--- title: "KOSDAQ 150: Methodology" description: "KOSDAQ 150 is maintained by Korea Exchange and covers Korean growth company equity benchmark. How it selects and weights its constituents, and what it measures." canonical: https://www.getswoopr.com/stocks/indexes/kosdaq-150/ source: "Swoopr Investment: https://www.getswoopr.com" --- # KOSDAQ 150: What It Measures and How It Is Built ## Direct Answer > The KOSDAQ 150 is a rule-based measurement of Korean growth company equity benchmark, maintained by Korea Exchange. Like every index it owns nothing: it is a number produced by applying a published weighting formula to a selected list of companies, revised on a schedule the provider sets. ## What this index covers The KOSDAQ 150 covers Korean growth company equity benchmark, within the South Korea market. Korea Exchange defines which securities are eligible, how they are selected from that pool, and how much each one contributes to the published number. The name states a target of 150 companies. A target is not a guarantee of the exact count on any given day: corporate actions, dual share classes and pending additions all move the real number around it. ## How constituents are weighted Float adjusted market capitalisation weighted with no weight capping of constituents, calculated every second during trading, with a base value of 1,000 at January 4, 2010. The weighting method is the single biggest driver of how an index behaves. Two indexes covering the same market can diverge for years purely because they weight differently, which is why comparing index levels without knowing the method tells you very little. ## What qualifies for inclusion KOSDAQ constituents on the screening base date, excluding watchlist or scheduled delisting companies, stocks designated as prudence required, real estate, ship or social infrastructure investors, SPACs, and issues with a free float under 10%. Eleven GICS based sectors are used, a sector under 1% of eligible market capitalisation is excluded, and each sector is filled from its top 60% by cumulative market capitalisation after the bottom 20% by trading value are removed. The total is set to 150. Eligibility rules are the part of an index most readers never look at and the part that decides what it can possibly measure. A screen that excludes a whole sector, or admits only one listing venue, shapes the result far more than any day of trading does. ## How long a listing must exist first Companies listed on KOSDAQ for less than six months are ineligible, apart from narrow exceptions for spin-off companies and exceptionally added new listings. A seasoning rule is why a large new listing does not appear in an index the week it starts trading. It is a deliberate lag, and it means an index can under-represent a fast-growing part of the market for months at a time. ## When the membership is revised Reconstituted twice a year, effective the trading day after the last trading day of the June and December KOSPI 200 futures delivery month. Constituents are confirmed in May and November after the Index Committee review, and up to five reserved issues are kept. Reconstitution is the one date an index changes shape by design rather than by price. Funds tracking it have to trade toward the new membership, which is why the schedule matters to anyone holding the tracker rather than only to the provider. ## The rule that surprises people A stock can be removed at rebalancing when its average daily market capitalisation ranks below 300th among KOSDAQ common shares, and it is replaced by the largest eligible company that passes the liquidity requirement. ## References - [Korea Exchange: Korea Exchange, KOSDAQ 150 Methodology](https://eindex.krx.co.kr/contents/GLB/02/0205/0205020300/GLB0205020300.jsp), as published 2024. Every rule described on this page is taken from this document. ## Current KOSDAQ 150 constituents Korea Exchange publishes and licenses the KOSDAQ 150 constituent list. Swoopr does not republish it here. The provider's own page is the authoritative source for current membership and weights. [Korea Exchange: official KOSDAQ 150 page](https://www.krx.co.kr/main/main.jsp) ## Related reading - [All stock market indexes](https://www.getswoopr.com/stocks/indexes/): how indexes are built, weighted and revised. - [Asia-Pacific indexes](https://www.getswoopr.com/stocks/indexes/asia-pacific/): others covering the same region. - [Index concentration](https://www.getswoopr.com/technical-analysis/market-concentration/index-concentration/): measuring how much of an index sits in its largest holdings. - [Index rebalancing and inclusion effects](https://www.getswoopr.com/stocks/corporate-actions-catalysts/index-rebalancing-and-inclusion-effects/): what happens to a stock when index membership changes. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Who maintains the KOSDAQ 150? Korea Exchange maintains the KOSDAQ 150 and publishes the methodology document that defines its eligibility and weighting rules. ### What does the KOSDAQ 150 measure? It measures Korean growth company equity benchmark. The index is a calculated number applying a weighting formula to a selected list of companies, and it holds nothing itself. ### Where can I see the current KOSDAQ 150 constituents? Korea Exchange publishes the current constituent list. Swoopr does not republish it, because index providers license constituent data and Swoopr holds no such licence. ## About the author The [Swoopr Editorial Team](https://www.getswoopr.com/authors/swoopr-editorial-team/) writes Swoopr Investment's educational library, covering market structure, analysis methods and the mechanics behind the numbers investors read every day. Our [editorial policy](https://www.getswoopr.com/legal/editorial-policy/) and [corrections policy](https://www.getswoopr.com/legal/corrections-policy/) set out how this content is produced, reviewed and fixed when it is wrong.