Korea's short-margin balance has fallen two-thirds from its 2023 peak
The balance of shares borrowed for short-margin trading stood at 31.3 billion won on September 2, 2026 — down 43.1 percent from a year earlier and less than a third of its February 2023 high of 94.0 billion won.
AI-assisted, human-reviewed sourcing. Figures are pulled programmatically from the official sources listed at the end of this article and checked by an editor before publication.
short marginsecurities lendingkospikosdaqkorea
Korea’s short-margin balance — shares retail investors have borrowed specifically to sell short through margin accounts — stood at 31.3 billion won on September 2, 2026. That is down 43.1 percent from 54.9 billion won a year earlier, and less than a third of the series’ all-time high of 94.0 billion won, set on February 20, 2023.
A different line item from margin debt
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Short-margin balance, Sept 2, 2026 | 31.3 billion won |
| Short-margin balance, Sept 2, 2025 | 54.9 billion won |
| Year-over-year change | −43.1% |
| All-time high (Feb 20, 2023) | 94.0 billion won |
| Current level vs. all-time high | −66.7% |
KOFIA reports short-margin balance (신용대주) separately from margin financing (신용융자, money borrowed to buy shares) and from pledged-securities loans. The three do not move together by construction — one reflects leveraged buying, one reflects a specific short-selling channel open to retail accounts, and one reflects loans collateralized by securities already held. This piece covers only the short-margin figure.
What a falling balance does and does not tell you
A smaller short-margin balance means fewer shares are currently borrowed through this specific retail channel than a year ago, or at the 2023 peak. It does not tell you whether retail investors have become more bullish, whether short-margin trading has shifted to another channel, or how this retail-only figure relates to institutional and foreign short-selling activity, which KRX reports through an entirely separate disclosure system this dataset does not cover.
Method
Figures come from KOFIA’s published credit-balance statistics, which report short-margin balance as its own category alongside margin financing and pledged-securities loans. We compare the same calendar date one year apart and report the series maximum without adjustment. Not investment advice.
Data & Verification Notes
- Data as of
- Sources
- Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA) — Credit balance / margin financing statistics
- SeoulMarkets — Daily series build from published credit-balance statistics (collect-credit-balance.mjs)
- Cross-checks
- Short-margin balance (신용대주) is KOFIA's own reported category for shares borrowed by retail investors specifically for short-margin trading — a different line item from margin financing (신용융자), which is money borrowed to buy shares
- Year-over-year comparison uses the same calendar date, September 2, in both 2025 and 2026
- The February 20, 2023 figure (94.0 billion won) is the maximum value across the full 1,177-day series we hold, from November 2021 to September 2026
- Excluded figures
- Institutional or foreign short-selling volume — this figure covers only the retail short-margin balance KOFIA reports, not exchange-wide short-selling activity, which is a separate, much larger figure reported elsewhere
- Why the balance has fallen — this is a level, not a record of the trades or motivations behind it
- Any view on whether current short-margin levels signal bullish or bearish sentiment — this is not investment advice
The full dataset behind these figures — every listed company, every row — is available to license. SeoulMarkets data for licence →
Not investment advice. SMarkets publishes data journalism for general information only. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security — any investment you make is at your own risk and responsibility. Figures are derived from official public data sources and may be revised by the issuing agency. Verify independently before acting.
← More Equities