This 24-year-old Korean trader borrowed money to make 300 million KRW, only to lose it all within four weeks.

Lee Seung-ho, a Seoul National University student, took out a 500% margin loan, turning a 20 million KRW deposit into 300 million KRW for a 15x return, according to Reuters.

Then the Korean stock market began to crash violently; his brokerage firm issued a forced liquidation, and his account fell below his initial investment.

He said that once he saves up enough money again, he plans to take out another margin loan.

His story is not rare; it is the result of the system operating as designed.

The balance of margin loans in the Korean stock market reached a record high of 38.63 trillion KRW on June 24.

Broad investor debt, including other forms of borrowing, exceeded 60 trillion KRW by the end of May, just as South Korea's $4.1 trillion stock market became the most volatile in the world.

On Thursday, authorities banned new listings of leveraged ETFs linked to individual stocks, having approved them only two months prior.

The head of the Financial Supervitory Service has already admitted that the approval process was too rushed.

Leverage accelerates losses during downturns far faster than it accumulates wealth during uptrends, and now an entire generation of Korean retail traders is experiencing this the hard way.