With 2008 approaching, it is time to look at the bonuses and pay rises being offered to our hard-working financial professional friends.
It is not a surprise to see stockbrokers at the top of the league, with many brokerages reportedly paying bonuses equivalent to two to four months of their salaries. They are also likely to get a pay rise of 5 to 10 per cent - the best year yet for the 30,000 who work in the world's seventh-largest market by capitalisation.
Their good luck this year is not a surprise. Stock market activity is at a record high, with the average daily turnover rising to HK$87 billion in the first 11 months of the year - a more than 160 per cent year-on-year gain and 8.3 times the level in 2003, when Sars broke out.
My broker friends said bonus expectations had been slimmed down as the market came off the boil. A few months earlier, brokerages were reportedly prepared to offer four to six months in bonuses. But that was when the market turnover at one point overshot HK$200 billion. At such hefty turnover, just imagine how much in commissions Hong Kong's 430 brokerage houses were earning on a single day.
Now, many firms are taking a more conservative view because of a possible US recession and further tightening measures expected on the mainland.
This month there were two trading days with turnover below HK$100 billion.