FLKR
Franklin FTSE South Korea ETF
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South Korea overtakes India as world’s sixth-largest stock market
Shifting 10-15% of my DCA portfolio to Small Caps ex-US & EM (LatAm focus) any thoughts?
Recommended stocks / ETFs that are not closely tied to the US market
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I’ll buy more FLKR, AVDV, VXUS, probably some other stuff. I’m buying US ETFs, also, but in smaller amounts unless VOO goes -10% from ATH.
You are spot on! I bought EWY and FLKR in last July, and added more in Nov and Dec. I trimmed it in Feb, and re-added more 3 times in March. I trimmed a lot when it got close to 52 week high about a week ago. I reacquired them on Friday. I see a lot of value in those 2 companies and KospI, so I’m a long term holder. Having said that, when they go up parabolically, I think turning a bit of them to dry powder is a prudent thing to do.
Fair enough. My assumption is that sometimes when people buy calls, they also buy shares with the intention of holding much longer. As far as deliberately avoiding diversification, FLKR and DRAM have about the same concentration of SK Hynix. So if your goal is exposure to that, they’re not different. If memory goes cyclical later (again, I’m assuming someone might also buy shares), DRAM will turn down a little harder than FLKR, and may even delist. So, I’d say FLKR has no disadvantages whatsoever for someone looking for SK Hynix exposure, and might have some advantages over DRAM. Buying calls on either, probably doesn’t matter much.
FLKR has similar SK Hynix exposure with much lower expense ratio, and built in diversification away from a single sector.
FLKR under $40 back in March was a steal.
Korea is actually down 14% today relative to yesterday, see FLKR/EWY. The losses from SK are from Korea's market from last night before today's market implosion.
I feel you. I came close to buying at the top, but I'm a stingy bitch and didn't like the price tag, so i debated FLKR or EWY and fortunately debated too long to buy in,
SPMO, QQQM, VONG, AVDV, VXUS, FLKR, SMH, XLK, lots of single stocks.
Hyundai will be a winner no matter what. The business, I mean….hopefully that translates to share price appreciation. FLKR holds a lot of Hyundai, in addition to Samsung and SK Hynix. That’s kinda my thesis on buying FLKR (plus SMH) instead of DRAM. Great E/R, too.
Looks like I'm loading up EWY and FLKR tomorrow.
FLKR. SPMO, QQQM, VONG. Probably some individual stocks, like SOUN. We’ll see what’s hurting the most in a few minutes.
It’s in DRAM. Alternatively, you can buy SMH and FLKR to get a lower expense ratio with the same top holdings and sector/industry diversification.
I got FLKR for exposure
Solid state batteries. Samsung SDI has S-line built in 2022, and are on track supposedly for planned 2027 commercial release of solid state. All these drones, robots, EVs, etc., will benefit hugely from highly energy density, lightweight, small, rapid rechargeable and non-incendiary batteries. Especially if they want to have onboard, high energy processes like AI. Whoever gets the solid state contracts will instantly have a more competitive product. These will also burn a ton of silver supply as each cell has a gram of silver in it. Samsung has been buying billions in silver and years of silver mine outputs on spec. Good luck buying it though. I had to open up an international account. It is only a tiny fraction of EWY and FLKR, and a few other ETFs have as much as 4-7% but are also balanced out by industries that will lose - lithium mining and batteries - reducing the overall benefit to the SDI component.
Yup, I’m holding FLKR.
FLKR is also loaded with Samsung and SK Hynix, is more diversified in it’s other holdings, and has a much lower expense ratio.
FLKR. Less than half of the fees of EWY.
I was just looking at FLKR’s (S Korea ETF) chart and noticed it didn’t move below its 1yr SMA during the dip this year. I guess it was just that high above it before the dip. Thought that was interesting, though, since it is so high beta.
