Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.
Meritz taps Korea's overseas investing boom with new AI platform
Lee Jang-wook, executive director of the InnoBiz Center at Meritz Securities, speaks during a launch event at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Meritz Securities
By Lee Yeon-woo
Meritz Securities launched MOUM on Tuesday, a new investment platform that combines artificial intelligence (AI)-powered analysis with real-time insights from global investor communities to help retail investors make faster, more informed investment decisions.
"As investing has become more fragmented, markets have grown more interconnected and investors face a much wider flow of information," Lee Jang-wook, executive director of the InnoBiz Center at Meritz Securities, said during the launch event at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul. "A platform integrating AI, data and communities will transform the investment experience."
The platform integrates its own stock discussion boards with communities on U.S. social investing platform Stocktwits and global fintech company Webull. English-language posts from overseas communities are automatically translated into Korean.
The integration allows Korean investors to follow a broader range of overseas investor views and market reactions in real time, helping them identify global investment trends and new investment ideas more quickly.
AI also enhances the platform's investment information services. Customers can view news, community posts, alerts and other information related to their holdings and watch lists in one place, along with AI-powered analysis.
For example, investors who own Nvidia shares can use the built-in AI tools to track the chipmaker's earnings, demand for AI chips and news about new products. Investors can dig deeper through an AI chatbot, asking questions such as which recent developments have had the biggest impact on its share price. If they decide to act on the information, they can place a trade without leaving the platform.
The platform also aims to make more complex investment products easier to understand. U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), for example, can be difficult for novice investors to navigate because of their lengthy names and frequent use of English abbreviations. MOUM makes the information more accessible by presenting ETF details in Korean and through visualizations.
"Meritz Securities has built up expertise and a competitive edge in corporate finance over many years, but we have lacked an effective channel to bring those strengths to retail investors," Meritz Securities co-CEO Jang Won-jae said. "Our goal is to make the company's accumulated financial expertise and wide range of investment information easily accessible to retail investors."