Korean Retail Investors Sold Individual Semiconductor Stocks but Bought 3x-Leveraged ETFs

The so-called “Seohak ants,” South Korean individuals investing in U.S. markets, took sharply different positions in semiconductors during the first four days of the month. They sold major individual stocks but poured money into leveraged ETFs tied to semiconductor indexes.

Data from the Korea Securities Depository’s securities information portal showed semiconductor stocks and ETFs among the most heavily traded U.S. securities by Korean investors. The busiest was Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares, known by its ticker SOXL, which tracks three times the daily return of a U.S. semiconductor index.

SOXL purchases totaled $1.02191 billion during the period, compared with $590.95 million in sales. That left net purchases of about $431 million.

Individual semiconductor stocks showed the opposite pattern. Micron’s sales totaled $129.28 million, more than four times its $28.63 million in purchases. Nvidia also recorded sales of $73.05 million, compared with purchases of $57.4 million, according to the excerpt.