As the KOSPI index topped 5,000 for the first time ever and KOSDAQ recovered the "Cheonsdaq" (KOSDAQ 1,000) level for the first time in four years, individual investors are zeroing in on leveraged products.
Accordingly, as demand surged to complete the required pre-education for transactions of related products, the Korea Financial Investment Association's online education site went down.
According to the financial investment industry on the 26th, access to the KOFIA pre-education site, which must be completed before trading leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETF), is difficult as of this morning.
Under the current system, for an individual investor to invest in high-risk derivative-linked securities such as leveraged ETFs and exchange-traded notes (ETN), the investor must complete a one-hour online course at the KOFIA Korea Institute of Financial Investment. Product orders are possible only after registering with a brokerage the completion number issued after finishing the course. The financial authorities introduced this measure to protect investors and ensure market soundness.
This access failure appears to have occurred as individual investors expecting high returns flocked in rapidly amid the recent stock market surge. In fact, the KOSDAQ index at one point in early trade jumped more than 6%, triggering a "buy-sidecar" that suspends the validity of program buy quotes for five minutes, the first activation in nine months. At that time, net program buying reached 300 billion won.
A KOFIA official said, "We are currently identifying the cause of the site access failure."