South Korea's retail investor crisis and psychological impact

It has also raised questions about how South Korea, a tech powerhouse, can progress to developed market status when it hosts such extreme behaviour by retail investors, known locally as “ants” for their tendency to swarm into trades.

“Ultimately many who entered the market may have suffered severe losses and a majority of them could become so traumatised that they lose interest in investing altogether,” said Jeon Suk-jae, a YouTuber whose investment channel has 3.7 million subscribers.

In the two months since the market’s peak, Jeon has seen the comments on his channel, which hosts videos like the ‌one titled “the entire nation is intoxicated by stocks”, flip from euphoria to gloom, broadly tracking the national mood.

Beyond the losses – some realised, some still on paper – there is a psychological reckoning that the nation’s leaders are dealing with.

Demand for psychiatric help is rising and other signs of stress are rattling the public. Police in Busan said they had arrested a man in his 20s who is suspected of attempted murder over the stabbing of a YouTuber he allegedly blamed for his stock losses.