The KOSPI slump in South Korea’s stock market—put simply—comes down to “AI storage faith” crashing into the wall of “retail investors’ high leverage.”

From the historical high of 9,385 points set in June, the index has been pulled back by more than 27%; it triggered circuit breakers twice. Samsung Electronics (005930) and SK hynix (000660)—the two storage champions—together account for more than half of the KOSPI’s weight. When both stocks fell 9% in a single day, they directly dragged the index lower. On one side, the fuse was concerns over hardware demand after OpenAI’s IPO was delayed and Apple (AAPL) raised prices. On the other side, it was a stampede by Korea’s 60 trillion KRW financing positions: in July alone, the scale of forced liquidations exceeded 3400 billion KRW, and 320,000 to 360,000 accounts were cleared in a single click by brokers. Some retail investors saw their principal wiped out and even ended up owing money to their brokers.

With risk appetite in tatters and BTC moving weaker in sync, the linkage between crypto and tech stocks has been validated again. This KOSPI round is a compounded “weight concentration + leverage overcrowding + foreign capital withdrawal” minefield. For those looking to catch the falling knife in the short term, first see whether 005930 can stop the decline by trading heavily on the lows. #夏日创作营