SK Hynix's stock is now trading in the U.S. Next up? A slew of exchange-traded funds offering leveraged exposure to the South Korean memory chip leader. Buyer beware.
GraniteShares, Leverage Shares, ProShares, Direxion and Corgi Funds all have funds set to launch the coming week, following the debut of SK Hynix's shares on the Nasdaq on Friday.
Some of these ETFs will seek to amplify any daily gains for the stock while others will be so-called inverse funds, which will rise on days when SK Hynix falls and drop on up days the stock is heading higher. The leveraged ETFs own options, swaps or other derivatives to enhance the daily moves -- up or down -- for the stock.
Single-stock ETFs tied to the daily performance of widely held tech stocks such as Micron Technology, Tesla, Nvidia, AMD and Alphabet, have become increasingly popular. There also have been numerous leveraged ETFs tied to SpaceX that have made its debut in the wake of that company's initial public offering last month.
But investors need to understand the risks with these types of ETFs. They are designed more for active day traders as opposed to longer-term-oriented investors. Just look at the performance of ProShares Ultra SpaceX ETF, one of several leveraged funds tied to SpaceX's IPO.
This fund, which is designed to produce two times the daily return of SpaceX, is down 48% since its mid-June debut even though SpaceX has fallen nearly 10% over the same time frame.
"Leverage is a double-edged sword. You love it when the markets are going up but it can amplify downside risk," said Kristian Kerr, head of macro strategy for LPL Financial.
Even single-stock funds tied to companies whose shares have gone up this year aren't delivering outsize returns on a longer term business. The Direxion Daily GOOGL Bull 2X ETF is up 18% this year, only slightly ahead of Alphabet's 14% year to date gain. And the GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF has lagged slightly behind the performance of Nvidia, gaining 12.6% compared with Nvidia's 13.1% increase.
"Leveraged ETFs are great for trading and hedging. But if you own for more than one day, you must understand the product's structure and confirm it meets your investment objective," said Andrew Lekas, a partner with Old Mission Capital, a market-making firm.
So investors that want exposure to SK Hynix for the longer haul should probably avoid the leveraged ETFs in favor of the new Nasdaq-listed shares. Alternatively, there are some other funds that already own SK Hynix's shares that trade in South Korea that could be worth a look.
The Roundhill Memory ETF, which launched in April and has already attracted $24 billion in assets, has nearly 24% of the fund in SK Hynix's local shares. The ETF has even bigger positions in Micron and SK Hynix's South Korean rival Samsung.
The Kurv Memory Select ETF, which just started trading at the end of June, has 22% of its assets invested in SK Hynix. The stock is also the top holding in both the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF and the Korea Fund, a closed-end fund.
So there are plenty of options for investors to ride the wave of momentum for SK Hynix without having to take on the added risk of leverage as well.
Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 11, 2026 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
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