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.
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.
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.
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.
Korea’s stock market swung −9%, +6%, −6% in four days, then the Bank of Korea hiked for the first time since 2023.
Korean media called the bear-market exit on July 10. On July 13 the KOSPI fell 8.95% and tripped its seventh circuit breaker of 2026.
The KOSPI crashed 8.95% on July 13 and broke 7,000. But the won moved 0.13% and refiners rose. What the numbers actually say about the AI trade.
A sell-side circuit breaker Tuesday, a buy sidecar Friday, a record Samsung profit and the biggest foreign listing in US history — Korea’s wild week, in…
SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics are now over half of the EWY ETF — and 57–60% of the KOSPI itself.