Domestic individual investors who have invested in U.S. stocks, known as Seohakgam-i, are increasingly sighing. This is because the U.S. stock market is significantly volatile due to the controversy over the overvaluation of U.S. stocks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) along with the trade disputes originating from Trump.
One of the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that Seohakgam-i heavily invests in, the "Direxion Daily Tesla 2x ETF," has shown account revenue exceeding -30%, while the recent loss rates of other ETF items reached between 20% and 50%.
According to the Korea Securities Depository and others on the 9th, the total net purchase amount of the top 20 U.S. stocks that domestic investors bought the most from the 5th of last month to the 4th of this month reached $3.12 billion (approximately 4.5 trillion won).
However, an analysis of the average revenue of accounts (customers) for these 20 stocks over the month found that half of them, or 10 stocks, recorded negative (-) revenue. This analysis utilized data from individual customers of a large securities company in Korea.
The stock with the largest loss was another leveraged ETF, the "2x Ethereum ETF," which showed an average account revenue of -47.88%. Additionally, the top net buyer, the Direxion Daily Tesla 2x ETF, recorded an average revenue of -30.69% in won.
In addition, the "Grayscale 2x Coin ETF" (-39.95%), "YieldMax Coin Option Income Strategy ETF" (-30.96%), "YieldMax MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF" (-28.42%), and "Direxion Semiconductor 3x ETF" (-24.40%) also recorded significant losses.
The U.S. stock market thrived until the end of last year, thanks to the performance of large tech companies (big tech) led by artificial intelligence (AI). This was compounded by the expected benefits of the business-friendly Donald Trump's election, leading to an influx of investments from Seohakgam-i.
However, the atmosphere changed when the Trump administration regained power in January 2025. President Trump opened the trade war by reinstating high tariffs immediately upon taking office, and with the overvaluation controversy regarding AI also compounding, the main indices of the New York stock market have continued to decline.
CNN pointed out on the 6th (local time) that "the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell about 3% just this week, set the worst record in two years since March 2023, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq received their most severe weekly performance since September of last year."