‘단일 레버리지’ 모의거래 2분 만에 46만원 허공에…“숙련된 투자자만 해야”

The Korean Securities and Exchange Commission (Korea Exchange) has tightened the requirements for investing in leveraged products, such as SK Telecom and SK Hynix's single-stock leveraged products, to prevent reckless trading. These virtual margin requirements involve investing with simulated funds before engaging in actual transactions.

On the day the virtual trading began, SK Hynix's stock fell 9.75% in a single day. The journalist decided to trade a single-stock leveraged product for the first time, using a virtual margin of 1 billion won. Within an hour, the investor bought 1,000 shares at the market price of 8,545 won, only to see the price drop 3,000 won after just 4 minutes, and then rise 17,000 won in 5 minutes.

The investor then bought an additional 4,000 shares, totaling a purchase amount of 42.46 million won. However, the investor quickly lost 46,000 won, moving to a lower price of 8,450 won within two minutes. Despite having sufficient short selling funds, the investor only managed to sell 140 shares and suffered a 40,000 won loss after 11 minutes.

The investor had held the product for one hour, resulting in a total loss of 43.7 thousand won. The single-stock leveraged product's main feature is this "leveraging effect." By magnifying the movement of individual stocks, investors can make significant gains with minimal capital, but losses can also escalate rapidly if the market moves against their expectations.

Diversification through ETFs helps mitigate this risk, but this product exposes investors to the full volatility of individual stocks, classifying it as highly risky. The pre-instruction warns investors to tolerate small price fluctuations, and if they cannot handle such losses, they should refrain from investing. During volatile market conditions, investors must also be aware of the "negative compounding effect."

For example, if the stock price falls 20% from 1,000 won and then rises 20%, it will be at 960 won. However, with leveraged products, a 20% drop from 1,000 won followed by a 20% rise could result in a 840 won price. The pre-instruction also explains the risk of not seeing the stock trend and holding the leveraged product for an extended period.

Statistics from the Korea Investment Securities show that the average holding period for investors in the 'KODEX SK Hynix Single-Stock Leveraged Product' is 54.9 days, with most investors near the peak of 30,000 won. Out of 97% of investors, 56.85% is the average loss. Pre-instruction emphasizes that this product is suitable only for experienced and short-term traders with strict capital management.

Of the 16 single-stock leveraged products, their trading volume totaled 7816 billion won. After the margin increase, trading volume surpassed 1 trillion won, but it fell sharply to 1.951 trillion won the next day. Starting from 19th, new individual investors must participate in virtual trading for at least one hour a day for five consecutive days to start trading leveraged products.