Investing in Korea

For people interested in investing in Korean stocks, there are a number of brokers to choose from. The documents needed for making an investment account depends on the broker, but the simplest ones will be listed below.

For students, there are a few main criteria for making an investment account,

1. You must have been living in Korea for at least 6 months

2. You need to bring a certificate of admission form your university and your bankbook(통장)

(assuming you already have an ID, Korean phone number and a savings account at a Korean bank). Since these services are provided in almost exclusively Korean, we do not recommend this for people just starting to learn the language.

Another note is that foreigners can only trade Korean stocks through Korean brokers, and not any stocks outside the Korean market.

Here we recommend two brokers:

• 키움 증권

• 한국투자 증권

Foreigners have to attend in person when making an account for the first time, if you feel uncertain you can bring a Korean friend to help you out. From our experience, Kiwoom(키움) is the smoothest option and making an account usually takes less than 15 minutes.

People living in Seoul can find their headquarters in Yeouido(여의도), here you can make your account on the second floor. If you live somewhere else, just look up the nearest branch office on Naver!