FLKR isn't really a semi ETF Not that it's bad - just bought a good bit myself - but that and EWY are more South Korea bets
Jesus dude how big of an order do you do if FLKR volume is too low for you
FLKR way lower expense ratio. People need to beware those there’s turmoil going on in sk over profit sharing with workers and worker strikes
why not FLKR or DRAM, or ... What else is there?
Also, FLKR ETF in any US brokerage
Sounds like I might get better entry soon on my FLKR DCA.
VOO is S&P500 US top 500 large caps VTI is US total market They are both broad market but VOO covers 500 stocks while VTI covers 3,500 stocks. I like the USA focus. VOO is a great core etf. It adds a lot of utility to keep your portfolio robust. SMH is a very impressive high volatility etf which is good if you have the iron stomach for it. It's a great for international stocks like TSM. ARKX/UFO are a very large chunk and I'm not seeing their future performance really justify their large position in your portfolio. You would be better off just buying a few shares of rocketlab. It would be nice to see some of the SMH fund going to QQQM or SPMO so you have layers to your AI sector exposure. Maybe even FLKR for south korea's samsung and sk hynix would be a nice compliment. It would be nice to see some of the ARKX/UFO go to AVUV because there are a lot of great small US companies you don't carry. Overall I like how ambitious your portfolio is. I don't have the stomach for such large plays of SMH, ARKX, and UFO but it's great to see you are branching out your portfolio to pickup some stocks not held in VOO.
Ohh I hadn’t heard of FLKR. New to this. I also have a low risk tolerance lol
If you're playing the AI memory trade FLKR and EWY both have the problem that they're about 50% SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics and 50% other random Korean stuff you don't care about.
Yeah, I hold FLKR. Used to hold EWY, which has higher ER.
FLKR is a passive South Korea index sponsored by Franklin Templeton which includes these and also some growing defense companies. Its fee is 0.09%, lower than iShares.
If outperforming US indexes is your metric, why not just go with Korea or Taiwan? FLKR has been great for me. Been eyeing FLTW as well but haven’t jumped in yet
In my case my horizon is 30 years. - Despite believing they are overvalued, I still hold some SP500/total market index funds just to save myself from FOMO, just a smaller part of my portfolio than most people. - I'm continuing to hold onto my FLKR shares despite the insane performance of the past year(I'm up 270%). In part because I don't want to pay taxes on gains, but also because I think the windfalls to SK Hynix/Samsung workers will really pump the Korean economy(SK Hynix workers getting $477k bonus this year, potential $900k next year, Samsung workers likely getting similar.). I'm reinvesting the dividends elsewhere though. - Buying long term US 30 year TIPS/VGLT. Bond yields are higher than SP500 earnings yield for the first time since the tech bubble. I think a recession is also likely soon. Either interest rates fall due to recession, and I make as much as an 80% gain in short term and then go back in equities, or I earn what I consider to be a reasonable return long term if interest rates stay elevated. - Some REITs for exposure to real estate. - Some consumer staples companies trading at very cheap valuations just to diversify a bit, these are all small holdings.
DRAM, SOXQ, FLKR... buy and hold like a ghey boomer. Trade lotto options on the top-10 tickers in those funds.
DRAM, SOXQ, FLKR... all solid plays here, papi. you good.
Yes, this is true. This is another plus of the FLKR ETF. There’s a lot of good Korean stuff growing in market share both domestic and export. Post ‘22, a lot of countries are looking their way.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. FLKR is the US-traded South Korean index ETF.
If you can't get on a brokerage to trade Korean stocks, you can get exposure through ETFs focused on Korean markets. FLKR and MKOR are two that are popping
FLKR is a decent ETF. It's basically 50% hynix and Samsung. But yes. Supposedly they are working on getting an ADR listed or something stateside.
Haven’t yet calculated the split I want to land on. I’m already in SMH. When I looked at DRAM to see what I want that isn’t already in SMH, I decided that what I really want to add is Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. And FLKR seems to have the most exposure when I sort for expense ratios. At first glance, 50/50 does seem reasonable, though.
