"I blew 800 million won, lost everything I had"...Retail investor who bet 1.1 billion won on a KOSPI drop

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According to Financial News, an individual investor who had poured his entire assets into the domestic stock market during a downturn has reportedly suffered a massive loss of about 800 million won.
On the 7th, a post titled "I lost 800 million won" was uploaded to the stock message board within the NAVER Pay Securities service.
The author, identified as Mr. A, is said to have purchased a total of about 1.09392 billion won worth of the KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), managed by Samsung Asset Management, since the beginning of this year. He reportedly did so based on his personal view that the domestic stock market, which had been on a steady upward trend, was about to enter a correction phase.
The product in question, the KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X ETF, is structured to track twice the daily inverse movement of the KOSPI 200 Index futures. If the index rises 1%, the investor incurs a 2% loss. It is known as a double inverse leveraged ETF, often nicknamed a "double inverse," and is said to be the most heavily traded product in its category.
However, the market moved in exactly the opposite direction of Mr. A's expectations. As major export sectors such as semiconductors and shipbuilding strengthened, the KOSPI briefly broke above the 4,600 level during intraday trading on the 7th. Samsung Electronics closed above 140,000 won per share for the first time, and SK Hynix reportedly surged to 760,000 won during the session.
As a result, Mr. A's unrealized loss swelled to about 787.62 million won. He said, "I bought the inverse product purely for political reasons, without looking at market conditions or trends. I have lost 800 million won, which was my entire net worth."
He continued, "I am not going to blame anyone. It was my own misguided decision," adding, "From the moment I was down 100 million won at the beginning, I just did not have the courage to cut my losses, kept waiting endlessly, and in the end I blew 800 million won."
Mr. A concluded by saying, "I plan to spend the rest of my life with the remaining 300 million won. Thank you for reading this long post."
Despite the index repeatedly hitting new highs, retail investors' buying of double inverse leveraged ETFs remains strong. According to statistics from the Korea Exchange (KRX), individual investors have made net purchases of about 257.1 billion won worth of KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X so far this year, making it the fourth most heavily net-bought product among all listings on the domestic stock market.
hsg@fnnews.com Han Seung-gon Reporter