Andrew Lee

Buying Korean Stocks Directly: Interactive Brokers

by
Card reading Access in a day, relief is a form, on buying Korean stocks direct through Interactive Brokers, from korea-stock-guide.com

Interactive Brokers opened direct Korea Exchange trading in May 2026, and the account side is genuinely easy: an existing client switches on a permission, and most new applications clear within a business day. The part nobody mentions is that your dividend rate turns on a Korean application form, that the W-8BEN you signed does nothing about it, and that we could not establish whether the broker lodges it for you. We set out the costs, the fund trap the route opens for American holders, and the question to put in writing before your first dividend.

What Is the Korea Discount?

by
Card reading Half the multiple, three causes, on what the Korea discount measures and where the measure misleads, from korea-stock-guide.com

Korean equities trade at 52 per cent of the developed-market price-to-book ratio, and that figure comes from the Korean government rather than from a foreign broker. The Financial Services Commission also published its own three causes: governance, industrial structure and weak shareholder returns. We set out what a comparison across 45 countries and 32,000 companies actually measures, why one of the three official causes is also a defect in the measuring instrument, and what would have to happen before anyone could call the discount closed.

Measuring the Korea Discount as It Narrows

by
Card reading Cheaper in 2021, dearer in 2026, on what the Value-up evidence settles about the Korea discount, from korea-stock-guide.com

Companies that filed Value-up plans traded at 1.4 times book at the end of 2021, against 1.7 for companies that never filed. By the first quarter of 2026 the filers stood at 1.9 and the non-filers at 1.5, which is the wrong shape for a self-selection story. Returns to shareholders reached 92.4 trillion won in one year and the National Pension Service cut its offshore weighting for the first time in two decades. We set out what that evidence settles, and the market-wide re-rating it still does not.

How to Read Korean Corporate Filings in English

by
Card reading Filings in English, numbers in Korean, on which regulator owns the document you are trying to read, from korea-stock-guide.com

Mandatory English disclosure reaches 265 Korean companies from May 2026 and 848 from March 2027, and yet many English filings on DART carry no figures at all. The Financial Supervisory Service publishes them voluntarily, disclaims responsibility for the contents, and points readers to KIND, the Korea Exchange system, for the original. We set out which regulator owns which filing, what the English page reliably tells you, and how to reach the document you actually want.

Why Buy Samsung and SK hynix Now

by
Card reading Record quarter, falling shares, on what the Korean memory selloff was made of, from korea-stock-guide.com

SK hynix filed a 76 per cent operating margin for the second quarter of 2026 and the shares fell anyway. The Financial Supervisory Service documents margin loans at 37.3 trillion won and forced liquidations up more than sevenfold, so the selling has a mechanism that earnings are not part of. We also set out the one piece of confirmed damage that cuts against the case, and the connection we could not evidence.

Korean Cosmetics Exports Are Growing Fastest in Europe

by
Card reading Europe is early, tourism is back, on Korean cosmetics beyond the American market, from korea-stock-guide.com

Part two of two. Korean cosmetics exports grew between 30 and 300 per cent across the major European markets through 2025, and 10.7 million visitors came to Korea in the first half of 2026, 26.9 per cent above the same half of 2019. Neither case is as strong as the American one, and we set out what the growth rates hide and which connection we could not evidence.

K-Beauty Is Not Peaking in America

by
Card reading Online is won, shops are next, on K-beauty and the larger half of American retail, from korea-stock-guide.com

Korean cosmetics exports rose 27.3 per cent in the first half of 2026 and the United States held its place as the largest buyer for a second year. NielsenIQ puts 41 per cent of American beauty sales online, which is where K-beauty has done nearly all of its winning. The 59 per cent that still happens in shops is what Olive Young’s Sephora rollout only begins to reach from autumn 2026.

CXMT Has Not Caught Samsung and SK hynix. Here Is the Gap.

by
Card reading CXMT listed, the gap held, CXMT against the Korean memory makers, from korea-stock-guide.com

CXMT listed in Shanghai on 27 July 2026 and closed 465.82 per cent above its offer price. Its volume process is where Samsung and SK hynix were in 2019, and on high bandwidth memory it is two generations behind. Korean memory shares had their worst session of the month two weeks before the listing, for reasons that had nothing to do with it.

Korean Dividend Withholding: 22% by Default, 15% by Treaty

by
Card reading 22% by default, the 15% treaty rate must be claimed, from korea-stock-guide.com

Korea deducts 22 per cent from a non-resident’s dividend by default. The treaty rate applies only if a form reaches the withholding agent before payment, and that form lapses after three years. Sourced to the Personal Income Tax Act and the NTS form itself.