"There Was a Day When Hynix Hit 2.98 Million Won"... A Fairy Tale That Says God Gave Us a Chance, Packed With Sharp Satire

[Financial News]  The title of this short tale sounds like it should begin with "Once upon a time." It is called "The SK hynix Fairy Tale." The story, posted on social networking service (SNS), begins with the line, "There was a day when Hynix hit 2,987,000 won."
It has recently been circulating online as a fairy-tale-style satire of the losses suffered by investors in large-cap stocks such as Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Hyundai Motor Company after the sharp drop in the KOSPI. It is not just the fairy tale that has drawn attention. A fictional group chat has also become a hot topic online. The people in the chat are portrayed as Choi Tae-won, Lee Jae-yong, and Chung Eui-sun.
Market watchers say that as the selloff deepened, JOMO, or the joy of missing out, spread among investors who felt relieved they had not bought stocks during the crash. Self-deprecating content has also emerged, reflecting attempts to laugh off the pain of losses.


The post, which appeared on social networking service (SNS) and online communities on the 28th of last month, satirized investors reacting to SK hynix's sharp rise and fall by presenting the story in the form of a childhood fairy tale.
It opens with the line, "There was a day when Hynix hit 2,987,000 won. As Hynix kept rising, many people muttered, 'I should have bought it back then. I want to turn back time.'"
It ends with the sentence, "Then God granted people's wish and brought all Hynix prices back to the level of a year earlier, but the reaction was not good."
The piece appears to turn the contradictory psychology of investors into a fairy tale, capturing the feeling of FoMO when they rush into the market late during a rally, only to be gripped by fear when an actual crash hits.
The post surpassed 1 million views within three days of being made public and drew tens of thousands of likes and shares. The same content spread to other platforms as well, winning strong support from investors.
Comments included reactions such as, "Even if prices go back to the past, I would be too scared to buy," "God gave us a chance, but we would still wait for the bottom," "Many people probably feel a sting in their chest from jokes like this," and "It is sadder than a love story."

A parody portraying the group chat of the heads of Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Hyundai Motor Company also appeared.
In the fictional chat, when an investor asks, "Brothers, is this just a correction right now?" the accounts modeled after the heads of Samsung, SK, and Hyundai Motor Company leave the chat one after another at one-minute intervals. Instead of answering the question, even the corporate leaders walk away, expressing the anxiety of investors rattled by the plunge in large-cap stocks.
The background to these parodies is the extreme volatility in the KOSPI in recent weeks. The index plunged from the 9,000 range to the 6,000 range, making for a brutal July.
As China's semiconductor industry, including ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), which is listed on the technology board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), moved to catch up, it dented the rally in AI semiconductors. Record net selling by foreign investors also dragged the index lower. In particular, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the two leading semiconductor stocks, account for more than half of the KOSPI's total market capitalization, making them a major reason for the index's extreme volatility.

The parodies spreading online are more than simple humor. They condense the psychology of individual investors trying to endure a market that swings sharply up and down.
Those who entered the market out of FoMO, thinking they were missing out on profit opportunities in a rising market, and then suffered losses as the selloffs repeated, appear to be sharing their anxiety and resignation through parodies such as "the peak became a fairy tale" and "even the tycoons left the chat."
The laughter in these parodies is not entirely lighthearted. Prices that only recently seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity have, after the crash, turned into frightening levels that are hard to buy into.
That sentiment was reflected in the KOSPI market on the 31st of last month as well. The index rebounded sharply by more than 10% from the start of trading, recovering from the three-day plunge that had preceded it. Buy-side circuit breakers were triggered in succession on the Korea Exchange Main Board and the KOSDAQ market. It then closed at 6,595.45, up 17.91%, marking the biggest gain and largest point increase in its history.
Despite the market rebound, individual investors sold 10.5 trillion won worth of shares. Online communities were filled with posts such as, "I will not even look at the domestic market anymore," and "I will go back to being a Korean individual investor investing in overseas stocks."
By contrast, foreign investors bought 8.6 trillion won worth of shares, setting a record for the largest net purchase ever.
[email protected] Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter