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(article from March 2025)
Something’s happening in the U.S. stock market. We see cult stocks and crypto stocks. We see money pouring into leveraged single-stock ETFs and crypto ETFs. And we see dramatic price moves, for example in quantum computing stocks in December 2024. What’s going on?
Here’s one theory: these phenomena partly reflect an influx of Korean retail investors into the U.S. stock market. Last year, I wrote that “the U.S. stock market is Koreafying,” meaning that the U.S. market was starting to behave like the retail-dominated Korean market. What I didn’t realize was that this Koreafying process involves actual Korean retail investors.
I'm not sure about the amplitude of the phenomenon, but it's true that the amount of degen traders here is nothing I've seen anywhere else. I don't think Korean retail can move global markets at the scale OP thinks it does, but it's an interesting thought exercise. The Kimchi premium in previous cycles has indeed shown how crazy things can become with each ajeossi and ajumma goes all in on the latest shitcoin. I just took this screenshot on upbit.com to show you that it's never the usual suspects that show the largest trading volume (last column) on a Korean exchange.
I was completely unaware of this Korean stereotype. Why are you all such reckless degens?
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Buying a house has become out of reach for many. Huge divide between the haves and have nots. Companies will start firing you or reduce your pay after 50, even though retirement is after 60. Retirement pay is small. People feel a big need to make it big early, or suffer later in life. Raising kids is hugely expensive. There is a reason Korea has the lowest birth rate. People have very dire outlook on future. A more pronounced version of what is happening everywhere. Squid game or Parasite, albeit fictional and extreme, are apt representations about a society that has lost its ways. Degen gambling has become socially accepted to try to escape this race to the bottom. Korea developed very fast, too fast, after the war. Broken families, broken people everywhere. Many daughters don't want to go home during national holidays as they will be expected to cook for men. Men feel frustrated about having to serve in the military. Women lick their wounds from the sexual abuse nearly all suffered at some point. Society does not want women to go back to work after giving birth. Hence men and women ressent each other. Many kids take antidepressants. Old people commit suicide as not to be a burden on their kids. I can keep going. It depends of course on every one's personal situation, but this is a rather global trend here. People think money is the only way out.
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My Korean grad school friend never went into that much detail, but he was always glad to be back in America after a visit home and he had no intention of taking a job in Korea.
I hope you all can get yourselves sorted out. What's one change that you think could relieve a lot of the pressure?
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Give people time off work. Now many jobs require overtime at any moment of the day or weekend, precluding people from having uninterrupted personal or family time. How to achieve it? It's hard. Pres Moon Jae In tried to limit number of working hours to 52h/week, but companies found ways around it. It's sad, but probably the only way to change it is to wait for the old generation to die. Like most societal changes: you don't change people, coz people don't change... you just wait for the new generation to do it differently. But if the new generation is broken too, even that's not necessarily a winning strategy.
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How consumeristic would you say Koreans are?
Is there a lot of room for people to scale back on their spending, in order to spend less time at work?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Macoy31 1h
Fascinating insight! The idea of "Koreafication" of U.S. markets makes sense, especially when you see the sheer volume of retail-driven momentum in both stock and crypto sectors. While Korean retail alone may not move the entire global market, their influence combined with algorithmic trends and meme culture definitely fuels volatility. The Kimchi premium was a warning shot. Now it seems the retail frenzy knows no borders. That Upbit screenshot is gold—always the unexpected tokens leading the charge
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