MERITZ Securities is holding a 'zero commission' event, leading to a surge in customers for the Super365 account. These account holders are actively trading American leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including 'SOXL'. The average daily transaction amount per person has increased several times since the zero commission event. This seems to be influenced by the ability to trade and exchange currency without commission, spreading among aggressive investors.
On the 23rd, an analysis of the data from 2,582 Super365 account users among 124,943 users linked to the investment management application 'Domino' operated by the fintech company Fast Forward revealed this.
As of the 14th of this month, the average transaction amount for Super365 account users in domestic stocks is 15.3 million won. This is an increase of 2.1 times from 7.3 million won on October 14th last year, prior to the commission-free event. During the same period, the average transaction amount for U.S. stocks per person skyrocketed from 3.4 million won to 35.4 million won, more than a tenfold increase. This suggests that the Super365 account was opened mainly by retail investors focused on American stocks.
Since November of last year, MERITZ Securities has been conducting an event that allows commission-free trading of domestic and U.S. stocks and currency exchange through Super365. Due to its popularity, the number of Super365 customers increased from about 23,000 at the end of October last year to over 100,000 this month. During the same period, the deposit assets in Super365 also surged from 920 billion won to over 5 trillion won.
The most traded U.S. stock among Super365 users as of the 14th of this month is SOXL. Known among retail investors as 'Saksul' or 'Soksul', this ETF tracks three times the daily gains of an index based on the market capitalization of 30 U.S. semiconductor companies. The transaction amount for SOXL by Super365 users (8.2 billion won) accounted for 73.5% of the total transaction amount (11.2 billion won) for all My Data linkers.
On the same day, six out of the top 10 transactions by Super365 users were leveraged and inverse ETFs. These include TSLL (which tracks twice the daily gain of Tesla's stock), TQQQ (which tracks three times the daily gain of the Nasdaq index), SOXS (which tracks three times the daily loss of the U.S. semiconductor index), CONL (which tracks twice the daily gain of Coinbase's stock), and NVDL (which tracks twice the daily gain of Nvidia's stock). TQQQ also accounted for 38.2% of the total transaction amount (4.2 billion won) with a transaction amount of 1.6 billion won by Super365 users.
This analysis is limited to the trading data of Super365 users for the day of the 14th, and it does not represent the entire customer data of Super365. However, considering that Super365 users make up 2.1% of the total customers linked to the Domino application, it is presumed that there is a clear trend toward investing in leveraged and inverse ETFs.
A Fast Forward representative who analyzed the trading information noted, 'It appears that the Super365 account gained word-of-mouth popularity through online communities sharing information about SOXL and TQQQ.'
The impact of the 'negative compounding effect' characteristic of leveraged and inverse ETFs is also present. Leveraged and inverse ETFs track the daily changes of the underlying index. While there are no issues as long as the underlying index moves in a certain direction consistently, if it fluctuates daily, losses increase over time. This means they are more suitable for short-term investments rather than long-term investing, which inherently requires more frequent transactions and increases sensitivity to commissions.
Looking at Super365 users by age and gender, men in their 20s to 40s account for 84.6% of the transaction amounts in U.S. stocks. The share for Korean stock transaction amounts in the same age group was also 80.8%. Earlier, it was analyzed that among the new Super365 account holders after the event, 39% were men in their 30s and 40s, indicating a significant interest in investment and heightened sensitivity to commissions.
MERITZ Securities will continue the zero commission event until the end of 2026, planning to expand its retail sector based on this.
Jang Won-jae, head of MERITZ Securities' S&T and retail sectors, said after the earnings announcement conference call on the 19th, 'We expect expenses of up to 100 billion won due to the waiver of Super365 commissions.' He added, 'We view this as a long-term investment to generate synergy in the retail sector and will continue to unveil innovative products by launching a new digital investment platform.'