China's Illusory Retail Investor Class
The heartwarming story of everyday workers making millions in mainland stocks is a myth. State-owned and private enterprises are doing the buying
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If there is a warm heart beneath the cold, hard cash that dominates the rise of China's stock markets, it is the retail investor. These are the old ladies, young mothers and overworked taxi drivers who felt the squeeze of a four-year bear market but can now smile at the Shanghai Composite Index reaching record highs.
By all accounts, these retail investors are rushing to the market in droves and, during the April-May peak, opening 300,000 or more new stock trading accounts every day. This is the free market as it should be: ordinary Chinese people making money off extraordinary Chinese stocks.