Chinese retail investors reminded about embracing value investing by ‘Millionaire Yang’, ex-factory worker lionised by Beijing

Yang Huaiding, better known as ‘Millionaire Yang’ and lionised by the state as a trailblazer among retail investors, died on Sunday at 71

Yang urged investors to discard junk, shun speculative stock rallies and embrace fundamentals and value investing

Reading Time:3 minutes

Yang Huaiding died on June 13 in Shanghai at 71. Photo: Baidu

Published: 7:30am, 18 Jun 2021Updated: 7:36am, 18 Jun 2021

China’s retail investors, who outnumbered the Chinese Communist Party membership more than two to one, should embrace value investing and shun speculative junk stocks as the onshore market faces a myriad of headwinds.

That reminder, more relevant than ever in a market recently hammered by unprecedented regulatory oversight and geopolitical tensions, came from one of the last few interviews with Yang Huaiding, who struck gold in the early days of the local stock exchange’s 30-year history.

Yang, an ex-steel factory worker better known as “Millionaire Yang” and lionised by the state as a trailblazer among local retail investors, died on Sunday in Shanghai. He was 71.

Since the Shenzhen and Shanghai exchanges were established in the 1990s, China’s economic expansion has created entrepreneurs and billionaires, who inspire small-time investors among housewives, students, factory hands and office retirees to strike it rich in the market. Today, they number about 200 million, or about twice the size of Communist Party membership.

A view of the China Securities Regulatory Commission building in downtown Beijing’s Financial Street. Photo: Simon Song

Much to the chagrin of market officials, the world’s second-largest stock market is abound with millions of traders who buy and sell stocks on rumours and pay scant attention to fundamentals for fear of missing out. The government has called on more institutions to spearhead the market and wean punters from one-way bets.