Brumby
Major
Of course volatility is nothing new, but the factors driving it most certainly can be.
Its not particularly useful to compare a Blue Chip main Index Bourse with a highly speculative Forex exchange. Blue Chip markets are expected to slow, steady and reliable, while nobody plays Forex or Commodities unless they are serious adrenaline junkies.
The point I was alluding to in my previous post, is that in the West trading is mostly institutional and private investors operate either indirectly via managed funds or directly through a Broker. In China this is different, as we see small investors buying and selling directly through trader account software and phone apps.
Its a big difference.
I think our emphasis are somewhat different in that you are mainly focussing on the cause whereas I am highlighting the effect and is really no difference across countries or instruments. When the market takes a bath, whether it is forex (where less than 10 % are retail players) or the US markets (where 2/3's are automated trading driven by the likes of dark pool algorithm) or the Shanghai market with its retail gamblers and or investors, the effect on the players are just the same.
Likewise the big market collapses we have seen in the West have always been institution led, but in China it has been led by the mass public, in a market where the Institutional Investors have only now been earmarked for permission to invest.
It is a massive difference., mainly expressed by the difference between professionals reading financial forecasts and none professionals listening to a teenage girl on a video upload who does not think a latest product is pink enough!.
Asia Unhedged also makes another valid comment. If you take out a third of the market by banning margin investors, you reduce the investor pool by a third and prices will fall as a consequence.
There is no doubt time cycles are being compressed and the swings are more pronounced because information dissemination is operating at a quicker pace. The market will find new and quicker ways to execute trades with corresponding means to loose money at a similar rate. Bottom line, money lost has the same effect regardless of cause.