The ＂Off-exchange Option Storm＂ in the Fund Circle： Rumors, Fund Managers, Derivatives …
Economic Observer Network reporter Zou Yongqin Recently, the "off-exchange options storm" in the fund circle triggered by the revelations of two Weibo has been widely noted.
The focus of market rumors has also changed from the initial "manager Public Offering of Fund was arrested" to questioning the relevant private equity products. As a result, a product named "Jianhong Time No.2" has become the object of rumor because of its unusually high yield since this year, which makes Shenzhen Qianhai Jianhong Times Asset Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jianhong Times) pushed into the spotlight.
On August 11th and 12th, the reporter from Economic Observer Network interviewed Zhao Yuanyuan, the investment director of Jianhong Times and also the helm of the "Jianhong Time II" product. In the interview, Zhao Yuanyuan emphasized to reporters that she has never been involved in OTC options trading in her fund manager career, both before and now.
No matter what the final truth is, this "over-the-counter option storm" has swept through the public and private investment circles, which in turn triggered a series of vigilance and reflection …
Two "inconspicuous" Weibo
This heated "OTC option storm" originated from two seemingly inconspicuous Weibo.
The reporter inquired about the public information and found that at around 19: 30 on August 8, a blogger named "Retreat from the Performing Arts Major Level II" issued two Weibo reports in 12 minutes, saying that an intermediary in Lin’ an Prefecture (referring to Hangzhou) helped the fund manager to make OTC options, involving more than 300 fund managers and locking more than 30, and the public security directly arrested people; And stressed that this was "the biggest scandal in the history of Public Offering of Fund industry".
Then some media began to follow up and intervene. Due to the impact of the words "the biggest scandal in history", "involving more than 300 fund managers" and "the police directly take people", and the recent frequent announcement of fund managers’ resignation, as well as the investigation of many senior executives of chip fund companies, "the fund manager was arrested for OTC options trading" quickly fermented into a hot search.
On the one hand, the communication data Datayes! According to statistics, from August 1st to August 11th, 58 fund managers left their posts, among which 13 fund managers were no longer in charge of products after leaving their posts, including Zeng Jianfei and Dong Zhiche of Qianhai Open Source Fund, Xu Yiyang of Debon Fund and so on. Because there is a certain association between being arrested and leaving office, the above 13 fund managers have become suspected targets of OTC options rumors.
On the other hand, in the process of the spread and fermentation of the network from the media, the scope of this OTC option rumor has been expanding to the field of private equity funds, and a number of products with "unusual" performance this year have also been labeled as "suspected". Among them, the "Jianhong Time No.2" private equity fund product, which was established less than two years ago but earned more than 40 times the income and ranked first in the performance rankings in the past month, is the key target.
Wind data shows that as of August 5, 2022, the cumulative net growth rate of "Jianhong Time No.2" this year is as high as 2607.8%, which makes it stand out from the crowd in the market that is not very good this year. Since July, the net value curve of "Jianhong Time No.2" has shown a nearly vertical surge.
The reporter of the Economic Observer Network noticed that just as the "OTC option storm" was in full swing, Weibo, as the fuse of the incident, quietly carried out a series of "operations":
First of all, in the middle of the night of August 8, when the incident just fermented into a hot spot in the whole network, the blogger quickly changed the name of Weibo to "the security captain of the first workshop of Zhabei Lithium Industry No.3 Factory", which made it difficult for many subsequent participants to find the real source of the incident.
Then at 21: 10 on August 9, he sent Weibo to denounce the low professionalism of relevant financial journalists and made a mistake about what he wanted to express; And announced that it would "cut" with relevant media (it will not accept any consultation from these media in the future, and the relevant Weibo account will be blacked out).
Then, the blogger simply deleted the two Weibo stories that had been revealed before.
After a three-step process of renaming, "cutting" and deleting posts, the initiator of the recent huge wave in the fund circle has disappeared from this storm.
The reporter noticed that just two hours before the whistleblower announced that he was "cutting" with the relevant media, that is, at 18: 41 on August 9, Jianhong Times officially alerted the public security organ about the "libel" of its products, and emphasized in its official website statement that "those responsible for defaming the company’s reputation will be traced to the end and further measures will be taken to investigate all legal responsibilities".
Did the report in Jianhong era lead to the "cutting" and deletion of posts by this Weibo whistleblower, or was it part of his plan? And what is his identity, where is the source of his information, and how credible is it? With a series of questions, the reporter wrote to him privately through Weibo in order to get in touch with him for an interview. But as of press time, the Weibo whistleblower didn’t respond, although he kept updating Weibo.
