Why it matters. Samsung and SK Hynix supply much of the world's memory chips for AI, so how Korean retail investors hedge or bet against them is an early signal of sentiment toward the global AI-hardware boom.
Background. In Korea, 'inverse' is the common term for funds that rise when a stock falls, and 'gopbus' is retail-trader slang for the leveraged 2X version. South Korea has an unusually active retail-investor culture, and such single-stock leveraged ETFs are a relatively new, high-risk product. The KOSPI is Seoul's main stock index, and the VKOSPI is its volatility or 'fear' gauge, akin to the U.S. VIX.
What to watch next. Watch whether the chip rally extends into the second half, which would keep punishing these inverse bets, or whether the elevated fear gauge proves an accurate warning of a sharp correction.
As Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix power South Korea’s KOSPI index to record highs, a counterintuitive trade is drawing a flood of money in Seoul: leveraged funds that profit only if the two chip giants fall. As of November 29, two newly launched ‘double-inverse’ ETFs tied to the stocks had a combined market value of roughly 100 billion won (about $73 million) — even after losing as much as 18% on their opening days.
Betting Against the Rally
South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index has roughly doubled this year, climbing from around 4,000 points early in 2026 to above 8,000, led largely by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — the world’s two biggest memory-chip makers and the engines of a global AI-driven semiconductor boom. Fourteen leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to the pair are now trading on the market.
Among them, two products move in the opposite direction. Known in Korean market slang as ‘gopbus’ — a mash-up of the words for ‘multiply’ and ‘inverse’ — they are designed to deliver twice the daily loss of a falling stock, meaning investors profit only when the share price drops.
The ‘PLUS Samsung Electronics Futures Single-Stock Inverse 2X’ fund fell 13.66% to 17,100 won on November 29, the day Samsung shares jumped 7%. Its SK Hynix counterpart, the ‘SOL SK Hynix Futures Single-Stock Inverse 2X’, sank 18.70% on its debut on November 27, when SK Hynix surged 9%.
Heavy Trading Despite Steep Losses
The losses have not scared investors off. Daily turnover in the two funds ran to roughly 630 billion won on day one, 986 billion won on day two, and 616 billion won on November 29 — many times the volume of other single-stock leveraged products from Korea’s two largest asset managers.
The appetite extends across the market. Four of this year’s five most-traded securities products in Korea have been inverse or double-inverse funds. One, the ‘KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X’ — which bets against the broad KOSPI 200 index — has dwarfed the rest, with about 432 billion units changing hands and turnover reaching 98 trillion won (roughly $72 billion) this year. The relentless rally, however, has crushed its price: once around 500 won at the start of the year, it has slumped 86% to just 84 won, leaving it a so-called ‘penny stock’.
Fear and Greed in the Same Trade
The crowded bets reflect a market caught between euphoria and dread. The VKOSPI ‘fear index’, which gauges expected volatility from KOSPI 200 options prices, spiked to 73.81 on November 29. Such readings are typical of crashing markets — staying above 70 during a powerful rally is highly unusual. The gauge, normally between 20 and 40, last touched 80.37 in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. and Israel-Iran conflict. That tension has split analysts between calling the moment a ‘semiconductor super-cycle’ and a ‘super-bubble’.
Asset managers are urging caution. Rather than using the funds as a short-term hedge against a sudden drop, a growing number of investors are buying them outright to bet on a crash. Fund providers warn that double-inverse products should be used only for tactical hedging or market responses lasting at most a week, because their daily-reset structure steadily erodes value in a sustained uptrend.
