For months, Singaporean investors have watched the global AI rally with a mixture of awe and agonizing FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). While our own Straits Times Index (STI) often feels like a “boring” collection of banks and REITs, markets in South Korea and Taiwan appeared to be in a vertical fever dream, minting millionaires overnight. But that dream recently met a brutal reality. The South Korean market experienced a total “bloodbath,” triggering circuit breakers twice in a single day. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ plummeted 8%, while the KOSPI sank 10%. With Nikkei futures dropping 3.5% and NASDAQ futures sliding nearly 3% in sympathy, the signal is clear: the era of “easy money” AI euphoria is facing its first systemic stress test. The “Two-Stock” Illusion: When an Entire Market is a Proxy Singaporeans often complain that the STI is “too heavy” on three banks. However, that concentration pales in comparison to the South Korean KOSPI. This index has essentially become a proxy for two...