The frenzy of South Korean retail investor Hynix leveraged ETF has ended, with trading volume evaporating by 90% The 7 SK Hynix leveraged ETFs counted by Bloomberg had a total daily trading volume of nearly 800 million shares at the end of July, but quickly fell below 100 million shares after entering August, shrinking by nearly 90% compared to the high point. The most direct reason is that South Korean regulators have raised the minimum cash margin requirements for such products since July 31st. Previously, many retail investors were able to repeatedly participate in single stock leveraged ETFs with lower funding thresholds. When Hynix rose, trading volume increased. Now, with increased margin and stock price drawdown, the most aggressive group of leveraged funds were quickly forced to close out. The scale of forced liquidation of Korean retail accounts due to insufficient margin in June was close to KRW 1 trillion, and in July it was close to KRW 1 trillion, making it the two most severe months of forced liquidation this year. As of August 4th, the financing balance in the South Korean market has dropped to 27.4 trillion Korean won, the lowest level of the year. Morgan Stanley currently judges that more than half of this round of deleveraging may have been completed. Judging from the trading volume of the Hynix Leveraged ETF, this judgment is not exaggerated. At the craziest time before, a large number of retail investors were using leverage to chase after Hynix. Now, this part of the trading has clearly disappeared, and the pressure of a series of strong balances will continue to be much lower than in June and July. But the funding situation in the Korean market has not really improved yet. Foreign investors sold approximately $30 billion worth of Korean stocks in June, continued to sell about $6.2 billion in July, and have sold about $4.3 billion since August. Although individual investors have quickly reduced their leverage, foreign investment has not returned, so the market is now facing a shift from excessive leverage to insufficient incremental buying. The same applies to Hynix. In the early stage, AI, HBM, foreign investment, and leverage of Korean retail investors simultaneously drove stock prices. Recently, the retail investor side has significantly cooled down, and foreign investment continues to sell. It is still necessary to pay attention to whether new funds will re-enter the Korean market. If not, then I will continue to maintain the pattern of SK falling short ADR. @Gate Crypto、 US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, South Korean stocks, gold CFD、 Predicting one-stop trading in the market