Civil servant who went all-in on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix with 300 million won in wedding funds says, "I’ll hold on" after market plunge

According to The Financial News, the domestic stock market has fallen sharply amid a geopolitical crisis originating in the Middle East, and the story of a civil servant who invested his entire 300 million won in wedding funds into Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix is drawing attention online.
According to the financial sector and the anonymous workplace community app Blind on the 5th, a civil servant identified as Mr. A recently invested 300 million won in cash that he had saved for a jeonse deposit and wedding expenses, splitting it evenly between Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix at 150 million won each. He explained that his average purchase prices were about 199,700 won for Samsung Electronics and 1,002,000 won for SK Hynix, and said he planned to grow his assets to 1 billion won within a year so he could buy a home in Seoul.
However, those expectations were hit by an unexpected blow as the conflict in the Middle East threatened to escalate into a full-scale war. As worries over soaring international oil prices and disruptions to global supply chains gripped the market, leading semiconductor stocks that had been hovering near their peaks quickly reversed course and turned downward.
When share prices plunged, comments from netizens checking in on Mr. A began to pour in under his post. One user lamented, "Are you still alive? My average purchase price is even higher than yours and I can only cry. I took courage from your post and bought everything at Thursday’s peak," sharing his distress. Mr. A responded calmly, saying, "Hold on. There’s still plenty of money in the market, and with the election just around the corner, the government will step in to support it."
In another comment, Mr. A wrote, "It’s just a correction, so I don’t pay attention to the day-to-day moves," signaling his determination to hold on no matter what.
But on social networking service (SNS) platforms and other online communities, the reaction to the story has been largely negative. Netizens criticized him, saying, "Putting money with a clearly defined purpose, like wedding funds or a jeonse deposit, all-in on highly volatile stocks is not investing, it’s gambling," and, "The moment posts like this started appearing on Blind and people were cheering them on was clearly the human sentiment indicator at the top." Others warned, "If a downturn continues, your married life could be shaken from the very start."
Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, noted, "With both the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the KOSDAQ Index triggering the circuit breaker mechanism, we are seeing a rare steep sell-off in the history of the domestic stock market, and the market is gripped by fear," adding, "In this kind of brutal price action, investors are increasingly agonizing over when volatility will subside and whether they should be selling stocks at this point."
However, Han also advised caution, saying, "Although volatility is rising amid the current fear-driven sentiment, corporate earnings forecasts themselves have not been fundamentally damaged," and, "In this situation, decisions to dump shares in panic selling should be made very carefully."


hsg@fnnews.com Han Seung-gon Reporter