[Exclusive] 800,000 Took 'Samsung-Hynix Leverage' Training, but There Were No 'Wrong-Answer Notes'

More than 800,000 people have completed the preliminary training required to trade single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but it has emerged that records of trainees' answers to individual questions and personalized "wrong-answer notes" were not kept separately. Although the curriculum was revised several times on the grounds that these are high-risk products, there was no data to support the changes.

According to parliamentary audit materials obtained by Choi Eunseok of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, the Korea Financial Investment Association said it "does not store the results of correct and incorrect answers by question and individual in a separate database," in response to a request for data on incorrect-answer rates for questions in the mid-course assessments and quizzes in the preliminary leveraged ETF training.

After deciding in late April to allow leveraged ETFs, financial authorities required new investors to complete one hour of relevant preliminary training administered by the Korea Financial Investment Association, followed by an additional hour of advanced training. As of the end of August, 807,778 people had completed the training, including 87,367 people aged 60 or older, or about 10% of all participants.

To improve the effectiveness of the training and make investors more aware of the risks, the Korea Financial Investment Association has continually enhanced the curriculum: it expanded the assessment questions in May and June, introduced repeat study in July for those who failed to meet the passing score, and expanded the advanced training to two hours in August. Yet it did not retain question- or individual-level records of incorrect answers, which should have provided quantitative grounds for these revisions.

Regarding the lack of data on incorrect answers, the Korea Financial Investment Association said, "Mid-course assessments are operated to manage learning progress." It added, "To achieve a 100% learning progress rate, participants must pass the mid-course assessment for each chapter, with a correct-answer rate of at least 60%, before moving on to the next chapter. We therefore consider those who complete the training to have achieved an understanding of at least 60%."

However, critics say data needs to be accumulated to measure the actual effectiveness of the preliminary training and use the findings to improve the curriculum. Assemblyman Choi said, "To improve the training in the future, anonymized statistics should be accumulated, including correct-answer rates by question and changes in understanding by age group and over time."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.