Wang Wei and his colleagues at Haitong Securities sent out text messages on Friday to more than 4,000 customers. The subject: How to cash in on China's cash squeeze.
海通证券(Haitong Securities)的王伟（音）和他的同事们上周五向4,000多名客户发出了主题为“如何利用中国的钱荒赚钱”的短信。'We have been looking closely at the reverse repo market since last month,' said Mr. Wang, the Shanghai-based investment consultant, referring to the instruments traded on China's interbank market. He said he also advised about 50 friends to jump in.
驻上海的投资顾问王伟表示，自上个月以来他们一直在密切关注逆回购市场。他指的是中国银行间市场上交易的工具。他称，已经建议大概50个朋友投资这一市场。One was Ouyang Fujie, a futures trader based in Shanghai. He said Thursday he made a gain of 328 yuan on a 500,000 yuan investment in securities tied to the Chinese interbank market. Multiplied over 365 days, he crowed publicly on his microblog account, that would represent an annual return of about 24%. 'I'm going to buy it every day,' he said.
其中一位是驻上海的期货交易员欧阳傅杰（音）。他上周四表示，通过人民币50万元的中国银行间市场挂钩证券投资获利328元。他在微博账号上公开表示，按照这个收益率计算，一年的回报率将在24%左右。他表示，每天都会买进一些。
China's cash crunch has whipsawed stock and bond markets and exposed flaws in China's creaky financial system. But for a few savvy investors in a Chinese market where returns can be spare, the crunch is also an opportunity to profit. Banks are seeking cash from any source they can find, driving up yields in a number of markets including those accessible to China's legions of retail investors.
中国现金荒已经对股市和债市带来冲击，并且暴露出中国破败的金融体系的缺陷。但对于中国这个收益稀缺市场的一小部分精明投资者来说，现金荒也提供了一个获利机会。银行业都在尽力寻找现金来源，进而推升了多个市场的收益率，其中包括中国散户大军可以参与的市场。On Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter-like social network, investors are increasingly discussing complicated investments tied to the money market. Many linked to guidelines in how to invest in the market, while financial professional suggested their followers switch away from other markets to dive in.
在新浪微博上，投资者对与货币市场挂钩的复杂投资工具的讨论越来越热烈。其中许多人提到如何在这个市场投资的指导原则，金融专家则建议他们的粉丝将资金从其他市场转移至这个市场。Yields on short-term deposit-like investments sold by banks and others called wealth-management products 岸 are also on the rise. Average returns on one- to three-month wealth-management products totaled 4.48% for the week ended on Wednesday, compared with 3.98% a month before, according to research firm CnBenefit.
银行出售的类似存款的短期投资产品（又称理财产品）的收益率也有所上升。据研究公司普益财富(Cnbenefit)的数据显示，截至上周三的一周，一个月至三个月期理财产品平均收益率为4.48%，上月同期为3.98%。Banks have also been busily touting the products. 'I've been bombarded by text messages from different banks every day,' said one user on Sina Weibo, the popular Chinese microblogging service.
各家银行业也在忙于推销这些产品。新浪微博的一位用户称，每天都受到不同银行的短信轰炸。That has some investors shopping around. At a Chinese Everbright bank branch in Beijing's Dongcheng district, one 65-year-old Beijing resident said he was keeping his eyes open for attractive rates on wealth-management products, for when his current WMP investment matures on June 30. 'I'm going to run to whoever offers the highest rate,' he said.
一些投资者也开始货比三家。在北京东城区中国光大银行(China Everbright Bank Co.)一家分行里，一位现年65岁的北京居民称，他正在寻找有吸引力的理财产品收益率，他目前投资的理财产品将在6月30日到期。他说，谁的收益率最高就买谁的产品。For Chinese retail investors, attractive returns can be hard to find. Shanghai's main benchmark stock index is down about 8.7% over the past year and down by more than a quarter over the past five years. Many retail investors believe it is riddled with corruption and insider trading, and it also faces a looming wall of companies waiting to issue more shares 岸 factors prompting a number of government pledges since last year to reform the market.
对中国散户投资者来说，找到有吸引力的回报率并不容易。过去一年上海基准股指下跌了8.7%左右，过去五年跌幅则超过25%。许多散户投资者认为一方面中国股市存在腐败和内幕交易的漏洞，另一方面面临着多家企业等待发行更多股票的状况，这些因素导致政府自去年以来做出了多个将改革市场的承诺。Real estate is also a tough place for Chinese investors to park their money; they face restrictions on purchases of second homes and other efforts mandated by Beijing to tame housing prices. Its bond market is much smaller and less developed than in the U.S. China's tight capital controls limit investors' ability to take the money abroad. The government also caps bank deposit rates.
房地产市场也不适合投资者存放资金，因为这个市场面临二套房限购政策以及中国政府实施的其他旨在抑制房价的措施。而中国的债券市场的规模和成熟度都不及美国。中国严格的资本管制也限制了投资者投资海外的能力。政府还对银行存款利率施加限制。That leaves a freewheeling alternative investment culture in China in which people regularly receive pitches on the next hot tip on a number of unusual markets. In recent years, frothy conditions have developed in the markets for everything from fancy tea to vintage Chinese liquor to caterpillar fungus, which is reputed to boost male virility.
因此中国不受监管市场的另类投资文化应运而生，人们总能在多个非常规市场找到下一个热门投资品。近几年，多个市场相继出现泡沫，其中包括昂贵的茶叶、中国老字号白酒以及以壮阳闻名的冬虫夏草。Rates on China's interbank market, where banks lend money to each other, spiked as high as 30% on Thursday before a significant easing on Friday. Still, they remain more than twice their average before the liquidity squeeze began earlier this month.
银行相互拆借的中国银行间市场利率上周四一度飙升至30%的高位，上周五又大幅回落。但是这一利率仍较本月初开始出现流动性短缺前的平均水平上涨了一倍多。Mr. Wang, the Haitong broker, said he began looking at the reverse repo market earlier this month. Specifically he looked at securities traded over China's two stock exchanges that track values on China's interbank market, which is closed to direct investment by individuals.
海通证券的王伟表示，他在本月早些时候开始关注逆回购市场，他尤其关注中国两个股票交易所上追踪中国银行间市场的证券。中国银行间市场不对个人直接投资开放。His friend, Mr. Ouyang, said he had had 500,000 yuan invested in wealth management products last month, which he said fetched a yearly return of a little over 4%. When they matured on Thursday, he pulled out all the money to focus on reverse repos.
他的朋友欧阳傅杰称，上月投资了50万元的理财产品，年化收益率略超4%。上周四这些产品到期后，他将这些资金全部投向逆回购产品市场。'I was looking for safe form of investment and higher rate than bank interest,' he said. As a financial professional, Mr. Ouyang said he knew about repos but hadn't before thought about buying it, since the rate was almost as low as bank interest rate.
他表示，他寻求具安全性并且收益率高于银行利息的投资产品。作为一名金融专业人士，他表示，他了解逆回购市场，但此前并未考虑过购买这一产品，因为其利率几乎和银行利息一样低。Mr. Wang said he is mainly recommending one-day as well as 28-day repos, which offer a return of 7%. That is higher than wealth-management products of similar duration. That could appeal to investors wondering what to do with the money in their pockets.
王伟表示，他主要推荐一天期和28天期逆回购产品，收益率在7%。这个水平比类似期限的理财产品收益率要高。这可能会吸引那些不知该如何处置手头现金的投资者。'Small investors have idle cash,' Mr. Wang said.
王伟说，小投资者手头有闲置资金。