I looked into DRAM yesterday at the suggestion of someone here, but decided that a combo of SMH and FLKR would get me the exposures I want with a lower expense ratio. Probably trading some performance for diversification.
Yup, indirectly via FLKR. But I wish I bought more! Should've went all in on it, but I have low risk tolerance so I stayed diversified.
I'd just hold FLKR for SK Hynix/Samsung exposure. It's about 50% SK Hynix/Samsung. 50% of it is SK Hynix/Samsung. IMO the rest of the Korean market is still relatively cheap so I don't mind holding that as well.
I have FLKR which is essentially the same as EWY but with more holdings and lower fees, but with much worse trading volume/liquidity. I think this is bullish. I remember hyping up SK Hynix and Samsung back in Dec 2024, telling people to buy in to EWY. But a lot of people didn't want to hold the rest of the Korean market(concerns about demographics, tariffs, etc). Giving investors direct access to SK Hynix can definitely attract capital.
I hold VOO 50%, VXUS 20%, AVDV 20%, and FLKR 10%. This diversification has been a great balancer, especially against AI disruption....That said, even Asian equities have been impacted by current events in the Middle East.... AVDV hasn't been impacted nearly as much.
Yes, they're practically the same. Only FLKR is .009 and EWY is .036...FOUR times the expense ratio. But, if that doesn't matter to you. No worries.
EWJV for Japan. EWY and FLKR for Korea. Bonus Japan: SSUMY (not an ETF)
If you like MU, buy FLKR. The fund is heavily concentrated, with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix alone making up nearly 40% of its total assets. This gives the ETF a significant tilt toward the technology sector. It's still cheap, but will shoot up soon.
I like Korea and Japan in general (tho I think it still has more dip to go) but I'm confused how the KOSPI is down so hard yet stuff like EWY/FLKR are up...how can Samsung/Hynix be so down today but ETFs are up when they're like 50% of the portfolio? I thought I was starting to get the hang of finance but that math ain't matching for me.
I bought FLKR calls at its 52 week high on premarket 😭🙏. https://ibb.co/nMJQR0s1
I just bought this Monday I believe because it was listed as undervalued with great upside. Franklin FTSE South Korea ETF: FLKR. Down 10% yesterday. Fkin Trump!!!!!. I know it will recover but damn!!!! #
I put half in $DRTS to change the way cancer is treated. The rest is diversified into: BWET GDMN FMTM FLKR This gives you oil shipping futures, gold, momentum and South Korea. I’ll put this single stock and four ETFs up against any other portfolio over the next twelve months. NFA. DYOR.
Thinking of picking up some more FLKR during this dip.
Looks like FLKR has a very heavy 22% holding of samsung and some remarkable growth in the past few months. It's almost practically a samsung/SK Hynix stock instead of an etf.
I was holding stocks but found it to be stressful with the AI disruption and it's impact on tech, especially. Most institutional investors and a god part of retail investors starting going for generic US holdings or international. That's why I maintain a core position of VTI and do a 50/50 with international. VTI 50% , VXUS 15%, AVDV 15%, FLKR 10%, SOXQ 10%... Run that in your simulator.
Bot or not... I've found random posts that made huge impacts. I've been investing heavily in International and wanted an ETF that accessed Samsung and found FLKR. None of my searches even mentioned this ETF.
Stocks are volatile. Better to find EFTs. VTI for core position and shine international, like AVDV and FLKR. In 2025, the Franklin FTSE South Korea ETF (NYSEARCA:FLKR) delivered a robust performance with an annual return of approximately 75.00%. As of March 2, 2026, the fund's year-to-date (YTD) performance remains strong, gaining 47.02% since the start of the year. Wish I'd found this sooner.
