraged ETF trading plummets under new curbs - https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capital-m... - August 4th, 2026

Crazy Rich Returns Lure Cabbies and Even Kids to Red-Hot Asian Markets - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48682095 - July 2026

> Na Se-bin has lost all sense of the value of money. Since January, she has poured nearly all her life savings, roughly $47,000, into the stock market, lured by a global AI boom enriching tech powerhouses in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Riding wild market swings, the 24-year-old South Korean software developer said she has won and lost the equivalent of a month’s salary in the span of a second. Despite the risk, she can’t resist—not after seeing some of her holdings double in price. Over the past 18 months, South Korea has been the world’s top-performing stock market, and Na and her co-workers joke they should sell their underwear to buy more shares. “Even friends who have never touched stocks are getting into it,” Na said. “Everyone’s doing something.”