Ideas
VIX above 20 is buy signal.
When VIX touches 20, historical returns favor buying equities within six months; if VIX stays above its 20-day average or 22 for an extended period, that becomes a long-term decline signal. Friday's panic was a first buy opportunity.
Microsoft oversold; buy the rebound.
Microsoft reached oversold technical levels, a rare event for a mega-cap, and Friday's selloff created a buy-the-rebound opportunity.
Follow the Korean equity rebound.
After Friday's panic over Fed chair Kevin Warsh and quantitative tightening fears, the selloff reached levels similar to August 2024, with foreign selling and crypto weakness largely liquidity-driven rather than fundamental. Korean equities should follow the rebound because Samsung's earnings and valuation remain solid, deposits are moving into stocks, and high-net-worth investors are shifting from real estate, insurance and crypto into equities. The market is not a peak but a new asset-allocation regime.
Korean memory chips are extremely cheap.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are extremely cheap relative to earnings power. Even the most negative analyst sees Samsung's 2026 operating profit above KRW 140T; applying the 20-year average 11x multiple implies over KRW 1,400T market cap. By 2026 operating-profit rankings, Samsung and SK hynix enter the global top 10 while market-cap rankings are much lower, a large mismatch. AI capex must be spent on memory, and the general DRAM/NAND shortage is more important than HBM, supporting the Korean memory duo.
Cosmetics bottomed; follow the rebound.
Cosmetics stocks have been a three-year laggard despite strong overseas sell-through, and they are AI-immune because AI cannot physically apply makeup. The speaker sees the sector bottoming, with overseas results improving, new brands contributing, and Japan's expected consumption-tax cuts plus Chinese tourist flows supporting K-beauty demand. Investors can widen exposure to cosmetics and beauty rather than stay too defensive.
Amorepacific is a three-year bottom rebound.
Amorepacific is at a three-year price bottom. Domestic sales remain weak, but overseas momentum and new brands are starting to contribute, while the political environment for Korean cosmetics exports and tourism improves. This makes the current rebound worth following.
Brokerages benefit from KOSDAQ trading boom.
Securities firms are the indirect, conservative way to play the KOSDAQ support and money-move theme. Trading value in the last two weeks is already double year-end levels, which boosts brokerage earnings; government policy wants deposits, real estate and crypto money to move into stocks, especially KOSDAQ. NH Investment & Securities and Kiwoom Securities are named examples.
Holding companies receive semiconductor dividends.
This year's profit leader is semiconductors, but next year's net-income leader is likely holding companies that receive semiconductor dividends. If Samsung Electronics' operating profit triples and payout stays stable, total dividends can triple; buybacks, cancellations or higher payout plans at shareholder meetings would force estimate upgrades. SK Square, Samsung C&T and Samsung Life are named beneficiaries. The speaker prefers buying financials and holding companies around September.
Alphabet monetizes AI leadership.
Alphabet is becoming an AI winner that monetizes AI rather than just spending on it. It ranks first by operating profit among global peers, and Gemini will be embedded in Apple/Siri and Samsung devices, giving it distribution and revenue.
Offline retailers recover on deregulation.
Korean offline retail and distribution is an AI-immune value play. Deregulation such as allowing dawn delivery and easing Sunday closure rules levels the playing field with Coupang; E-Mart and Lotte Shopping trade at very low PBR around 0.3-0.4x and could re-rate as their e-commerce and offline operations regain attention.
Amazon rebounds short term; Walmart re-rates.
Amazon fell to oversold levels and must spend unavoidable AI capex, so it is a short-term rebound candidate. Walmart is the longer-term re-rating story: it is cheap, AI-immune, has around 30% e-commerce growth, and was added to the Nasdaq-100, so its valuation can keep recovering.
NVIDIA remains core AI infrastructure winner.
NVIDIA remains the core infrastructure winner of the AI capex cycle. It ranks fourth by operating profit as AI spending accelerates, and the stock's rise is justified by the spending that must flow into its infrastructure.
Insurance better than banks; securities top.
Within Korean financials, securities are the top preference, but insurance looks better than banks: banks have lots of capital to return, yet their PBR ceiling is limited by peers in Japan around 0.7-0.8x, while insurance has a higher ceiling with AIA near 2x PBR. Samsung Life is mentioned as an example.
Insurance better than banks; securities top.
Within Korean financials, securities are the top preference, but insurance looks better than banks: banks have lots of capital to return, yet their PBR ceiling is limited by peers in Japan around 0.7-0.8x, while insurance has a higher ceiling with AIA near 2x PBR. Samsung Life is mentioned as an example.
KOSDAQ biotech and batteries have momentum.
KOSDAQ is roughly 40% biotech and secondary battery. Long-term rates broke above 4.2%, but even if quantitative easing is not used, rate cuts alone can help liquidity-sensitive names. Secondary batteries also benefit from the robot theme because robots require battery packages. Momentum in these two sectors can persist, especially before the National Growth Fund fundraising in May/June.
This 3PRO TV (삼프로TV) video, published February 09, 2026,
features Lee Hyuk-jin
discussing VIX, MSFT, EWY, KOSDAQ, 005930.KS, 000660.KS, Korean cosmetics, 090430.KS, Korean securities, 005940.KS, 039490.KS, 402340.KS, 028260.KS, 032830.KS, GOOGL, Korean offline retail, 139480.KS, 023530.KS, AMZN, WMT, NVDA, Korean insurance, Korean banks, LIT.
15 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers:
Lee Hyuk-jin
· Tickers:
VIX,
MSFT,
EWY,
KOSDAQ,
005930.KS,
000660.KS,
Korean cosmetics,
090430.KS,
Korean securities,
005940.KS,
039490.KS,
402340.KS,
028260.KS,
032830.KS,
GOOGL,
Korean offline retail,
139480.KS,
023530.KS,
AMZN,
WMT,
NVDA,
Korean insurance,
Korean banks,
LIT
