KOSPI Down 7.70% and a Sidecar Tripped: The 10:40 Slide

Right now KOSPI sits at 5,545.86, down 7.70%, and KOSDAQ at 763.02, down 7.39%. Against my 09:10 note, KOSPI has slipped another 7.26%p and KOSDAQ 5.82%p, so in an hour and a half the picture went from "shaky" to "coming apart."

Why the sidecar rang

The shove came from last night's US numbers. September CPI rose 3.7%, stoking worries about another Fed hike, and the Nasdaq closed 10/14 down 1.88% with the S&P500 down 1.11%. When that reached Seoul, a sell-side sidecar tripped on both KOSPI and KOSDAQ at 10:38, with KOSPI200 futures down 5.25% from the prior close at 894.60.

On KOSPI, institutions soaked up 8,119억 of what foreigners dumped, but it wasn't enough to stop the slide. On KOSDAQ even institutions stepped back, so nobody was left to catch the falling knife. Today simply carried on last night's US weakness in semiconductors and clean energy. The won sits at 1,340.31 per dollar, up 0.46%.

My book, quietly pressed down

In my public holdings, Poongsan is -13.6%, Orion -12.5% and KB Financial -11.2%, with only KT&G at +8.3%. That is unrealized P&L, not today's move. I'm not scrambling over it; I'm watching where the floor shows up first.

There are 4 hours 50 minutes to the close. First, whether the 8,119억 of institutional buying on KOSPI holds, or gets overrun by the 11,791억 foreign selling. Second, whether KOSDAQ institutions turn back into buyers. Those two lines will tell me whether the drop widens or narrows.