Korean stock investors are completely crazy in order to trade stocks... The one that carries their dreams recently is Tesla . Don’t think this is just a joke. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean retail investors bought $15 billion in Tesla stocks and became Tesla’s seventh largest shareholder. The one ahead of them is Wall Street . The shareholding ratio reaches 1.6%.
Korean retail investors are obsessed with stock trading, which can be described as crazy. In related reports from Bloomberg and other media, you can see various Korean who sell houses and stocks, borrow money to trade stocks:
Park Sung-hyun, a retail investor who sells his house in Seoul, rents a house for living, and exchanges the remaining $230,000 in savings for Tesla stocks.
A white-collar worker in Seoul raised 200 million won (equivalent to more than 1 million yuan) to trade stocks by borrowing and mortgageing the apartment under his name. "I don't think borrowing money to trade stocks is a risk, it is an opportunity to make a lot of money."
What exactly happened to Korean retail investors? Why do they dare to bet on everything All IN Stock Market This "casino"?
Regarding this question, bad reviews and contacted a Korean friend, and he gave me some interesting answers. Simply put, Koreans are gradually accumulating their crazyness towards the stock market. The direct reasons are mainly two points: high housing prices and unique savings concepts. First of all, the high housing prices. Although Koreans are so crazy about stock trading nowadays, in fact, the proportion of financial assets such as stocks has always been very low in the composition of Korean household assets. They hope to invest their money in real estate.
Korean friend told the bad reviewer that when it comes to houses, Koreans have a lot of desire and especially prefer "apartment". This thing is not the same as our apartment. I checked the information and felt that it was closer to our flat-story residence.
Because "apartment" has a very strong investment value in addition to its living value, it is easy to estimate and is easy to buy and sell. The price has been rising rapidly over time. Even if you do nothing, the money will make money by yourself.
Interior of the apartment ▼
But with the soaring of real estate prices in the past decade, such investment has become something that ordinary people cannot afford. In his words, in South Korea, if you want to buy an "apartment", ordinary people have to save money until they are 40 years old, but they may not be able to buy it. Many people rent a house for a long time or live with their parents. In October 2021, the average purchase and sale price of apartments in Seoul exceeded 1.2 billion won, equivalent to more than 6.1 million yuan. ↓ ↓
What should I do if I can’t invest in real estate? Your money always has to go to, at least outperform inflation, right? "It is a stupid act to deposit the bank to earn interest, because the interest rate is too low." This Korean friend, like many people around him, chose to "deposit" the money into the stock market, "Our family uses stocks to save, and will invest more in the future."
He told the bad reviewer that in South Korea, stocks have two meanings, one is "speculative behavior" and the other is "long-term savings". Wait, stocks are obviously a high-risk investment behavior, so why does it become a "saving" behavior? He explained that stocks can raise funds to help the company develop, and as the company continues to grow and become stronger, investors can also make profits through stocks. Therefore, the concept of stocks as a "long-term savings" is quite widespread in South Korea and often appears on TV.
There is also a culture in Korea: "For example, I used Samsung products today, and I think it's not bad, so I will buy some Samsung stocks, which is an extremely ordinary behavior in Korea."
are either speculative psychology or cultural concepts emphasized by this Korean friend. Driven by various elements, the number of Korean investors has been steadily increasing.However, after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the South Korean stock market, which had been fluctuating narrowly, plummeted sharply. During February and March 2020, the largest drop in the South Korean comprehensive index exceeded 36%, and it plummeted by 8% in a single day ↓ ↓
However... Just as foreign investors sold high-quality stocks in South Korea, Koreans were more actively flocking into the stock market and began to buy more stocks to prevent the decline. First of all, some Koreans are longing for stocks with the concept of "long-term savings". Once the stock falls, Korean companies and retail investors will suffer great losses.
Secondly, many retail investors firmly believe that once the epidemic is controlled, the market will gradually recover. Now buy stocks at a low point, and you can make a big profit after the market recovers.
