Leverage Shares, a global issuer of leveraged exchange-traded products (ETPs), began trading two triple-leveraged single-stock products on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on June 12: the Leverage Shares 3x Long Samsung Electronics ETP (ticker SMG3) and the Leverage Shares 3x Long SK Hynix ETP (ticker HNX3), the firm said. Both aim to deliver three times the daily move of their underlying chipmaker. There are no inverse versions, per the issuer.
For a portfolio manager in London or New York, the immediate question is what this changes — and the answer is access, not a new bet. SMG3 and HNX3 give global investors an LSE-listed, USD-denominated route to Korea's two dominant memory-chip makers — Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), the world's largest memory manufacturer, and SK Hynix (000660.KS), the leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators — without opening a Korean brokerage account. "This product marks an important milestone in introducing ETPs on Korean stocks to the European market," Oktay Kavrak, an executive director at Leverage Shares, said in a statement carried by The Asia Business Daily.
The structure has a currency layer
The products trade in U.S. dollars, but the 3x exposure is built from Samsung and SK Hynix futures denominated in won on the Korea Exchange (KRX), Korea's main bourse and derivatives venue, according to Leverage Shares. Daily profit and loss is calculated in won and converted to dollars at the 7:30 a.m. London-time exchange rate. That means a holder is taking on Korean-equity direction, daily-reset leverage, and won-dollar currency movement at once.
Why the timing draws attention
The London debut lands roughly two weeks after Korea's own single-stock leveraged funds on the same two names ran into trouble. Korea Exchange listed its first batch of single-stock leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung and SK Hynix on May 27, 2026 at 2x daily leverage, and several triggered volatility halts on their debut session, Seoul Economic Daily reported. The launch drew a retail frenzy — roughly 2 trillion won (about USD 1.5 billion) flowed into the new leveraged products, per the same outlet.
The enthusiasm reversed quickly. The 14 long single-stock leveraged ETFs fell about 26% over two trading days in early June, Seoul Economic Daily reported, after Samsung dropped 13.94% to 302,500 won (roughly USD 221) and SK Hynix fell 14.23% to 1,971,000 won (about USD 1,439) over the same stretch. Ahead of all this, Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country's top financial regulator, warned on May 15 of the "extremely high potential loss risk" in such products.
The mechanism behind those losses matters for the new London products, which carry 50% more daily leverage. Leveraged ETPs reset every day, so their return over multiple sessions compounds rather than simply multiplying the stock's cumulative move — a drag known as volatility decay that worsens in choppy markets. As one market participant put it to Seoul Economic Daily, "Even if you get the direction right with a leveraged ETF, the expected and actual returns can diverge when volatility rises." A 3x daily structure applies that compounding more aggressively than the 2x Korean funds that just delivered a ~26% two-day drawdown.
What to watch
The first confirming data points are near. SMG3 and HNX3's opening sessions on the LSE will show whether European demand for leveraged Korean-chip exposure materializes, and whether U.K. regulators flag the products as Korea's FSC did domestically. Beyond that, Samsung Electronics' next quarterly results — expected in late July — will set the direction these triple-leveraged products amplify either way.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Leveraged and daily-reset products carry elevated risk of loss. Figures are sourced as cited; currency conversions use an approximate rate of 1 USD = 1,370 KRW.
