Korean retail investors are shifting their leveraged bets after the single-stock leverage rules tightened.
From July 31 to August 19, trading in the top 50 overseas stocks by Korean investors totaled $19.01 billion.
Three-times leveraged ETFs accounted for $7.75 billion, or 40.8% of that volume. Two-times leveraged products made up only 4.3%.
Before the regulation took effect, the 3x share was 36.6%, and the 2x share was 7.4%. After the rules, the 2x share fell while the 3x share rose.
The regulation hit single-stock 2x products, including those tied to SK Hynix $SKHY , Tesla $TSLA , Micron $MU and SanDisk $SNDK . Those products dropped sharply in the trading rankings.
Demand moved to products outside the new rules.
The biggest destination is SOXL, the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF.
Korean investors traded $6.54 billion of it in the period, more than the combined volume of the next nine names. Its share of top-50 trading climbed from 30.6% to 34.4%.
The data shows leveraged appetite did not disappear. It simply rotated into higher-multiple semiconductor index products that remained accessible.
How sustainable do you see this concentration in 3x semiconductor ETFs once volatility rises again?