How China Turned 350 Million Millennials Into Day Traders
By cracking down on peer-to-peer lending, regulators have narrowed the options for young investors. That’s birthing a generation of gamblers.
Risky business.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/BloombergA millennial problem is arriving in China. The nation’s 350 million young people are morphing into day traders.
In recent years, China’s millennials have resorted to innovative financial products to accumulate wealth. Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services Group, for instance, offers Yu’e Bao, a money-market fund, to anyone with a dollar to save. And those with a bigger appetite for risk can lend on peer-to-peer platforms. Everyone knows that depositing money into traditional savings accounts is a losing game – the paltry 1.5 percent isn’t even enough to cover inflation. And while banks’ wealth management products offer better yield, you need to be a VIP client to invest.