韩国政府提高国内单只股票杠杆产品的投资门槛后，大量韩国投资者转向美国杠杆ETF市场。[1]最小保证金要求从1000万韩元提高到3000万韩元，人均投资限额设定为20%，相关措施自7月29日起实施。[1]
这一政策调整对市场流向产生了显著影响。从7月16日至8月3日，美国半导体类3倍杠杆ETF产品SOXL成为韩国投资者购买最多的美股，购买交易量达463.617亿美元，超过第二名Micron Technology的9倍以上。[1]同期，三只主要杠杆ETF（SOXL、KORU、TSLL）的合计购买量为51.744亿美元，相比前13个交易日增加超10亿美元。[1]7月31日新保证金要求首日实施后，SOXL和KORU的交易值合占该日前十大购买产品总交易值的80.2%。[1]
与此同时，国内单只股票杠杆产品的交易量大幅萎缩。[1]7月30日国内16只单只股票杠杆产品的个人和外资交易量分别为5.5431万亿韩元和4.8588万亿韩元，[1]7月31日后下降至4237亿韩元和1.0164万亿韩元，[1]8月4日进一步下跌至3092亿韩元和488亿韩元。[1]
South Korean retail investors have dramatically shifted their trading activity toward leveraged US exchange-traded funds following government-imposed restrictions on domestic single-stock leverage products. The minimum margin requirement for domestic leverage products was raised from 10 million Korean won to 30 million Korean won, while a per-capita investment cap of 20 percent took effect on July 29.[1]
Between July 16 and August 3, the semiconductor-focused 3x leveraged ETF SOXL emerged as the most-purchased US stock among Korean investors, with buy transaction volumes reaching $4.636 billion—more than nine times higher than Micron Technology, the second most-purchased stock.[1] Three major leveraged ETFs (SOXL, KORU, and TSLL) combined to record $5.174 billion in purchases, representing an increase of over $1 billion compared to the previous 13 trading days.[1] On July 31, the first day the new margin requirements took effect, SOXL and KORU transactions alone accounted for 80.2 percent of the top ten purchased products' total trading value that day.[1]
Meanwhile, trading activity in domestic single-stock leverage products collapsed sharply. Personal and foreign investor transaction volumes in 16 domestic leverage products fell from 5.543 trillion and 4.859 trillion Korean won respectively on July 30 to 423.7 billion and 1.016 trillion Korean won after July 31, then declined further to 309.2 billion and 48.8 billion Korean won by August 4.[1]