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Bad week for ‘the ants’ as ripple effects of Korean crash spread out across Asia

It was a bad week for “the ants,” as South Korea’s army of retail traders are known colloquially. 1.2 million of them were clobbered with margin calls. That’s more than 3% of the country’s adult population, illustrating the feverish extent of stock market speculation and the danger of leverage.

Bad week for ‘the ants’ as ripple effects of Korean crash spread out across Asia

Published July 17, 2026 · Category: Finance

Overview

It was a bad week for “the ants,” as South Korea’s army of retail traders are known colloquially. 1.2 million of them were clobbered with margin calls. That’s more than 3% of the country’s adult population, illustrating the feverish extent of stock market speculation and the danger of leverage.

Source

Originally published at www.marketwatch.com.

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