The book is set against a market that left investors confused after the Kospi topped 9,000 for the first time in June this year, only to repeatedly slump and move sideways. For investors who sold semiconductor shares early because they failed to anticipate the rally, those who piled into market leaders too late and took losses, and those who missed the leadership trend altogether, the author's diagnosis is the same: account returns are determined not by the index but by market leaders.
Han said the rules of the game in Korean equities have changed, citing mandatory cancellation of treasury shares under the revised Commercial Act, the value-up program, and a shift in the supply-demand structure in which retail money moves coexist with foreign passive flows. Instead of looking only at earnings growth as in the past, she argues, investors should identify market leaders using three criteria: earnings growth potential, the quality of capital allocation and the quality of supply and demand.
According to the author, a true market leader is a stock whose estimates keep being revised upward with each earnings release. Even if profits remain large, when further upward revisions stop and capital efficiency and flows weaken, its status as a leader should be reexamined.
She also stressed that signs of the end of a bull market appear first in market leaders, not in the index. When leaders break down, she noted, multiples fall before earnings do. Because Korea's leadership cycles are shorter than those in the U.S. or Japan, multiples inflate and deflate faster — making the process especially harsh for domestic investors, she said.
"This year there were many days when share price moves were hard to explain through analysis," Han said. "I organized my own criteria so as not to sell too early just because a stock has risen a lot, nor to hold on to the end just because it is a good company."
Han, an analyst since 2018, also wrote "Survival Strategies for Stock Investing" and has translated "Never! Dividends Don't Lie," "Noise and Investing" and "Millennial Money."
