How it feels to vaporize $276,000

This week, as we barrel into fall, we wanted to look back on one of the year’s wildest market stories — the Korean stock frenzy. Korea’s KOSPI index soared an improbable 270% from January 2025 to June 2026, a surge fuelled by highly leveraged retail traders who piled into chip stocks with borrowed money. At one point, leveraged ETFs accounted for 70% of all trading value on the KOSPI. Then the rally reversed and all that leverage sparked a 40% collapse in the index. We spoke with Seoul-based college student Dan Lee, 24 — who won and then lost nearly $276,000 in the market — about the euphoric highs and painful lows of the country-wide frenzy.

Part I – The Frenzy

So all able-bodied South Korean men have to do mandatory military service for 18 to 21 months. I was in the Air Force from 2022 to 2024, and by the time I was discharged, I had almost US$15,000 saved up. But I didn’t get into trading seriously until February 2025, when I joined an investing club at university. The popular things were short-term futures and spot trading, so that’s what I got into. I also learned about margin trading. 

In May 2025, everything accelerated when the KOSPI began soaring, thanks to the excitement around AI and chip stocks. The whole school was buzzing about it. It felt like a gold rush. 

I got swept up in the frenzy — I won’t deny it. I knew I’d probably end up with an office job like my parents, but I wanted to get rich quick, so I bought red-hot tech stocks, like SK Hynix and Samsung. 

Throughout that year, I’d wake up at 7 a.m. and plan my trades for the day. The KOSPI closes daily at 3:30 p.m., so if I had a big trade on, I’d skip class to see it through. My friends weren’t into trading as much as I was, so I would sit home alone and be glued to the markets. I felt lonely. But I wanted to make enough money to buy a house and be financially free. 

Part II – The Good Life

By the summer of 2025, I was making big money. I travelled to Hong Kong, Japan, and the U.S. Beef is expensive in Korea, and I began to eat a lot of it. I took my parents to a fancy restaurant and blew almost $1,000. I even gave them a few hundred dollars here and there, which made me proud. But they were worried that I was buying stocks with borrowed money — I was trading on 500% margin. And if the stocks dropped, they would be sold automatically to satisfy my debts. But the market was euphoric. The KOSPI finished 2025 up 76%, and it didn’t slow in early 2026.

Of course, I worried about a bubble. I researched the 2008 financial crisis to help me spot the signs of a storm brewing, and I didn’t see any. But I was inexperienced.

Part III – The Unwind

By June 2026, my initial investment had grown to CAD$276,000. That’s life-changing money. Then the market tumbled. Right away, I faced forced liquidations. And my holdings just kept shrinking. I had panic attacks. I couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t leave my house. My parents worried about me, but I wouldn’t allow them to visit. I was glued to the markets, trying to stave off my losses. But in a matter of weeks, my investments had cratered to less than $20,000. 

By mid-July, something like 1.2 million retail traders in Korea had been margin called — more than 3% of all adults. And some 360,000 got completely wiped out. So it could have been worse for me, I guess.

My desire to build up everything at once destroyed me all at once. I can see that now, and I’ve become more conservative. I’m working a part-time job to save up money. My goal is to develop both boldness and patience. When you can gain, gain big. But if you have to lose, try to lose only a little. 

Additional reporting and translation by David Lee. The interview was edited for style, length, and clarity.

Written By

Ian Frisch