"Day Ant Era"... Samsung Securities' Weekly US Stock Trading Surpasses 500 Billion Won in One Month

Expansion to 7.5% Level of US Regular Market Trading Volume
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[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Samsung Securities announced on the 24th that its world-first launched ‘U.S. Stock Weekly Trading’ service has achieved a cumulative trading amount of 500 billion KRW within 32 business days. Compared to the initial 10 business days after the service launch, when the cumulative trading amount surpassed 100 billion KRW, the speed of increase in trading volume is faster.

In the initial two weeks (February 7?18) after the U.S. Stock Weekly Trading service opened, the weekly trading amount was about 5.4% of the U.S. stock regular market, but since then, it has risen to 7.5%, and on the 24th of last month, when the weekly trading volume recorded 54.2 billion KRW, it surged to 28.4% of the regular market.

This is analyzed to be because Seohak Ant investors have been continuously investing in U.S. stocks during the day due to recent news on U.S. interest rates, inflation, and global geopolitical issues such as the Ukraine war, engaging in proactive risk management and bargain buying.

In fact, the greater the volatility in the regular market, the more the weekly trading volume increased significantly, and the proportion of online trading also rose sharply. On February 24, when the war started in Ukraine and the U.S. stock market experienced sharp fluctuations, the trading volume of U.S. stock weekly trading increased up to 3.5 times the average trading volume, and the proportion of online trading volume reached as high as 91.2%.

Since the world’s first U.S. stock weekly trading began, new forms of investment styles have been emerging one after another. Even on holidays when the domestic stock market is closed, customers have steadily increased their trades using the U.S. stock weekly trading service to proactively respond to global issues. In fact, on the 1st and 9th, which were holidays in Korea, customer trading maintained about half the usual trading volume. Considering that many investors were not yet aware that U.S. stock weekly trading is possible on domestic holidays, this is regarded as an unusual level.

The smooth operation of U.S. stock weekly trading despite holidays is believed to be mainly due to the roles of multiple liquidity providers, including Jane Street, the world’s largest market maker, supporting real-time quotes and executions. Bae Hyung-geun, Head of Sales Strategy at Samsung Securities, said, "Many investors highly appreciate that even on days when Korea’s market is closed, they can quickly respond to market issues through the weekly trading service," adding, "During daytime holidays, it is impossible to trade domestic stocks related to global market issues, limiting quick responses, but this need is being met by trading stocks of similar U.S. companies, which has received positive feedback."

Also, on February 22 and 24, when urgent news related to the Ukraine war poured in, buy orders surged to utilize the excessively fallen Nasdaq futures index due to fear, recording trading volumes of 38.9 billion KRW and 54.2 billion KRW respectively in weekly trading alone. On those days, the prices of major weekly trading buy stocks in the U.S. regular market held in the evening were higher than in the weekly trading market, providing opportunities for short-term arbitrage.

Since the service launch, differences have also been found in the top purchased stocks between the regular market and weekly trading. Analyzing the top 5 stocks most purchased by investors since the service opened, unlike the regular market where leveraged ETFs are heavily concentrated, the top 5 stocks frequently bought during weekly trading mainly consist of ‘top market capitalization’ stocks.

Sae Jae-hoon, Vice President of Samsung Securities’ Channel Sales Division, said, "Weekly trading, initially introduced to ease the difficulties of U.S. stock investors who trade at night, is evolving by creating various new investment patterns," and added, "We will continue to provide diverse services so that weekly trading can create more investment innovations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.