This investment campaign is called "Donghak Ants Uprising", which can be simply translated as "Donghak Ants Movement". In fact, "Ant Investors" (Ant Investors) is a name for Korean retail investors.
The term "Dongxue" comes from the "Dongxue Peasant Movement" that broke out in 1894 in South Korea. It is a patriotic movement for ordinary Korean people to fight against foreign aggression.
It is subtle that in order to save the market, South Korea introduced a series of emergency measures in late March 2020, including a temporary ban on short selling of stock . As soon as the "short ban" was launched, the South Korean stock market stomped a major reversal. As of May last year, the South Korean comprehensive index rose by 123.38% from the lowest point in March 2020, becoming the world's best stock market.
During this period, All In's "Ants" had really made money. They promoted the wealth brought by stock trading through social platforms, which made those who only relied on savings to earn interest in the future. As a result, everyone should be able to imagine... Driven by various factors, this year, the active Korean stock account exceeded 60 million for the first time, 8 million more than the total population. The transactions of "Ants" can even account for 60% of the daily trading volume of the South Korean stock market, becoming the dominant force in the South Korean stock market.
No matter how small an individual is, it will cause great storms when he is hugged together. What's more, they have the same goal: hope that the stock market will continue to rise and allow them to make more money. To this end, they united and did a lot of "crazy" things...
In January 2021, Wall Street short institutions and American retail investors started a long and short showdown around a game product retailer "GameStop". Retail investors have crazily bought GameStop stocks and raised the company's stock price in front of Wall Street, which has made Wall Street short-selling institutions lose more than $5 billion.
This campaign to boycott short selling institutions has inspired Korean retail investors who have tasted the sweetness from the "short ban order". At this time, the limitation period for the "air ban" will end in 2 months, and they hope to trigger a "battle" similar to resistance to short selling in South Korea to continue the limitation period. The battle was named K-streetbets.
They got a bus and said, "I hate short selling !". And let the bus travel between Gwanghwa Gate (a square where protests are often held) and Yeouido (a large park), through the stock exchange, financial regulators and the National Assembly.
Before the National Assembly, a car operated by them that was advertised against short selling passed by. ▼
also signed a petition on the Korean forum naver, demanding that the government permanently ban short selling of stocks. What's more ruthless is that "Ants" will also invest real money to defend the companies that are shorted. They flocked to companies that were previously shorted on a large scale, such as Biopharma Celltrion, causing its stock to rise 14.51% on February 1.
htmlOn December 3, under pressure from retail investors to join forces, the Financial Committee decided to extend the "short ban" again until May 2.
They also took advantage of the Russian-Ukrainian war, to buy the bottom Russian EFT... In February this year, the Russian stock market was affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the adventure-loving "ants" saw opportunities in danger. They believe that the Russian stock market, which is mainly energy stocks, may rebound in the future due to the soaring crude oil prices, so they started to buy the only Russian ETF in South Korea from the end of the month, "KINDEX Russian MSCI", which bought a total of 28 billion won, equivalent to about 143 million yuan in RMB.
Later, they targeted Tesla. That's right, Tesla is just another "excellent" opportunity for wealth freedom that "Ants" have been searching for, because in the past few years, Tesla's stock price has risen by more than 1,900% in total ↓ ↓
ALL IN Tesla people have become almost "cult" about Tesla. They also call themselves teslams. This word is a combination of Tesla (Tesla) and islam (Islam). They use it to show their confidence in Tesla.
Koreans love to bet on high-risk "bets". In addition to stocks, there are also cryptocurrencies. In 2018, they sold cryptocurrencies to "Kimchi Premium".
Later chased the LUNA currency, which once pushed the LUNA currency price to $120.
It's a pity that although Koreans love speculation so much, the results waiting for them are often not very good. The Korean Ilbo reported that among the top 10 stocks in net buying, 5 stocks were in a loss state.
also joked that the only ones who made the final profit in this "patriotic war" were the South Korean exchanges and the South Korean government. After all, the soaring securities trading tax from 2020 to 2021 have generated a wave of revenue for finance.
