How Much of Korea’s 11% Week Was 3 Days? 88%.
The KOSPI rose 11.49% last week but 88% of that came in three sessions, while the KOSDAQ built 84.5% of its gain on Monday alone. A US account holding EWY received +8.22%.
Market Trends
Korea’s Market Rose 11%. Its Regulators Said Nothing.
The KOSPI rose 11.49% this week and Korean regulators made no public comment on it. What they published instead was the next tranche of leverage rules.
EWY Holdings: Two Stocks Are 43%, Not 50%
iShares’ own holdings file says EWY’s top two stocks are 42.85 percent, not the 50 percent screeners show. One of those numbers cannot exist.
The Korean Market Went Up This Week. The One You Own Went Down.
Weekly scoreboard for August 3–7, 2026. The KOSPI fell 5.10% to 6,258.77, a seventh straight weekly loss and the longest streak since December 2022.
Seoul Answered the Foreign Press This Week. Here’s the Transcript.
On August 6 Korea’s deputy prime minister said the index was “stabilizing.” The KOSPI closed down 4.58% that day.
Korea Hit Its Circuit Breakers 45 Times This Year
Korea stopped program trading 45 times in 2026 – 23 on the way down, 22 on the way up – against 26 in all of 2008. Nine of the 15 KOSPI circuit breakers ever recorded fired this year. A guide to Korea’s three-layer brake system: the sidecar, the circuit breaker, and the 30 percent daily price limit that has no US equivalent.
Donghak Ants vs. Seohak Ants: Korea’s Retail Army Has Two Names — and in July They Went Opposite Ways
Korean retail investors have two names. Donghak ants buy Korean stocks; seohak ants buy American ones.
KOSPI’s Wildest Week Ever Moved the Index 1.4%
In the last week of July 2026 the KOSPI printed a −10.84% session and its largest one-day gain on record (+17.91%) inside five trading days — travelling 36.9 percentage points to finish down 1.42%. And the month headlines called the worst ever ranks third on month-end closes, behind October 1997 and October 2008.
Korea Defended Its Currency. It Did Not Defend Its Stock Market.
On July 30, 2026 Korea and Japan were reported to have intervened in the currency market while US authorities ran a rate check — and a Korean official confirmed the three-way coordination on the record. The same week, regulators tripled deposit requirements on leveraged ETFs and opened an investigation into foreign high-frequency trading. And while the KOSPI fell 42% from its record high, nobody bought the index.
Korean Retail Investors Sold ₩8 Trillion on the Biggest Up Day in KOSPI History
On July 31, 2026 the KOSPI rose 17.91% — its largest one-day gain ever. In the same KRX session Korean retail investors net sold ₩8.25 trillion while foreigners net bought ₩7.22 trillion. What Korean investors were writing while they sold, why SK Hynix stopped at 29.95%, and why naming the cause of this rally is a trap.