Anguished Chinese Investors See Savings 'Falling Into Abyss'

[deminks]

Source: NBC News

The precipitous plunge in Chinese stocks, and Beijing's struggle to halt the fall, has sent waves of panic through the country's 90 million-plus retail investors, who say their life-savings are "falling into an abyss."

(snip)

The mood was fearful, panicked and sometimes hostile, as investors huddled around computer screens, waiting to see whether the latest moves by Chinese authorities to prop up the stock market would do any good.

"The government has been manipulating the stock market all this time," one investor who didn't want to be named told CNBC. "The authorities made us believe that we can make money from a bull market but actually we are falling into an abyss losing most of our life savings."

(snip)

Experts said that the decision by regulators to allow the mass filing of trading halt requests had likely worsened the so-called irrational selling being seen now.

"A lot of investors have money tied up in these shares. There's deep unease because now they don't have access to their money. This is like exactly what Greek banks are doing by limiting the amount of cash depositors can withdraw every day," said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research.

(end snip)

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/anguished-chinese-investors-see-savings-falling-abyss-n388616

[misterhighwasted]

1. The same thing happened to me at a Casino a few years ago.

All the signs & encouraging signals were there. I was going to make a lot of money if only I would keep upping my "investment".
I didn't.
Last time I listened to the group that dragged me & my wallet to that place.

[pennylane100]

2. Yes,

Unfortunately, I sometimes forget the lesson. It is only when I leave the place that I remember it clearly. Happens about two times a year,

[misterhighwasted]

4. Yup, It was a very long & depressing drive home.

I have a friend who goes to the Casino every weekend. He actually does win some pretty big payouts, but nomatter how much he takes from the tables or machines, he will stay until every dollar he won is gone.
He just cannot leave the place until he is completely broke. Then he has no choice.

I guess he over-invests. like some with the China Stock Market Game.
You gotta cash out your winnings & put it in the bank, or an old sock. At least its actual money in your hands, not on a computer screen with the possibility of more if you re-invest it all.
What a game!

[Thor_MN]

11. I lack the genes that derive pleasure from gambling.

My college friends view me as odd that I don't want to come over to play poker. Poker, Blackjack, etc. do nothing for me.

Fortunately, one of the other guys feels the same way I do. We still have to regularly have to deal with "Why do have to be antisocial?" Lately I've been saying "Let's do something else." And getting "I can't", "we have plans", "my wife's relatives are in town" when I suggest some other activity.

[misterhighwasted]

12. That's a pity. Since there are so many more cool things to do with our time & money.

Like you, I have moved ( or been moved, maybe) out of the circle I used to hang with.
But I do have a nice savings acct, and I have traveled out of the US & seen some beautiful interesting sites. I have met travel partners & tasted some mighty good foods & beer.
Find your own passion & friends will be there waiting.

[brooklynite]

15. In the same way you should only invest in stable products...

...you should also only invest in stable markets.

That said, equating all investments to "gambling" is naive and counterproductive. We invest regularly in stable index funds, and plan for the long-term, not the "next hand".

[misterhighwasted]

17. True. I read an article last night about the China Stock slide and how the Chinese people invest

differently than Americans. That to them investing in stocks as their government encouraged them to do, was with a similar attitude as gambling at casinos.
Stocks investing is approached the same way to the Chinese investors, specifically the ones who are new to stocks.
It was an interesting article but I don't have the link now. I read this last night on my phone while looking for info on the China Stock slide.

However, the article did go on to say many of the new smaller investors had just lost their life savings and those that had accumulated even $30,000 had put it all in Stocks at the encouragement of their government. They are now blaming the huge loss on the government at this point.

Its also not uncommon for the majority of China's people to have some investment in the Stock market.

[happyslug]

19. We reminds me of the story my father said about horse players...

He heard them time after time talking about they winnings, but never saw one in a new car.

[Sunlei]

3. wow, '90 million-plus retail investors' Must be a lot of 'middle class' "Anguished"

[vinny9698]

5. Insider trading gone amuck

Just like here in the US, insider trading is the only way to make money in the stock market.

[Recursion]

6. Over 4 decades it's almost impossible to lose money in the stock market

You'd really have to try.

Even in China most shareholders aren't below what they paid; they're just below what they thought they were holding based on resale prices yesterday. This gets into the fact that buying a stock for its resale value is incredibly stupid, but that's a different question (a stock without a dividend is a baseball card).

[lancer78]

9. Dividend yeilds still suck

I make 20% yearly rate of return on my business no matter what the economy does. Stocks can make money unless if you have to pull out in a down market.

[happyslug]

20. You can say the same thing about pre 1029 Wall Street...

AND most of the money lost during the 1929 Stock Market crash was recovered by March 1930. In is March 1930 when the real trouble began. Form 1930 till March 1933 you had a steady decline in stocks. This decline was so bad that almost every bank in the US (The biggest exception was the Bank run by the US Post Office) had to close by March 1933. The GOP would like to blame the Democrats for this, but Hoover was President till March 4, 1933. FDR was sworn in and he closed the banks effective March 6, 1933 and re-opened them on March 15, 1933

http://www.federalreservehistory.org/Events/DetailView/22

The problem was long term, someone had to take a haircut but no one wanted to be that person, thus the steady decline. You almost had a reversal of the previous 40 years of boom (You did have recessions and "Panics" after the early 1890s, but the 1890s was the last years of what is now called the "Long Depression" but in the early 1900s was known as the "Great Depression".

Side note: The "Long Depression" is like the "Great Depression" a series of boom and busts that never quite lived up to what had happened before. Thus some economic historians tried to restrict both terms to the recessions within each period, while others take a wider view of the term. Thus you have various "dates" for the "Long Depression", some ending in the late 1870s, other extending it to the early 1890s.

[melm00se]

7. a couple of months ago,

this article was floating around and the "Chinese are buying up evvvveeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrryyyyyyyttttttthhhhhiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggg" calls were echoing from the rooftops.

Methinks that much of this real estate will be hitting the market soon (at a discount) as these companies and investors have to generate some much needed cash.

[PasadenaTrudy]

8. I was wondering this as well

Vancouver, San Francisco, down here in L.A. Everything bought up by Chinese investors, cash deals.

[wordpix]

16. watch out, Million $ Listings, the $30 million NYC apts. could crash

I watch that show and am amazed at the prices people are willing to pay to get a view from a box (apt). And many buyers are from overseas and rarely inhabit these expensive apts.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. +n to the power of n!!!

[mahina]

14. Savings?

What is this savings of which you speak?

[Art_from_Ark]

22. It is a quaint concept from olden times

in which a person could have a job that would pay him or her enough so that not only could s/he pay the bills at the end of the month, but would also have a bit left over to put away into a federally-insured savings account that would pay a solid 5-6% interest. Seems like ancient history now.

[dembotoz]

18. Fun while going up but gravity really sucks

[kenfrequed]

21. This was really inevitable

Their market was intensely speculatory and rooted in investing in debt.

Their consumer market was fairly limited and top heavy which resulted in gilded age style investment.


This should have been evidence of all of that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_China_Mall