---
type: "Topics"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/42263542.md"
description: "Korean investors have never borrowed this much money to buy stocks:South Korean margin loans reached a record of about $26 billion, doubling since the beginning of 2025.However, as a percentage of South Korea's free-float shares (the portion of market value available for public trading), margin loans fell to about 0.8%, the lowest level since the pandemic lows of 2020.This occurred as a surge in market capitalization far outpaced the growth in leverage.Meanwhile, during the recent market pullback, the daily forced liquidation ratio surged to 4-5% of total outstanding margin loans, far above the normal level of about 1%.This means brokers were forced to liquidate 4%-5% of all margin-backed positions in a single day because borrowers could not meet margin call requirements.Record leverage is exacerbating market volatility in South Korea."
datetime: "2026-06-28T09:37:57.000Z"
locales:
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/42263542.md)
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/42263542.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/42263542.md)
author: "[Optimus](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/20639361.md)"
---

# Korean investors have never borrowed this much mon…


## Comments (1)

- **Optimus · 2026-06-28T09:42:06.000Z**: "South Korea has triggered five market-wide trading halts in 2026 alone—and since the system was launched in 2000, there have been only 11 market-wide halts. Nearly half of all market-wide halts this century have occurred this year. The rapid proliferation of highly leveraged single-stock ETFs f