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发帖数: 10012 | 1 BEIJING — Before the opening bell sounded on the New York Stock Exchange on
a recent Tuesday, a group of fresh college graduates clocked in at a small
trading firm on the outskirts of this capital city.
They were hired to engage in rapid-fire stock trading with some of the world
’s most powerful investment houses in New York, London and Tokyo, and they
were instructed to be alert.
“The market could be volatile today,” King Chan, the general manager at
Lazer Trade, shouted to the group during a pep talk. “Be careful at the
open. And don’t take dumb risks.”
Mr. Chan’s day-trading shop is one of many that have sprung up in and
around China’s major cities in recent years. Trading firms based in the
United States and Canada are recruiting inexpensive workers in China and
teaching them to engage in speculative trading. This means repeatedly buying
and selling shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock
Market, hoping for quick profits.
By some industry estimates, as many as 10,000 people in China are doing
speculative day trading of American stocks — mostly aggressive young men
working the wee hours here, from 9:30 p.m. to 4 a.m., each often trading
tens of thousands of shares a day.
“Trading groups have exploded into China,” says Stephen Ehrlich, chief
executive at LightSpeed Financial, a New York company that sells trading
software to firms operating in China.
China prohibits its citizens from using Chinese currency to buy or sell
shares of companies listed on foreign stock exchanges, though there appears
to be no prohibition against trading stocks for an account owned by a
foreign entity.
That legal gray area has enticed several American and Canadian trading firms
to set up shop here, at least partly to cater to wealthy clients seeking
more diverse investment options.
Securities experts are puzzled by the operations. They question how the
firms can profit by using inexperienced traders.
They also wonder aloud whether the use of traders in China violates American
and Canadian securities laws.
“This is a jurisdictional mess for the U.S. regulators,” says Thomas J.
Rice, a specialist in securities law at Baker & McKenzie. “Are these
Chinese traders essentially acting as brokers? If they are they would need
to be registered in the U.S.”
American, Canadian and Chinese regulators declined to comment when asked
about the growth of day trading in China. The New York Stock Exchange and
Nasdaq also declined to comment.
A spokesman for Swift Trade, which provides software to Lazer Trade and
takes a cut of its trading profits, insisted the China operation was
registered properly with the authorities and was entirely legal. Two other
firms with day trading operations here, Hold Brothers and Title Trading,
declined repeated requests for interviews.
Some of the firms say they can profit from trading operations in China
through a combination of cheap overhead, rebates and other financial
incentives from the major stock exchanges, and pent-up demand for broader
investment options among China’s elite.
Most of the firms say they put up their own capital or capital from private
investors in the United States or Canada to open an affiliated trading shop
in China. They hire young Chinese to trade for them — often with no
standard salary but a promise of a share in any profits.
Peter Beck, a founder of Swift Trade, a Canadian firm with about 1,500
traders in China, said his operation was thriving and that the firm got a
share of the trading profits.
“Our clients — they open an office, give us the money and then hire people
to trade for them. That’s our structure,” Mr. Beck said by telephone.
Swift Trade is considered one of the pioneers in the outsourcing of day
trading. It grew initially by offering brokerage services in Canada and then
by hiring Canadians to trade the firm’s capital from its Toronto
headquarters. The company offered modest salaries to traders along with
profit-sharing deals.
But after 2001, when U.S. exchanges began pricing shares in decimals instead
of fractions, the trading spreads tightened and profits plummeted.
As a result, many day traders — who benefited from large spreads as much as
from price swings — quit. | D*****a
发帖数: 2847 | 2 有意思
on
small
world
they
【在 x**y 的大作中提到】
: BEIJING — Before the opening bell sounded on the New York Stock Exchange on
: a recent Tuesday, a group of fresh college graduates clocked in at a small
: trading firm on the outskirts of this capital city.
: They were hired to engage in rapid-fire stock trading with some of the world
: ’s most powerful investment houses in New York, London and Tokyo, and they
: were instructed to be alert.
: “The market could be volatile today,” King Chan, the general manager at
: Lazer Trade, shouted to the group during a pep talk. “Be careful at the
: open. And don’t take dumb risks.”
: Mr. Chan’s day-trading shop is one of many that have sprung up in and
| D*****a
发帖数: 2847 | 3 第二页没贴
on
small
world
they
【在 x**y 的大作中提到】
: BEIJING — Before the opening bell sounded on the New York Stock Exchange on
: a recent Tuesday, a group of fresh college graduates clocked in at a small
: trading firm on the outskirts of this capital city.
: They were hired to engage in rapid-fire stock trading with some of the world
: ’s most powerful investment houses in New York, London and Tokyo, and they
: were instructed to be alert.
: “The market could be volatile today,” King Chan, the general manager at
: Lazer Trade, shouted to the group during a pep talk. “Be careful at the
: open. And don’t take dumb risks.”
: Mr. Chan’s day-trading shop is one of many that have sprung up in and
|
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