Korean stock market glossary
The Korean words you'll meet in filings, news and stock apps, explained in plain English. Each term has its own page.
- 공시 · Disclosure (company filing)A company announcement that listed companies must publish on DART and the Korea Exchange.
- 상한가 · Upper price limit (limit up)The highest price a stock can reach in one day: 30% above the previous close.
- 하한가 · Lower price limit (limit down)The lowest price a stock can reach in one day: 30% below the previous close.
- 우선주 · Preferred sharesA second class of shares, usually without voting rights but with a slightly higher dividend.
- 유상증자 · Paid capital increase (share issue for cash)A company sells new shares for cash, which usually dilutes existing shareholders.
- 무상증자 · Bonus issue (free shares)Existing shareholders get new shares for free, moved from the company's reserves; no new money comes in.
- 자사주 · Treasury shares (buybacks)A company's own shares that it has bought back and holds.
- 자사주 소각 · Treasury share cancellationThe company permanently cancels shares it has bought back, so each remaining share owns more of the company.
- 액면분할 · Stock splitEach share is split into several cheaper shares; the company's value doesn't change.
- 감자 · Capital reductionA company reduces its share capital, usually by cancelling or merging shares.
- 전환사채 · Convertible bonds (CB)Bonds that the holder can swap for new shares at a set price, which can dilute shareholders.
- 지주회사 · Holding companyA company whose main business is owning controlling stakes in other group companies.
- 재벌 · Chaebol (business group)A large family-controlled group of affiliated companies, such as Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor or LG.
- 공매도 · Short sellingSelling borrowed shares to profit if the price falls. Banned in Korea from November 2023 to March 2025.
- 배당기준일 · Dividend record dateThe day that decides who receives a dividend: you must be a shareholder on the record date.
- 배당락 · Ex-dividendThe day a stock starts trading without the right to the next dividend; the price usually drops by about the dividend.
- 잠정실적 · Preliminary earningsEarly, unaudited results a company announces before its full quarterly or annual report.
- 관리종목 · Administrative issue (delisting risk)A warning label the Korea Exchange puts on stocks at risk of being delisted.
- 투자경고 · Investment warningA Korea Exchange alert for stocks whose price has risen abnormally fast; the step after 'caution'.
- 거래정지 · Trading haltTrading in a stock is stopped, for a few minutes or much longer.
- 서킷브레이커 · Circuit breakerThe whole market stops trading when an index falls 8%, 15% or 20% in a day.
- 사이드카 · Sidecar (program trading pause)A five-minute pause on computer program trading when index futures move sharply.
- 코스피200 · KOSPI 200 indexAn index of 200 large KOSPI companies, the basis for Korea's main futures, options and many ETFs.
- 외국인 한도 · Foreign ownership limitA cap on how much of certain Korean companies foreign investors may own in total.
- 동시호가 · Single-price auctionThe opening and closing auctions, where orders are collected and matched at one price.
- 개미 · Retail investors ('ants')Slang for individual investors in Korea; literally 'ants'.
- 밸류업 · Value-up programmeKorea's programme, started in 2024, to get listed companies to raise shareholder value and narrow the 'Korea discount'.
- 시가총액 · Market capitalisation (market cap)What the whole company is worth on the stock market: share price × number of shares.
- 주가수익비율 (PER) · Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E)Share price ÷ earnings per share: how many years of today's profit the price pays for.
- 주가순자산비율 (PBR) · Price-to-book ratio (P/B)Share price ÷ net assets (book value) per share.
- 배당수익률 · Dividend yieldYearly dividend per share ÷ share price, as a percentage.
- 자기자본이익률 (ROE) · Return on equity (ROE)Net profit ÷ shareholders' equity: how much profit the company makes on the owners' money.
- 거래대금 · Trading valueThe total won value of a stock's shares traded in a day.
- 목표주가 · Target priceThe price a broker's analyst thinks the stock is worth, usually in about 12 months.
- 외국인 순매수 · Foreign net buyingWhat foreign investors bought minus what they sold, in won.
- 이동평균선 · Moving averageThe average closing price of the last N trading days, drawn as a line that moves forward each day.
- 골든크로스 · Golden crossA shorter moving average crossing above a longer one, a common sign of a trend turning up.
- 데드크로스 · Dead cross (death cross)A shorter moving average crossing below a longer one, a common sign of a trend turning down.
- 이격도 · Disparity (price vs moving average)The price as a percentage of its moving average: 100 means the price is on its average.
- 상대강도지수 (RSI) · Relative Strength Index (RSI)A 0–100 measure of how strong recent gains were against recent losses; above 70 is often called overbought, below 30 oversold.
- 스토캐스틱 · Stochastic oscillatorWhere today's close sits within the recent high–low range, from 0 (at the low) to 100 (at the high).
- MACD · MACD (moving average convergence divergence)The gap between a 12-day and a 26-day exponential moving average, with a 9-day signal line.
- 볼린저밴드 · Bollinger BandsBands two standard deviations above and below the 20-day average; they widen when prices swing more and narrow when they're quiet.
- ADX (평균방향지수) · ADX (Average Directional Index)Trend strength from 0 to 100; above 25 is usually called a strong trend. It doesn't say which way.
- ATR (평균진폭) · ATR (Average True Range)How much a stock usually moves in a day, from its daily highs, lows and previous closes.
- 일목균형표 · Ichimoku cloud (Ichimoku Kinko Hyo)A Japanese charting method whose shaded 'cloud' marks a zone of support and resistance; price above it is read as an uptrend.
- OBV (누적거래량) · On-balance volume (OBV)A running total that adds the day's volume when the price closes up and subtracts it when it closes down.
- 지지선 · 저항선 · Support and resistancePrice levels where buying (support) or selling (resistance) showed up before, often recent lows and highs.