S.Korean boy investor with 43% gains is new retail trading icon

KIWOOM Securities

09/02/2021 08:00

* Buffett wannabe, aged 12, boasts 43% return from day
trading
    * Quarter of young Koreans out of work is worst on record

    By Cynthia Kim
    SEOUL, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Watching the business news first
thing is a new routine for 12-year-old South Korean Kwon Joon,
as he dreams of becoming the next Warren Buffett after earning
stellar returns of 43% from a hobby picked up just last year:
buying stocks. 
    Kwon pestered his mother to open a retail trading account
last April with savings of 25 million won ($22,400) as seed
money, just as the benchmark KOSPI  .KS11  index began
recovering from its biggest dip in a decade.
    "I really talked my parents into it, because I believed an
expert who was saying (on TV) that this is a once-in-a-decade
opportunity," said Kwon, who rode the steepest jump by year-end
among MSCI's country indexes.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2JH008  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2K01NM.
    "My role model is Warren Buffett," he added, in a reference
to the U.S. billionaire investor.
    "Rather than short-term focused day trading, I want to keep
my investment for 10 to 20 years with a long-term perspective,
hopefully to maximize my returns."
    South Korea's rookie investors like Kwon, who pursues "value
investing" in blue chip shares with funds garnered from gifts,
trading mini-car toys and running vending machines, have led the
blistering rise of retail trade amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    More retail investors are teenagers or even younger, making
up more than two-thirds of the total value traded in the
nation's shares, versus less than 50% in 2019.
    The trend has grown as equity markets lure parents
disillusioned with the education system and millennials working
from home.
    "I wonder, in this day and age, whether a college degree
would be all that important," said Kwon's mother, Lee Eun-joo,
who fuelled his passion by looking to expose him to business
rather than tuition, seen as key to getting ahead in academics.
    "Because we live in a different world now, it could be
better to become an 'only-one' kind of person," added Lee, who
feared even a good schooling might not arm her son against
dwindling job opportunities.
    About 70% of the 214,800 stock brokerage accounts for minors
at Kiwoom Securities, South Korea's most retail-friendly
brokerage, with a market share of more than a fifth, were set up
in January 2020 or after, its data shows. 
    Kwon, with time on his hands during last year's school
closures for the pandemic, drew up a wish list of purchases,
which he made during market corrections.
    These ranged from South Korea's largest messenger app
operator Kakao Corp.  035720.KS , to the world's biggest memory
chip maker Samsung Electronics Co.  005930.KS , and Hyundai
Motor  005380.KS .  
    Kwon's success also reflects the employment challenges for
young South Koreans, with one in four out of work by January,
the worst level on record, despite being among the most highly
educated cohort in the OECD club of advanced nations.
    Three-quarters go on to college after high school, versus
the grouping's 44.5% average, but finding rewarding, creative
work is tough. 
    "There aren't enough jobs for college graduates, so many are
opting out to diversify their career path early," said
vocational researcher Min Sook-weon.
    That is something Kwon understands. 
    "Rather than going to good schools like the Seoul National
University, I'd rather become a big investor," he said. "I also
hope to do a lot of charity work." 
 ($1=1,115.1600 won)  

 (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Additional reporting by Minwoo Park;
Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
 ((Cynthia.Kim@thomsonreuters.com; 822 3704 5655; Reuters
Messaging: cynthia.kim.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))