It's all about dry powder right now. This administration is getting desperate and every move they make tends to move the needle to the extreme. They know they've lost the midterms... what can they do to prevent that? Their Hail Mary will be something extreme... like instituting the insurrection act and invoking absolute martial law. How would the economy and markets react to a constitutional crisis? It likely won't be business as usual. Now is the time to hedge and position yourself defensively. My core is 40/60 US/Intl... VTI and VXUS, AVDV, FLKR. I make swing trades to benefit from the volatility. The rotation from tech to everything else has created a great environment for this.
• HYSA: $85k earning about $200/month in interest That's a waste. Cash loses value due to inflation. The 85k should be invested in some index (perhaps VT) in a brokerage fund, put into a different store of value (like, say, a gold ETF), or at least put into treasuries or something like that. Keep a few months of expenses in the HYSA as an emergency fund (aka a "fuck off fund" just in case you land a bad boyfriend or girlfriend, lol). Since Trump was elected, I prefer broad ETFs of non-USA stocks. Stuff like VGK (Europe), FLKR (Korea), or ASEA (South-east Asia). VXUS (everywhere but the US) or VT (the USA + the rest of the world too) if you want super-broad based etfs that you ignore forever and ever. You're 23. Stocks go up over the long-term (because companies overall become more profitable as technology improves). In a brokerage account you want to invest in ETFs or stocks that you will hold for a year or more. (In the USA, stock market gains are taxed as capital gains if you held the investment for more than a year. They are taxed as regular income if you held the investment for less than a year. Capital gains taxes are much lower than income taxes.) "How do you mentally handle market dips?" Not looking. Seriously. Keeping in mind you want broad, diverse ETFs that you will hold for a year or more, I wouldn't bother to pay any attention to the brokerage account unless you are adding more money to it. "Did you transition money gradually from HYSA into investments or lump sum it? I lump summed it. No real reason to transfer gradually, in my opinion. Though in my case I never had an HYSA. Never saw the point. "how you decided on your allocation at a similar age" I didn't invest until I was older, but it went like this: Oh my goodness, I have money now. I know money always loses value over time due to inflation. I should invest my money, because stocks and real estate don't lose value to inflation like the dollar does. The classic investments for Americans building wealth are real estate and the stock market. I can't afford a house and don't want one where I currently live anyway. I'll invest in stocks. Bonds and other conservative assets like gold generally grow slower & are more suited for risk-adverse retirees, so I'll just stick to stocks. I want what will grow most over the next few decades, so, stocks. I'll max out a Roth IRA and then put the rest in a brokerage account. (Contractor business income - no 401k.) I'll invest in broad-based ETFs with diverse holdings so that no one company falling apart can hurt me too badly. I'll invest in ETFs holding USA stocks even though they are overvalued because the markets believe in American Exceptionalism and USA stocks bizarrely keep growing faster than everywhere else. That went well. Oh my goodness, Trump was RE-elected. American Exceptionalism is dead. I'll shift my money into broad-based ETFs holding non-USA stocks. That went really well. Hey, look, a reddit post I think I can answer helpfully.
A few tickers for you to consider; most are "value" from a "I think the Friday close was a reasonable entry point" rather than low P/E or small-cap value but, FWIW, I have positions in all of the below. - LUMN - Lumen Technologies. Enterprise fiber (legacy phone line provider) that I think/hope is on a successful turnaround path. I first entered <$2 a few years ago and had been trimming a large position...but I picked up more when they dipped following earnings earlier in the month. I think this is a $10-15 stock in 2026. - HEI, Heico Corp. Aerospace/defense component provider that unexpectedly dipped following an earnings beat last week. Heico makes the components that keeps the Air Force/Navy flying, and I think they're going to continue to run with all of the military deployment activity. Every hour of flight time eventually translates to revenue for HEi. -TXT, Textron. Industrial/Aviation conglomerate (best known brands include Cessna and Bell) with a very interesting defense business; I particularly like what they're doing with drones. P/E still under 20. - VEU, Vanguard ETF- all World not including US. This (plus a ton of commodities) is my play on the US debasement trade. I also have EWJ (Japan), FLKR (South Korea), AFK (Africa), and EPU (Peru) as specific country/region ETFs. - NVO, Novo Nordisk. Huge growth as the first GLP-1 provider...I think they're oversold now as the market is afraid of competition. This is a recent entry for me; they're now at pre-GLP 1 prices, with a P/E ~10. All that said, I think value is hard to find right now...but the current volatility makes for a lucrative (but risky) environment for swing trading.