Jiang Zhenxiong, a professional investor who has been involved in stocks and futures for more than ten years, pointed out to reporters that this informant has obvious connection with the financial big V "Lin Dengwan" who emptied Weibo before: "First of all, the Weibo content of this informant is consistent with the content of a Baijia number named" Lin Dengwan ",and the content is updated simultaneously, showing that the operators of the two accounts are the same person; Secondly, the stem of Zhabei Lithium Industry originated from Xizang Chengtou (600773.SH). Last year, when the stock rushed to an all-time high, several financial giants V strongly recommended the theme of’ Shanghai local stocks+lithium mines’ of the stock, commonly known as Zhabei Lithium Industry, and financial giant V’ Lord Lin Dengwan’ was one of them, and the stock fell sharply afterwards; Thirdly, the name "Linda" appeared in many places in Weibo’s comments of the informant, and it was forwarded to Weibo of @ Lindenwan’s adult, and a message was called "trumpet".
Connected data Datayes! According to statistics, the historical peak of Xizang City Investment in 2021 was 37.68 yuan/share, and the lowest in 2022 was 11.91 yuan/share, with a decrease of about 70% in less than one year. At the same time, the minimum number of shareholders in 2021 was 46,536, but in the first quarter of this year, it soared to 88,809, and the chips tended to be scattered, showing the typical characteristics of large funds profitably distributed and small funds entering the market to receive goods.
The reporter noticed that although "Lord Lin Dengwan" emptied Weibo’s content, there were still some residual stock review articles in financial forums including Snowball, and there were even some abusive messages from loss-making investors.
Jiang Zhenxiong further pointed out that in fact, before this blogger suspected of Lin Dengwan broke the news, there were already some rumors on the Internet about fund managers illegally participating in OTC options to make profits, but it was not as sensational as the above-mentioned news that more than 300 people were involved in the case.
Jiang Zhenxiong said that the reason why this storm has such a great impact is that there are loopholes in the current regulatory system. In theory, fund managers do have ways to make huge profits by participating in OTC options. Therefore, we can’t hold a negative attitude to this matter just because the informant may be a stale stock critic, but we should treat this rumor rationally. While not believing in rumors, I hope that the regulatory authorities will take action. If violations are found, they will be punished if rumors are made, so as to return the market to a fair, open and just environment, instead of waiting until the injured party reports to the police. "
Jianhong times called the police.
Jianhong Times is the first fund company to report to the police in this OTC option storm, and it is also the only one so far. On the night of August 9th, while it alerted shenzhen public Futian Branch, it also issued a statement on the homepage of official website.
In the statement, Jianhong Times said that "Zhang Wenyi’s micro-signal" and "Liu Luochen’s Weibo" on the Internet recently slandered on WeChat Group and Weibo without any basis, saying that the outstanding achievement of the fund "Jianhong Time No.2" managed by the Company was due to the cooperation with Manager Public Offering of Fund in OTC options trading. To this end, Jianhong Times made the following official statement:
"Jianhong Time No.2" has not yet reached the conditions for opening OTC derivatives trading, and has not opened OTC derivatives trading. "The reason why the net value of Time II products has risen rapidly in the near future is that we have grasped short-term opportunities according to our investment framework under the macro and market environment in the recent period".
Jianhong Times said in a statement that "the company has reported the above-mentioned bad behavior of fabricating and disseminating false information about securities and futures trading and slandering the company’s good reputation to the public security department and the industry supervision department, waiting for further handling by the public security department and the industry supervision department".
In addition, Jianhong Times also stressed that those responsible for slandering the company’s reputation will be traced to the end and further measures will be taken to investigate all legal responsibilities.
However, on August 10th, the reporter looked at Weibo of Liu Luochen and found that there was nothing related to the Jianhong era. In this regard, the relevant staff of the Jianhong era explained to reporters that "after we called the police, they immediately deleted the relevant inaccurate content; Now, the police in Shenzhen and Shanghai have accepted our report. "
From this point of view, since the alarm has been reported and the related rumor information has been deleted by the publisher, it seems that this "OTC option storm" should come to an end. However, with the release of official website’s statement in Jianhong era, there has been a new round of doubts in the market.
