Parent shareholders get no shares in a muljeok bunhal (physical spin-off), so when the unit later IPOs the parent reprices as a holding company — historically at steep discounts to net asset value. How to read Korea’s two split structures, the double-counting problem, and the appraisal rights introduced in late 2022.
The overnight won rate Korean media quote every morning is not spot at all — it is the New York non-deliverable forward (NDF), a dollar-settled contract that fixes against Seoul’s daily market average rate. Here is how it is quoted, who trades it, and how to read the NDF-onshore gap as a signal.
Korea withholds 22% on dividends paid to non-residents (often reduced to 10-15% by tax treaty), charges a securities transaction tax — 0.2% on KOSPI sales as of 2026 — on every sale, and exempts most foreign portfolio investors from capital-gains tax entirely. Here is how each rule is applied at source, how to claim the treaty rate before a record date, and how to reclaim over-withheld tax.
Standard monthly KOSPI 200 options expire on the second Thursday of each month and settle against the 15:20-15:30 closing auction, so some hedge- and arbitrage-linked program flows concentrate into those final ten minutes. Here is how to read the futures basis and KRX program-trade balance beforehand — and what those indicators can and cannot tell you — with a worked reading of August 2026 foreign-flow data.