Odaily Planet Daily report: According to data from Korea’s securities information portal, between September 1 and 4, individual investors in South Korea significantly reduced their holdings in several U.S. semiconductor stocks while increasing positions in semiconductor leveraged ETFs. During this period, Korean retail investors net-sold $100 million in Micron, $68.61 million in SanDisk, $49.37 million in Marvell Technology, and $15.56 million in NVIDIA. South Korea’s SK Hynix ADR, which debuted on the NYSE in July, was also net-sold for $46.16 million during the same period, after accumulating net purchases of $811 million through the end of August.
In contrast, Korean retail investors net purchased $431 million of SOXL (Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares), which aims to deliver three times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Market analysis suggests that this "sell individual stocks, buy the sector" strategy may reflect South Korean retail investors reducing their exposure risk to individual chip companies while continuing to bet on the upward potential of the broader semiconductor sector. After significant gains in semiconductor stocks, some investors may have chosen to take profits at the individual stock level while maintaining or even increasing their overall exposure to the semiconductor industry through leveraged ETFs. (Daum)