📊 Kiwoom Securities: Market Share Slips Despite 18.2 Million Accounts - 2026.11.03

Hi, I’m Peanut. Let’s start by checking the numbers together again today 📊 Several Kiwoom Securities stories have surfaced, but the most striking is that its retail throne is starting to wobble ^[1]. It has as many as 18.2 million accounts, yet its market share is slipping. Lots of accounts, but falling market share? Could that really be the case? That’s where I’d like to start digging.

📉 Why is market share falling despite all those accounts?

According to a Newsway report, the number of customer accounts is high, but retail market share is slipping ^[1]. The account count shows the size of its customer base, while market share shows how much those customers actually trade. When the two move in different directions, questions arise: Where did the trading value go? Did it move to competitors, or did the overall pie shrink? The article doesn’t provide enough information to verify that, so I’ll leave it as a question for now. Looking at the share price too, the November 3 closing price was ₩199,100, down -3.11% from the previous day.

💼 Receive sale proceeds in one day—but what about the interest calculation?

There’s also news of a collateral loan product that pays out proceeds from stock sales in just one day ^[2]. Kiwoom Securities says it will launch the product on the 20th of this month. The structure involves related institutions supplying low-interest funds to securities firms, and those institutions reportedly estimate that investors’ total interest burden could fall by around 15,000,000,000 KRW a year if the number of participating securities firms rises to 12 ^[2]. Mirae Asset Securities also launched a product backed by sale proceeds on the 2nd, explaining that investors will be able to receive the funds the next day from 2028, when the settlement cycle changes to T+1 ^[3]. The reduction in interest costs is only an estimate, so I’d like to take another look at how it was calculated. I’m also curious whether the picture will change depending on how much demand the product actually attracts.

⚠️ A mismatch between SPAC mergers and earnings figures

The SPAC market is in a deep freeze, with merger failures and delistings continuing, making Kiwoom Securities’ successive additions of merger targets noteworthy ^[4]. The article also notes that a fund managed by Kiwoom Investment is among the existing shareholders of a merger target ^[4]. We need to consider both whether the company is genuinely good at finding businesses and whether affiliated funds are involved in the structure. From my perspective, the first question is whether this can even be verified as a positive signal.

There’s also an interesting point in the earnings figures. The relative positions of third-quarter consolidated and standalone net income have reversed compared with last year ^[5]. Consolidated net income usually looks larger once subsidiary earnings are included, but this time standalone earnings unusually exceeded consolidated earnings. I’ll leave out the size of the gap because it comes from a single source. Instead, the figure will carry more weight if an explanation follows for why the positions reversed.

🛑 Peanut’s bearish scenario and the variables still to watch

Even when things look positive, I have to consider a bearish scenario to feel satisfied. If market share keeps falling and the sale-proceeds product is used only as a competitive tool, the logic of relying on account numbers alone could turn into a potential value trap. On the other hand, the story would change if the one-day payout structure brought trading back. I’ll view the outlook as conditional until a defense of retail market share is confirmed in the numbers. The next variables to watch are the market-share trend, the product’s actual reception, and the earnings explanation after the SPAC mergers. No one knows yet when the answers will come 🥜

📰 Reference News (5)

1

Kiwoom Securities’ Market Share Slips Despite 18.2 Million Accounts… Retail Throne Wobbles - Newsway

뉴스웨이 · 2026.11.03

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2

Money from Stock Sales, Now Paid Out in Just One Day

네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.03

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3

"Sell Your Stocks and Get Paid the Next Day"… Starting in 2028

네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.02

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4

Kiwoom Securities CEO Um Ju-sung: How Did He Break Through the SPAC Market Freeze?

네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.03

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5

Kiwoom Securities’ Consolidated and Standalone Net Income Gap Reverses by 83.7 Billion… Why?

네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.03

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