‘Kospi Has 6,000 More to Go’: Investors Bet $233 Million on Leveraged ETFs

Money pours into products targeting double returns as Kospi and Kosdaq rise

Korean retail investors snap up U.S. tech stocks; net purchases of U.S. shares reach $5.42 billion

More than $231 million flowed into leveraged exchange-traded funds betting on further gains in South Korea’s stock indexes after the Kospi broke above 6,000. As the domestic market swung sharply, Korean retail investors also piled into U.S. technology stocks and leveraged Nasdaq products.

According to Koscom ETF Check and the Korea Securities Depository, $126 million flowed into KODEX KOSDAQ150 Leverage from Oct. 23 to Oct. 29. That was the third-largest inflow among all ETFs.

Another $107 million went into KODEX Leverage, which tracks twice the daily return of the Kospi 200 index. Combined inflows into the two products reached $233 million.

Investors appeared to turn to leveraged products in anticipation of further gains after the Kospi rose for two straight sessions on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28 to close at 6,012.44. Leveraged ETFs magnify gains when the underlying index rises, but they can also roughly double losses when markets fall.

The move was not limited to aggressive bets. Funds also flowed into defensive and cash-like products as volatility intensified enough to trigger sidecars three times over the past week in the stock market.

KODEX Money Market Active, which invests in short-term financial instruments, drew $528 million, the biggest inflow of any fund. TIGER Dividend Covered Call Active, which combines dividend strategies with option-selling, attracted $172 million. That suggests money betting on further gains and money positioning for volatility moved at the same time.

Korean retail investors favored U.S. technology stocks. Their most-purchased U.S. stock on a net basis over the past week was SpaceX, with net buying totaling $221.83 million.

Buying concentrated in SpaceX after the company posted its first quarterly profit since listing and speculation emerged over a possible merger with Tesla. Expectations that SpaceX could also benefit ahead of the Nasdaq listing of artificial intelligence company Anthropic also appeared to support demand.

Bloomberg reported on Oct. 29, citing people familiar with the matter, that Anthropic accounted for about one-third of SpaceX’s third-quarter revenue as the company’s single largest customer.

Korean investors bought $83.36 million of Alphabet on a net basis, ranking it third, and were net buyers of Micron by $74.68 million. They also bought leveraged ETFs tied to the Nasdaq, not just individual technology names.

Net purchases of QLD, which tracks twice the daily return of the Nasdaq 100, reached $86.41 million, ranking second. Net buying of TQQQ, which tracks three times the return of the same index, came to $80.44 million, placing fourth.

Overall flows into U.S. equities also surged. From Oct. 1 through Oct. 29, Korean investors were net buyers of $5.42268 billion of U.S. stocks. That was 5.4 times the previous month and the largest amount since November 2025.

With volatility rising in South Korea’s stock market and a stronger won lowering the won-denominated cost of U.S. shares, investors appeared to be turning back to the U.S. market.

Cash waiting on the sidelines changed little. Investor deposits edged up to 88.7233 trillion won on Oct. 29 from 88.6842 trillion won on Oct. 22. Margin loan balances fell to 29.0886 trillion won from 30.3633 trillion won over the same period.

Lee Song-ryeol, Hankyung.com reporter yisr0203@hankyung.com