The Korean LUNA cryptocurrency, which is popular among Koreans, also suddenly collapsed this year. The original $40 billion project finally fell to nearly 0, affecting tens of thousands of Koreans. Some people speculated on coins until their families broke down, and they simply jumped down from Mapo Bridge to end their lives. The statue of "Boiling Again" on the bridge ▼
Today's South Korea is not just about stock trading, but loves all speculation and regards these high-risk speculation as the only way to achieve financial freedom. They sell houses and speculate in coins, they take loans and stocks, and they almost bet on everything in their lives to "change their fate". Win the winner in life, lose and jump into the river to commit suicide.
It is natural for human beings to get rich and get rich, and it is understandable, but many people should have also heard of "the way to live with money and wealth, and the way to live with poor and poor". Why do Koreans use their life so extreme to gambling in the stock market and currency market? Just using my desire to succeed and hope to get rich, I couldn't seem to be able to explain it completely, so I threw this problem to my Korean friend again.
He told the bad reviewer that in 1910, South Korea was forced to become a colony of Japan and did not succeed in independence until 1948. The surrounding countries were very strong, and the Koreans felt a great sense of crisis. During this period, most Koreans gave birth to many children, relying on population welfare, infrastructure construction, and desperate internal friction in exchange for rapid economic development.
This generation is a "tragic" generation. Because of poor economic conditions and many brothers and sisters in the family, they cannot live a good life and have nothing to do. When life is a little better, they get married again. They have to contribute and sacrifice for their family and suppress themselves all their lives. Therefore, they have very strict requirements for their children and are particularly competitive. They hope that their children must succeed, work hard, and live better than others.
(Well, it's " chicken kid "...) These children are almost 40 or 50 years old now. They also pass on this desire to the next generation. At the same time, the Internet has given this generation a broader horizon, not only cultural but also material, so "everyone has a 'best disease'".
Of course, the above is purely the personal opinion of this Korean friend, but I think this can provide you with a side angle to look at Korea. This Korean friend once spent two years in China. He said, "I saw that even the aunt who swept the floor had a smile on her face in China. I envy you for having such "freedom".
. Now, South Korea, which is high in debt, high unemployment rate, and is full of large enterprises, has no way to bear these "best diseases". There is only the high pressure that is constantly applied to every young person.
Click to view the larger picture ▼
Today, South Korea is a South Korea with a huge gap between the rich and the poor. 2015 In 2018, the "Korean Rich and Poor Report" specially planned by Seoul Newspaper was released. This book caused a great sensation. The author interviewed the daily lives of the top 1% of the rich and the poorest people in South Korea.
In this book, it revealed the fact that the richest group of people had a monthly tutoring fee of up to 16 million won (equivalent to more than 80,000 yuan), which is not the most exaggerated one; while the poorest group of people spent 0 yuan on their children's lifelong tutoring costs, and some people 10 yuan I only started to learn Korean at the age of time.
Send my children to three famous schools, which is very important for Koreans. Whether I can go to three famous schools almost determines their second half of my life, so private tutoring in South Korea is very special. But in fact, the moment the children sit in the classroom, they are already standing on different starting lines.
The authors later said in an interview that "If this gap between the rich and the poor is passed on to the next generation, there is no more unfair and desperate world than this."
At the same time, such a gap between the rich and the poor is difficult to break, and today, there is a saying that is popular in South Korea: " The status, assets and income of parents determine the success or failure of their children." The report of the South Korean National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2017, 61.6% of young people (under 30 years old) believed that the possibility of class growth was very small. They believed that the class was inherited along with their parents' wealth.
For ordinary young people, an "invisible wall" is already standing in front of them. Appropriate pressure can help people improve, but if conventional struggles are no longer able to break through, the result of most people's hard work throughout their lives is likely to be poor. What should they do in the face of huge social pressure? Is it lying flat? Is it despair? Or do you choose to trade stocks and coins, and bet on your own money and fantasize that a fortune will come to you?
His current goal is to buy a Tesla. If he can make enough money, he hopes to buy a house.
Source: Bad review
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