The 24-year-old used savings from military service to trade stocks, but broker liquidations erased his gains after the market reversed.
A 24-year-old South Korean university student, Lee Sang-ho, turned about $13,000 of savings from his military service into roughly $200,000 by using 5x leverage (borrowed funds to amplify trades) in the stock market. The gains unraveled within weeks when the market reversed, triggering repeated forced liquidations by his broker. Those sales wiped out the profits he had built during the rally and pushed the account to below his original investment, underscoring how leverage can magnify losses as quickly as it boosts returns.