Watching the QLD and QQQM tickers late at night

Staring at the screen while the rest of the house is asleep

I don’t know why I keep checking these tickers at 2 AM. It started a few months ago when I read some forum posts about QLD and QQQM. Everyone seemed to have an opinion on whether leverage was essentially a recipe for disaster or the only way to catch up with the market. I ended up opening a separate brokerage account specifically for this. It wasn’t a huge amount, maybe around 5,000 USD to start, but watching the numbers jump around on a small phone screen feels surprisingly intense compared to just holding onto local stocks. The volatility is just different. When I look at the chart for QLD, it feels like I’m riding a roller coaster that I don’t fully understand how to control.

The weird gap between local and overseas markets

There is this strange disconnect between what’s happening here in Seoul and what’s moving the needles in New York. I occasionally look at the overnight KOSPI futures just to see if the market sentiment is shifting, but it rarely helps me sleep better. My friends keep telling me to just look at established funds or perhaps try looking into India or other emerging markets, but I feel like I’m already spread too thin. I remember reading about an export contract involving a company called Daesan Food for 300,000 USD, and for a split second, I wondered if it was easier to track real businesses than to chase these leveraged ETFs. But then, the urge to trade usually wins out.

Trying to ignore the Nvidia noise

Every time I log in, the platform is flooded with news about Nvidia’s share price. It’s unavoidable. It’s like the only stock that exists in the current financial news cycle. I have a few shares, but seeing the constant, manic updates makes me want to close the app and never look at it again. I sometimes think about moving my money into something less volatile, maybe a broader index fund like QQQM, just to stop the daily heart-racing experience of seeing a 3% swing in a few hours. But then I see a green day and I get greedy. It’s an endless cycle of anxiety and minor satisfaction.

The reality of currency fluctuations

Another thing that constantly annoys me is the exchange rate. Even if my stock picks perform reasonably well, if the KRW strengthens, it eats away at whatever small profit I might have made. I heard a clip of the former Bank of Korea governor talking about how domestic investment in overseas stocks is affecting the currency, and I realized I’m just one of those thousands of people contributing to that headline. It’s not a great feeling to realize your personal trading habits are part of a macro-level issue, though I doubt my measly contributions are moving the needle. Still, the math never seems to line up as cleanly as I thought it would when I first started.

Nothing feels quite settled yet

I still don’t have a real plan. Sometimes I think about dumping everything and just focusing on my career, or maybe putting the money into something physical. But then I remember how much time I spent researching account settings and transaction fees—which, by the way, are higher than I anticipated—and I just keep leaving the money where it is. It’s a very imperfect system, and I’m definitely not a pro, but for now, I suppose I’ll keep checking the apps every night until I eventually burn out or the market makes the decision for me.