Direxion Daily MSCI South Korea Bull 3X Shares (KORU) gained 2,108.54% over one year through a sustained rally in Korean semiconductor stocks, but the leveraged ETF's structure amplifies both gains and losses with daily resets.

KORU traded at $45.96 on May 23, 2025, and closed at $1,014.98 today, a one-year gain of 2,108.54%; the fund opened 2026 at $181.55 and has posted a year-to-date move of 459.06% in under five months.

KORU uses swaps to deliver three times the daily move of the MSCI Korea 25/50 Index, with 78.53% of assets in the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) and 21.47% in U.S. dollar collateral; the underlying basket is dominated by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which control roughly 95% of the global memory market alongside Micron.

The fund compounded instead of decaying because Korean equities moved persistently higher from the low 4,000s in late 2025 to above 5,900 by late February, with semiconductor names driving the move; Korean retail investors poured about $100 million into KORU around the Iran crisis, and EWY attracted more than $1.6 billion in new capital over a roughly three-month window.

Short interest surged 123.4% in February to 150,347 shares (11.3% of the float); on March 5, KORU dropped 35.8% in a single day when Middle East headlines spooked global risk assets, the same mechanism that produced the 30% up-day today run in reverse.