[AK View] Is Everyone Getting Rich Except Me... FOMO Alert

Unbelievable Returns Spread Across Social Media
High-Risk Bets and All-In Investments... The Dangers of Chasing the Market
No Fairy-Tale Endings in the Stock Market

“Buy stocks before going to prison.” This is a phrase that has recently spread across social networking services (SNS). The author of the post wrote that, before being incarcerated in March 2020, they used 261 million won in jeonse deposit funds to purchase 30,000 shares of Hyosung Heavy Industries. At the time of the purchase, Hyosung Heavy Industries stock was at an all-time low of 8,530 won per share. According to the post, after being released from prison last month and checking the account, the total valuation had soared to a staggering 105.21 billion won. At that point, Hyosung Heavy Industries' stock price was around 3.5 million won, representing a return of over 40,000%. On May 11, Hyosung Heavy Industries' share price reached approximately 4.3 million won, meaning if the author had held onto their shares, the total value would have ballooned to about 130 billion won.

On the anonymous workplace community “Blind,” another post claimed that over six years of stock investing, the author had grown their assets from 500 million won to 2.6 billion won. The author, described as a female office worker born in 1992, emphasized her “dirt spoon” background, saying, “I kept two different household ledgers and painstakingly grew my seed money.”

Another story that gained attention involved someone who has held onto stocks their mother bought for them more than ten years ago and has made a large profit. The author's mother purchased about 30 million won worth of SK hynix shares, telling them to use it as marriage funds. According to the account screenshot, which the author disclosed while saying they are “still holding and have not used them yet,” the holdings comprise 782 shares at an average purchase price of about 33,000 won. With SK hynix’s stock now surpassing 1.8 million won per share, the individual’s return has exceeded 5,000%, and the paper profit has swelled to more than 140 million won.

With the KOSPI index on the verge of reaching 8,000 points, posts verifying personal investment returns are surging. As tales of investment success involving tens of billions of won spread, individual investors are showing growing interest. Of course, the authenticity of such stories cannot be confirmed. This is why there are increasing warnings against letting these types of posts fuel speculative sentiment among investors.

In fact, there are frequent anecdotes of novice investors who, despite not having previously invested in stocks, cashed out savings or even took on debt to “go all-in” on a particular stock. Some cases report investing more than 2.3 billion won in SK hynix alone, including 1.7 billion won in loans. One author, identifying themselves as a civil servant, posted a screenshot on Blind stating, “Let’s go with a full buy of 2.2 billion won in Hynix using margin,” with the largest portion in a margin trading account—purchasing 1,327 shares for a total of 2.19013 billion won, of which 1.69734 billion won was borrowed from the securities firm. The actual personal funds in the margin account were about 492.78 million won, making it a high-risk investment about 4.4 times their own capital. The margin loan is due on September 8, making it a strategy aimed at realizing profits within about four months.

As extreme profit stories for certain stocks continue to be exposed, classic “FOMO” (Fear Of Missing Out) behavior appears, with individuals jumping in late out of fear of missing out because their friends have already made money.

Let’s turn back the clock. When global stock markets crashed during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and then rebounded sharply in 2021, everyone rushed into stock investing, taking out unsecured loans, card loans, and stock-backed loans—so-called “yeonggeul” and “bittoo.” There was even talk that “even elementary students are investing in stocks.” However, from the second half of the year, the market entered a decline due to inflation concerns and anticipated interest rate hikes, and then crashed in 2022 following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.

No one knows how long the current bull market will continue. Of course, if the market keeps rising, every stock investor could enjoy a happy ending, but reality is not a fairy tale—surely everyone can agree on that. Let’s not distort reality. Even now, the internet is flooded with posts boasting profits, while posts confessing losses are hard to find. These profit posts are not the whole story, nor can we know if they are true. With AI tools, it takes less than a minute to generate an image calculating everything from taxes to profits.

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