If you're not sure on what equities to go for (I like foreign ETFs like VGK or FLKR), replace cash & low-yield bonds with precious metals. Silver & gold. Gold is better for holding value. Silver has more volatility (higher growth and loss potential than gold). Inflation eats cash. Returns on bonds are okay - if they are beating inflation by a fair margin. Precious metals... sit there. Inflation makes their value look bigger. And sometimes their demand also goes up and down separately from that.
But....I sold most of my EWY amd FLKR over the fears of Korea crashing. Love Korean market, but Samsung and Hynox control 50% (roughly) of market. If it falters as it looked to start over the past 2 days...it could bring down a lot of foreign markets with it. If you look at how many of the foreign ETFs have Samsung, Hynix, and TSM in the top 3....if stop losses start getting hit and the dominoes start...it will ripple badly.
FLKR underweights Samsung or SK Hynix (I forget which) and I honestly want them overweighted for now. I will sell this and rotate somewhere else before the expense ratio really matters to me.
FLKR has a much much lower expense ratio.
Low-key the S Korean chip makers who supply Nvidia with HBM will run cuz of this. EWY, FLKR, KORU for ETFs with exposure to the sector. HY9H on the Frankfurt Exchange if you're willing to jump through hoops to buy 100% SK Hynix, which has a major catalyst coming once it gets an ADR listed on US Exchanges.
just bought FLKR last week. think it has tons of room to run over the next couple years.
It's really what you're most comfortable with. For international I have SDIV and FLKR, I would need to research VT but generally the broader your exposure, the lower your risk.
There is a whole world out there. Over the past 12-months (as of Friday), measured by ETFs that follow various markets... VOO (USA)... 12.75% VXUS (Exclude USA)... 31.83% FLCA (Canada)... 32.62% FLMX (Mexico)... 53.59% FLKR (South Korea)... 131.39% These are the main ones that I follow. Also EUAD... European Defense since they will be spending to upgrade their security as the US is becoming less reliable to NATO.
I think the value and total returns for the world's 500 largest companies, excluding American companies, will be 2 or 3 boatloads of money more than the S&P 500. Easy access to those returns via ETFs. For example, it is hard to own Samsung, SK Hynix, and Hyundai... but a South Korea ETF such as FLKR or EWY gives you exposure to this booming market.
FLKR is similar to EWY and has much lower management fees. You can buy SK Hynix on the Frankfurt Exchange (HY9H).
I invest in region & country specific ETFs, due to believing I have better knowledge of international affairs & politics that can out-perform ex-US indexes. But I don't particularly recommend that same approach to those without my international affairs interests & education. My two biggest holdings last year were EWY and EWP (Korea and Spain), though I'd recommend FLKR over EWY in general (lower cost) and I don't recommend EWP this year (last year it was my second best performer). South Korea went gangbusters last year due to the post-coup-attempt bounce-back + Samsung + SK Hynix. FLKR is a great pickup if you want both Samsung + SK Hynix (both component suppliers for AI data farms, etc.) + industrial and defense stocks. Spain had excellent success last year due to demographic advantages over other European countries & the Socialist government's ability to pass common-sense legislation despite expectations of political chaos. Conservatives have been winning regional elections in the last few months however, giving a more unstable feeling to the business environment. EZA (South Africa) could be good IF you expect a continued commodities boom. Trump hates South Africa though, so there's some minor risk there, depending on how smoothly you think Chinese multinationals can replace American multinationals if Trump trade's policies significantly harms business ventures like Ford South Africa. VXUS is great if you don't want to switch in and out of various countries & regions every few years as fundamentals change.
