Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
EWY vs KORU: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, EWY returned +79.7% to KORU's +65.7%, and EWY charges 0.59% to KORU's 1.32%.
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Net assets: $24.4bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares MSCI South Korea ETF, and $1.2bn on Oct 27, 2026 for Direxion Daily MSCI South Korea Bull 3X ETF.
Pair scorecard
EWY costs 0.73 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 14.0 points; EWY is 18.8 times larger.
| Measure | EWY | KORU |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +79.7% | +65.7% |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | KORU 14.1% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | KORU 14.1% | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.3%, high on Jun 18, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | MSCI Korea 25/50 Daily 25 Capped Index | MSCI South Korea |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.59% | 1.32% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 26, 2026 | $22.5bn | $1.2bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 0% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 60.9% | |
| Risk | ||
| Volatility, annualized | 157% | |
Risk and return
Apr 19, 2013 to Oct 23, 2026 · 705 weekly returnsEWY returned more: +247.8% to −34.2%. EWY swung less: 26.3% to 79.0%. EWY fell less at its worst: −49.7% to −95.1%.
Full scorecard
9 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | EWY | KORU | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +247.8% | −34.2% | EWY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +9.6% | −3.0% | EWY | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +173.8% | −43.8% | EWY | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 26.3% | 79.0% | EWY | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 17.9% | 53.3% | EWY | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −49.7% | −95.1% | EWY | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.41 | 0.34 | EWY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.60 | 0.51 | EWY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Calmar | 0.19 | −0.03 | EWY | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 705 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
EWY and KORU on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
EWY and KORU do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. EWY follows MSCI Korea 25/50 Daily 25 Capped Index and KORU follows MSCI South Korea.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 EWY returned +79.7% and KORU +65.7% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 14.0 points.
- Cost. EWY charges 0.59% of assets a year and KORU 1.32%, a gap of 0.73 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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EWY
EWY tracks the MSCI South Korea. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +79.7% with distributions reinvested, against +16.3% for its benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.59% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 78 positions, with the top ten at 60.9%. It sat 24.3% below its high of Jun 18, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
KORU
Over the three months to Oct 28, 2026, KORU returned 14.1%. KORU aims to return +3 times MSCI South Korea's move each day, then resets. Over one day it does that. Over longer periods the daily results compound, so the total is not +3 times the period's move: it is lower after a fall and recovery, and can be higher in a steady run. KORU itself moved at 157% annualized over that window. Its prospectus names the MSCI Korea 25/50 Index, which no listed fund tracks (EWY tracks the MSCI Korea 25/50 Daily 25 Capped Index, a different index), so ETFIQ has no daily series to measure the fund against. Its own return is shown and no achieved multiple is computed.
Questions people ask
- Are EWY and KORU in the same category?
- EWY is a stock ETF and KORU is a leveraged ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, EWY or KORU?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, EWY returned +79.7% and KORU +65.7%.
- Which is cheaper, EWY or KORU?
- EWY is cheaper, by 0.73 percentage points a year. That is about $73 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, EWY against KORU, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ewy-vs-koru
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). EWY against KORU. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ewy-vs-koru
[EWY against KORU (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ewy-vs-koru)
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