First-timer gets a harsh lesson - and learns to count his blessings
Just like many of the well-dressed young men in Central, Jeremy Li Man-wai is in his 20s, studied economy and finance at university, started his career in a well-known bank and wants to be a banker some day.
Also, like many of these smart, young men, Mr Li no longer struts with such confidence and instead feels the weight of the slumping stock market on his shoulders.
'My hands are now full of blood,' said Mr Li, who said he was being 'killed' by the stock market.
'I am piled up with stock I cannot sell at the moment.'
He started investing in the stock market in March last year.
He was a third-year student at the University of Hong Kong and the bull market was charging ahead.
'My schoolmates were doing it too,' he said. 'It was just like a kind of peer pressure. Everyone around you gets involved in the stock market and so I bought too.'
He sank 90 per cent of his savings - about HK$50,000 - into the stock market. All he can do now is wait.
'There is no more investment at this moment,' he said.
'But it is lucky that I don't have too much of a financial burden.'
Mr Li, who has started a management traineeship at one of Hong Kong's mid-sized banks, expected to follow the path taken by many of his seniors and colleagues: a salary increase each year and steps up the career ladder.
But the deviation from this expectation came after only a few months of employment. The salary increase at the end of last year was much lower than he expected because of the falling economy.
'I didn't expect an economic recession would come so soon,' he said. 'The salary increase was much lower than what I expected. And the worst is still to come.
'Since our clients are corporate clients, we know that more and more of these companies' creditors are having problems. Banks are not willing to lend money. The economy is only going to get worse as the banking sector is only the first indicator.'
While he talks like an analyst now, during the last recession, in 2003, he knew nothing about economics.
'I was studying in secondary six,' he said. 'I had no idea what was happening. I didn't pay any attention at all. I only cared about my studies.'
Now, amid perhaps a bigger economic downturn than then, Mr Li just wants to keep his job. And spend less while he's out with his girlfriend.
And despite his fears about the economic outlook, he is thankful for one thing: graduating last year and not this year.