I don't know that you can invest in SK or Samsung. There are foreign ordinary share classes but I don't believe that either actually trade - perhaps they did at one point. "What's the best stock/etf/index to use to invest into South Korea economy with heavy weight toward Samsung and SK Hynix?" FLKR, EWY or if you want something spicy, the 3x KORU.
FLKR has paid more dividends historically because it had capital gains distributions.
FLKR is the only thing green for me right now 😂
FLKR also exists if you want lower fees & more coverage, but it has much lower volume so not well suited for trading or options.
FLKR is another cheaper ETF option. You could also buy Samsung on the London Stock Exchange through IBKR
Full port FLKR and chill
I went heavy on MU. And for some international exposure picked up FLKR which is a South Korean ETF that's 40% Samsung & SK Hynix.
My advice is to not look at it as "all or none." A series of small steps/victories will be something that improves your mental wellbeing (and probably your financial returns). Maybe take a triage approach. For me, I would say divesting from US-based assets would be top priority, and best chance to outperform, but you have to decide based on your priorities (ICE? Gaza? etc?). A simple move into index ETFs of countries or regions that are more progressive might be a good start. FLCA is a basket of Canadian stocks FLMX is Mexico FLKR is South Korea etc. Best of luck. I agree with your premise. Economic participation is no longer neutral. If you own Mag7, for example, your capital is propping up ICE.
My exposure to Samsung is through FLKR... so kinda hedged by owning broad Korea basket... still happy with over 100% gain over past 12 months.
VXUS EUFN EPU ARGT FLKR are were my allocations are and they’ve done great so far.
I like FLKR more, lower fees. Not good for options/frequent trading though because of high bid/ask spread
If you’re going international check out the following EVLU, AVDV, FLKR
"most years" US outperformance was based on Free Trade policies pursued by the government in Washington DC at the time. Currently, the government in Washington DC is pursuing Trade War policies that have impacts on capital flows which will naturally result in diminished foreign demand for US based equities. The old policy (Free Trade) produced a valuation premium for US equities. The new policy (Trade War) is removing that valuation premium. Unless and until the government in Washington DC pursues a different set of policies, Ex-US stock markets will continue to outperform. Here are 12 month returns (as of Friday) for a selection of various markets as reflected in ETFs 1 year returns: SPX ... 13.84% - S&P 500 - largest 500 US domiciled corporations. VXUS... 30.04% - Global, excluding US FLCA... 31.09% - Canada VPL... 32.97% - Pacific Region FLMX... 53.22% - Mexico FLKR... 99.15% - South Korea
There's also FLKR which has a much lower expense ratio than EWY.
They also have ETFs for individual countries... which I find fun. FLKR, for example, is South Korea stocks and it is pretty high-tech as you might imagine. Another example, FLCA, holds Canadian companies. Heavy on banks.
I had 0 international exposure but just now getting into FLKR with 70 shares. Hopefully not too late. Looked at EWY but went FLKR for the lower fees.
The DAGA trade (Divest America Generate Alpha) has been massively profitable. 1 year returns: SPX ... 13.84% VXUS... 30.04% FLCA... 31.09% VPL... 32.97% FLMX... 53.22% FLKR... 99.15% Korea and Mexico have wider volatility. Total world (ex-US) and Canada had more steady outperformance (more than double the returns of US stocks).
Idk if there are KOSPI tracking ETFs, but I've been investing in FLKR since December 2024, and it's done really well. It has the lowest fees of any Korea index fund I've seen. EWY is probably better if you're looking for trading volume or options, although its fees are much higher.
If you buy FLKR or EWY, it's like 40-50% Samsung/SK Hynix. The rest is really cheap value stocks.
Yeah, that's the difference between active investment and passive DCAing into an ETF. I agree that South Korea (and Japan) has long term structural challenges...but what I meant by "having a moment" is that FLKR is up 77% YTD. I'm about a month away from long term capital gains, at which point I'm planning to cash out most of my investment.