Author: stlplace

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China Stocks

Investing in Chinese Banks

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These days I saw more and more banks in Shanghai. Beside the addition of domestic banks such as Bank of Shanghai, which has root from Shanghai City Credit Union, many foreign banks such as Citi Bank opened branches and they also do the Ren Ming Bi business. Why suddenly we have so many banks? I remember 10 years ago we have the big four: ICBC, Bank of China (specialize in foreign currencies), Agriculture Bank and Construction Bank, plus Bank of Communcations, and the Cedit Unions I mentioned. Now it’s a total different ball game.

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Stocks

IBD Meetup Group

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Don’t think only Chinese investors have the herd mentality. The similar things happen to American investors too. One thing I noticed is there are lots of investors club in the States. They have meetings, discussions, etc. I went to the IBD (Investors Business Daily) Meetup at St. Louis once, and I received the group email from time to time. The group meets once a month. Here is the emai I got on Mar 13:

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China

One Bedroom Apartments in Shanghai

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Nowadays the stock market in Shanghai is hot, the real estate market is not. This Chinese article says in year 2006 the Shanghai housing price dropped about -0.5%. While not a significant drop, this plus the recent raise of interest rate makes potential home buyers weary. But I think the buyers need not worry if they know what they want, do the homework, and plan to stay for long term. There are still bright spots in the real estate market. Among those there is one bedroom apartment close to metro stations: the influx of college educated workers like to rent those apartments so that they can get to work, and enjoy the urban living style. Read this Chinese article if you are interested. 

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Beijing Olympics

Beijing 2008 Olympics Tickets

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It will be on sale soon. Here is the site for Chinese residents (for English, click on English under the Beijing2008 icon), including people originally not from mainland China but are currenly living inside China. For foreigners live outside of China, they need to contact the Olympics Committes of their respective country (region). Here is the eligibility and ID requirements (Click on English if necessary).

Thinking about getting the ticket for opening ceremony? The ticket ranges from CNY 200 to CNY 5,000. But I think it will be more or less like a lottery draw considering China has 1.3 billion people 🙂  

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Fun

Stock Symbols in China and US

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One major difference between US and Chinese (including Hongkong) stocks are the stock ticker symbols. The US markets use the abbreviation of English names, e.g., MSFT for Microsoft, ADBE for Adobe, F for Ford, T for AT&T, etc. While Chinese use numbers 601398 for Industrial & Commerce Bank of China, 601988 for Bank of China, etc. Maybe Chinese really like the number better? While American don’t? I think China adopted the number system because they learned that from Hongkong. But why did Hongkong Stock Exchange use the numbers at the first place?

I found a tip if you want to look for ticker when you can not type in Chinese. Using Yahoo Finance (Chinese version), try the first letters of the Chinese names, i.e, type “zgyh”, which stands for Zhong Guo Yin Hang, Bank of China. It will leads you to the BOC stock page. Sweet, huh?

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China

The Power of Blogs and Web News

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One news caught me attention this morning. I read about a “Haigui” tourist got beaten in Sanya when travelling there with his family. And they were treated very badly even at local police station. The news is spread in several well known overseas Chinese web sites. Obviously things have turned around, now the vice Mayor of Sanya issued appology.

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Fun

Back to School

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No I did not go back to school for MBA or something. Actually I went to a nearby school for lunch with my coworkers this noon. I have tried a few places inside the Cloud Nine building. They are not expensive but not cheap if we consider the 1:4 ratio I derived a while ago. And I need to keep the Ajisen Raman as my last choice so that I would not get tired of it as I did with Panera or Fazoli’s in St. Louis. My coworkers have similar feelings. So we went to the school cafeteria (or canteen) and I paid 9 Yuan for a very decent lunch.

The school we went for lunch was very famous and has a western name before 1949. It is one of the top law schools in China nowadays. Maybe someone can guess its name? Hint: the school is near Zhong Shan Park. 

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Fun

Harrah’s in Shanghai?

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Harrah’s is a large gaming (a better word for gambling) company in the US. It has presence in St. Louis and many US cities. Note gambling is still illegal in China. For ordinary Chinese citizens, since they can not fly to the famous southern town starts with “M”, they go for the cheaper options. The lottery and (dare I say) the stocks. Here is a picture taken at a stock broker house (Zheng Quan Gong Si) during lunch break. Unlike US market, the Chinese stock market has a “one hour and a half” lunch break. Good for the seniors who could get exhausted by the ups and downs of stocks. I am not in day trading or tape reading but I know this is not an easy task 🙂

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Categories
China

Economy Indicators

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Ever since I come back, one thing amazes me is how fast China has adopted the western economy indicator and system overall: CPI, PPI, central bank, China Security Regulatory Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, etc. These are all good, especially the regulatory committe are made of real smart people nowadays. Except sometimes people tend to over react to those indicators and the comments from the head of those committes.  

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China Web

GMail in China

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I wrote about GMail a while ago. In that post I complained GMail is not reliable in China. One reason I can think of is that Google has not moved its servers to China. It has no plan to do so in the near future according to CnAnalyst. In this Chinese post Keso says the China’s contribution to Google’s revenue is not material at this time. This could partly explains why they have not moved the servers. Google is still building traffic (not monetizing) in China because they have plenty of cash now. Another reason is they want to protect their IP (intellectual property).

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