[서울경제TV=김혜영기자] The topic of the recent domestic and overseas stock market is the’short sale war’. As the unprecedented’war of money’ between individual investors and hedge funds surrounding the US video game retailer’Game Stop’ intensifies, attention is now focused on the domestic market.
As of 10:23 on the 1st, the stock prices of Celltrion (+14.35%) and HLB (8.56%) are soaring in anticipation of the’Korean version of the game stop’. This is because KOSPI’s’Celltrion’ and KOSDAQ’s’HLB’ are mentioned as the Korean version of’Game Stop’. As of the 27th of last month, Celltrion had a short selling balance of 6.53,965 shares, accounting for 4.83% of the number of listed shares. The short selling balance amounted to 2 trillion won. HLB also has a short selling balance of 3.83,185 shares, which is worth KRW 313.8 billion.
The starting point of the short selling war was’Game Stop’. ‘GameStop’, which was listed on the US NASDAQ, recorded a huge increase of over 1,600% this year. When large-scale investment companies launched short selling that expected a decline in the share price of GameStop, individual investors launched a campaign against short selling, focusing on an online site, and began to buy large quantities. He declared a war against short sellers and went on hunting for short sellers.
Short selling is a structure in which a stock is expected to fall in a stock, and then a stock is sold by lending it, and when the stock price falls, the stock is bought at a lower price and paid back to make a profit. In other words, short selling is a concept that takes advantage only when stocks fall.In general, it is a structure in which money can be made only when stock prices fall.However, as individual investors’ buying trend increased and prices soared, the losses of hedge funds that bet on short selling became snowballs. There are evaluations that this’Game Stop Incident’ will serve as a trigger for the beginning of a new history of the stock market.
In fact, the US’Game Stop Movement’ is moving to Korea. Among individual investors who have a great deal of antipathy against short selling, voices are rising that they will seek the Korean version of’Game Stop’ and wage a war against short selling.
The biggest problem with short selling is that although it is an investment technique that is advantageous for foreigners and institutions, it is an inclined playground for individual investors with weak intelligence. In general, there have been voices of criticism that when short selling is made, the volatility of the stock price increases, and the damage must be taken by individual investors. Accordingly, individual investors have already campaigned to extend short selling. There is a widespread fear that the resumption of short selling will seriously damage the stock market, with 200,000 people participating in the message requesting a ban on short selling on the Blue House National Petition bulletin board. Among them, the’game stop situation’ in the United States has become a frenzy.
The Korea Equity Investment Association, a group of individual investors, insisted on extending short selling by one year and discussing directions for improving short selling in the future, and officially declared that when short selling resumes, it will work against the forces of short selling with individual strength.
In a telephone interview, Eui-jeong Jeong, CEO Han Too-yeon said, “We will mobilize the power of 10 million Donghak ants to discuss the resumption of short selling without a clear revision of laws and regulations despite the demand for improvement on the illegal and inclined playgrounds.” “First of all, it is necessary to discuss the improvement of the system based on a one-year extension of short selling and a closer examination of the current and actual situation of short selling at home and abroad.” “Korea has 39 times the profit from short selling compared to credit transactions,” he explained. “Like the American community site Reddit’s chat room,’wallstreetbets’, which led the attack by individual investors, we will carry out the’K Streetbets’ movement.” .
Among them, the financial authorities are deepening their hardships as short sales are scheduled to resume on March 16th. Although it has not yet presented such a direction, it is reported that the development of a lender system to increase opportunities for individual investors to participate in short selling has been announced by June, raising the possibility of a three-month extension./[email protected]