"I Lost 800 Million Won" Thought KOSPI Would Fall... Individual Investor Reveals Shocking Account Balance

Investor Bets Nearly 1 Billion Won on Inverse ETF
KOSPI's Continued Rally Leads to -72% Return
"I Ignored Market Conditions, It Was My Fault"

A post by an individual investor who claimed to have lost nearly 800 million won after investing their entire fortune in a product that profits from a decline in the KOSPI stock market has drawn attention.

An individual investor bet on the KOSPI decline and suffered a loss of 800 million won, verifying their account. Screenshot from Naver Pay Securities stock discussion board

Recently, a post titled "I lost 800 million won" appeared on the Naver Pay Securities stock discussion board. The author, identified as Mr. A, stated that he expected the KOSPI to fall in the new year and purchased a total of 1,093,920,000 won worth of Samsung Asset Management's "KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X ETF."

This product is an inverse fund that bets on a stock market decline, generating profits as the underlying indices such as the KOSPI drop. It tracks twice the daily return in the opposite direction of the KOSPI200 futures index, meaning if KOSPI200 futures fall by 1% in a day, the product yields a 2% gain. While a falling index can produce significant profits, repeated sharp rises in a short period can exponentially increase losses, making it a high-risk product.

Contrary to Mr. A's expectations, the domestic stock market continued to show strong upward momentum during this period. As a result, Mr. A suffered a massive loss of about 787.62 million won. He confessed, "I bought the inverse simply for political reasons without looking at the market conditions and trends," and added, "It was my entire fortune, and I lost 800 million won."

He further explained, "I will not blame anyone else. My poor judgment is the reason," and said, "When I first lost 100 million won, I didn't have the courage to cut my losses, so I held on and ended up losing 800 million won." He added, "I plan to live out the rest of my life with the remaining 300 million won. Thank you for reading this long post."

Meanwhile, even as the KOSPI continues its upward trend, the number of individual investors betting on a market downturn is increasing. According to the Korea Exchange, individual investors have poured 300.8 billion won into the KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X and 115.5 billion won into the KODEX Inverse during the nine trading days from January 2 to January 14 this year. Both products are inverse funds that profit when the KOSPI declines. Investors appear to believe the KOSPI has reached its peak and are betting that a correction is imminent. However, the KOSPI has risen for nine consecutive trading days, surpassing the 4,700 mark for the first time in history on this day.