Money & Finance › Markets of the world › World stock markets: about $158 trillion, 44% of it in the US
Korea Exchange (KRX): Korea's stock and futures market
Merged 2005; roots 1956· Institution or agency
Fact, law or dataA rule, statute, definition or measured number.
South Korea's only securities exchange, headquartered in Busan, running the KOSPI and KOSDAQ stock markets and Korea's futures and options.
See it on the Money & Finance map →How it works
The Korea Exchange (한국거래소, KRX) was formed in January 2005 by merging the Korea Stock Exchange, founded in 1956, with the KOSDAQ market and the Korea Futures Exchange. Individual investors do much of the trading. Regulators banned short selling from November 2023 to March 2025 after global banks were caught illegally shorting without borrowing shares. Since 2024 the government's 'Value-up' program and Commercial Act amendments of 2025–26 have pressed companies to treat minority shareholders better.
Why it matters
Korea's market is a bellwether for global chip demand and Asian risk appetite; MSCI still classes it as emerging, citing limits on trading the won offshore.
Facts, rules and data
KRX statistics and annual reports, Financial Services Commission rules, Financial Supervisory Service enforcement releases on illegal shorting, and MSCI's annual market-classification reviews; June 2026 kept Korea off the watch list.
Debates and risks
Whether governance reforms and wider currency access will finally win developed-market status from MSCI, and how retail-driven swings affect that case.
Inside this (1)
Connections (2)
▸Korea Exchange (KRX): Korea's stock and futures market once hosted the world's most-traded option among Options and other derivativesFact, law or data
The connection
KOSPI 200 options were small, cheap to trade and untaxed, so Korean individuals traded them heavily. In 2011 about 3.67 billion contracts changed hands, the most of any derivative in the world. In 2012 regulators raised the contract size fivefold to cool speculation, and volume fell by more than half that year.
When and why
Korea Exchange, Busan and Seoul; the options launched in 1997, and the Financial Services Commission's rule changes came in 2011–12.
How we know
FIA annual volume surveys and Korea Exchange statistics.
Debates and risks
Whether the curbs protected investors or simply pushed Korean speculators toward US-listed leveraged ETFs and other markets.
▸Korea Exchange (KRX): Korea's stock and futures market opened wider to foreigners after Asian financial crisis and Korea's IMF bailout (1997)Fact, law or data
The connection
Before 1997 foreigners could own only a limited share of Korean companies, a cap raised step by step from 10% in 1992. During the IMF rescue, Korea scrapped most of these limits in May 1998 to attract capital. Foreigners' share of the market rose from about 13% in 1997 to around 40% by 2004.
When and why
Seoul, December 1997 to May 1998, under the IMF program and the new Kim Dae-jung government.
How we know
Financial Supervisory Service and KRX records of foreign holdings, and IMF program documents.
Debates and risks
Whether opening up sped the recovery or made Korean stocks more prone to sudden foreign selling.