From Seoul National University Investment Club to Global Fund Manager: A 20-Year Investor's Confession

Summary

Mok Daegyun, CEO of KCGI Asset Management, discusses his 20-year global fund manager career and lessons on surviving markets. Key investment views include taking profits after US biotech binary spikes, reading Korean semiconductor foreign selling as mechanical flow, holding Tesla as a long-term robotics/autonomy story, and watching the Samsung Electronics/SK hynix memory cycle rather than treating it as purely structural or purely cyclical.

• Mok Daegyun recounts his path from SNU investment club founding member to Daewoo Securities analyst, Mirae Asset global fund manager, and KCGI Asset Management CEO.
• He emphasizes survival through loss reduction, avoiding leverage, and managing position size over maximizing win rate.
• He argues that after a positive US biotech Phase 3 result, the value increase is mostly reflected in one to two days, favoring profit-taking.
• He interprets heavy foreign selling in Korean semiconductor stocks as natural position trimming and MSCI rebalancing, not a fundamental bearish call.
• He says Tesla is a buy-and-hold story because autonomous driving, humanoid robots, Musk's storytelling, and SpaceX integration create long-horizon optionality.
• He views Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as still asset-heavy cyclicals, with AI memory tightness likely into 2027-2028 but cycle risk requiring monitoring.