Business & Finance
Return of High-Risk Bets That Burned Traders Adds to Korea Woes
Key Points
Return of High-Risk Bets That Burned Traders Adds to Korea Woes South Korea’s deep-pocketed retail investors are flocking to a leveraged instrument that has inflicted severe losses in the past, adding to concerns about abrupt unwinding of wagers as the stock market gyrates. While banned for retail access in the US, the Asian country has allowed those with enough account balance to trade so-called contracts-for-difference. Holdings in the products, which give investors exposure to the...
Return of High-Risk Bets That Burned Traders Adds to Korea Woes
South Korea’s deep-pocketed retail investors are flocking to a leveraged instrument that has inflicted severe losses in the past, adding to concerns about abrupt unwinding of wagers as the stock market gyrates.
While banned for retail access in the US, the Asian country has allowed those with enough account balance to trade so-called contracts-for-difference. Holdings in the products, which give investors exposure to the underlying asset without taking ownership, have jumped almost two-thirds in the past year to around 3.3 trillion won ($2.2 billion) as of Monday, according to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.