Global ETF managers are expanding in South Korea. They want to reach retail investors, who now account for up to 25 percent of their total assets.
Russell Tencer, president of Tradr ETFs, visited Seoul on Thursday to meet investors. His trip followed a promotional roadshow by Tuttle Capital Management last week.
Direct pitches in Seoul
Tradr operates as an ETF brand under AXS Investments. It oversees roughly $500 million across about 60 used products, with South Korean retail accounts making up approximately 10 percent of that pool.
Individual Korean traders took note of the issuer in 2022. That interest followed the launch of single-stock inverse vehicles for Tesla and Nvidia under tickers TSLQ and NVDS. Today, its catalogue covers single-stock used funds tied to Coupang, SK hynix, SanDisk and SpaceX.
“We want to meet with our investor base,” Tencer said at a press briefing in Seoul. “We would love to meet and educate Korean investors.”
Tuttle Capital Management holds an even larger share from the country. South Korean accounts represent 25 percent of the firm’s $5 billion in assets across 70 active funds, which include its double-exposure T-REX series. The US firm ran its own investor presentations in Seoul earlier this month.
Trading volumes eclipse direct shares
Korean retail activity in used overseas instruments now beats direct equity buying in major global tech firms. Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares, traded under ticker SOXL, generated $72.64 billion in combined buy and sell volume from Korean traders this year.
That turnover was nearly six times the $12.6 billion worth of Tesla shares traded locally over the period. High-beta exposure drives these offshore flows across Seoul desks.
Domestic brokerage houses are aiding the shift. Many host issuer seminars and marketing events for offshore managers seeking local distribution.
Domestic curbs push capital abroad
Local regulations helped push retail capital into US-listed instruments. Financial authorities allowed domestic single-stock used funds to trade in late May. However, they attached heavy friction to the rollout.
Regulators enforced minimum cash deposits and mandatory order-size caps on domestic single-stock used instruments. These rules slowed domestic turnover. Individual accounts turned to offshore equivalents instead, using standard global brokerage accounts to trade higher use multiples.
Shifts in currency added extra volatility. The South Korean won recently strengthened into the 1,300 won range against the US dollar. That move led some retail traders to trim dollar gains, but overall trading velocity stayed high.
New products tied to Korean tech
Appetite from Seoul is reshaping product design in the US ETF market. Foreign managers now build instruments tailored directly to retail demand for domestic tech and semiconductor names listed abroad.
Filings from Tradr show additional funds coming for the country’s hardware sector. These target active trading in memory chips and display components.
US regulators will review incoming offshore single-stock filings as foreign issuers test how deeply South Korean retail capital backs specialized tech funds heading into 2027.