Through sorting out, the reporter found that the new round of doubts mainly revolved around three points: first, in the statement of Jianhong Times, the outstanding achievement of "Jianhong Time No.2" was attributed to grasping the short-term opportunity, and the skeptics thought that this explanation was quite far-fetched, and found out the previous position information of Jianhong Times, and then inferred that it was difficult for it to obtain such rich income only by secondary market operation; Second, Zhao Yuanyuan, the helmsman of "Jianhong Time II", had a poor performance when he was in Public Offering of Fund, but now his performance is so dazzling. The skeptics believe that there must be something fishy behind such a huge contrast; Third, a website just removed the product information of Jianhong era at this time, which also became the basis of skeptics.
"Build hong?Time No.2"
Official website, China Fund Association, shows that Jianhong Times was established in May 2015 and became a member of the Fund Association in November 2016. Its latest management scale is RMB 500-100 million (as of February 16, 2022), and its actual controller is Gong Yi.
Jianhong Times said in official website that its main business is asset management, which mainly uses its own funds and customer funds for investment management. The investment direction is the domestic capital market, and the investment scope is the investment varieties with good liquidity, including financial derivatives such as stocks, bonds, funds and futures options. In previous media interviews, Jianhong Times also admitted that some of its products had "futures accounts".
Connected data Datayes! According to statistics, there are 46 management products in Jianhong era, and the number of existing products is 38 at present. Among the product types, 86.96% belong to stock subjectivity, and the recently controversial "Jianhong Time No.2" belongs to this type.
"Jianhong Time No.2" was established on September 10, 2020, and its investment strategy is stock bulls. As of August 5, 2022, "Jianhong Time No.2", which was established less than two years ago, took 4,324.50% of the income, with an annualized income of 631.77%. If calculated this year, its cumulative net growth rate is as high as 2607.8%; Since July, its net value curve has soared nearly 90 degrees: the weekly rate of return has exceeded 20%.
No matter from which point of view, the performance of "Jianhong Time No.2" can be called "the best fund product" in the near future; At the helm, Zhao Yuanyuan, a former winner of the Golden Bull Award.
Connected data Datayes! Statistics show that Zhao Yuanyuan’s fund industry has worked for 10.3 years (including 5.02 years in public offering and 5.28 years in private offering), and has served as four fund companies, namely Caitong Fund, Huashang Fund, Tongyi Fuli and Jianhong Times.
Although she won the China Gold Award and the Golden Bull Award twice during her career in Public Offering of Fund, her annualized income during her tenure as manager of Public Offering of Fund was not ideal, only 1.92%, which was lower than the benchmark annualized income (8.19%) in the same period. Among them, her return on employment in the Chinese Business Fund is -24.59%, ranking 384 among 399 funds of the same type, which is totally different from the current outstanding performance, which has also become the criticism of skeptics.
So, how does Zhao Yuanyuan, who is in the whirlpool, view these doubts? On August 11th and 12th, a reporter from Economic Observer Network contacted Zhao Yuanyuan twice and interviewed him.
Zhao Yuanyuan told reporters that the reason why her products can achieve such good results is because her team made timing judgment on positions and industry allocation from macro and industry perspectives, and combined with bottom-up stock research, so as to avoid market beta risks and strive to find industries and high-quality targets with excess returns at each stage.
"Of course, since July, the net value of Time II products has soared, which is really unbelievable. This is because while we have achieved good investment returns through short-term timing, there have been many large redemptions of this product in the last month, and under the double superposition, its net value has soared. Some people may think that it is such a coincidence. But this is really the case, "she said.
Zhao Yuanyuan also stressed to reporters that she has never been involved in OTC options trading in her fund manager career, both before and now.
How does large redemption affect the net worth and make it rise? According to public information, large redemption affects the change of net value through two ways: first, the generated redemption fee goes into the fund assets, and if small-scale products encounter huge redemption, the net value will often increase sharply; Second, the calculation date of the fund’s net value is different, which usually brings opportunities for the products with rising performance to skyrocket.
Jiang Zhenxiong also put forward his views on the statement that large-scale redemption can increase net worth. He said that large redemption can certainly increase the net value, but it can’t last long. Follow-up can pay attention to the changing trend of the net value of "Jianhong Time No.2".
"In fact, the skyrocketing performance is not necessarily related to participation in OTC options trading. Isn’t there a futures account in the Jianhong era? There are many futures markets with daily profits and losses exceeding 20%, "he said.
As for why he performed so badly in the Chinese Business Fund, Zhao Yuanyuan said that there are two reasons. One is that his performance as a fund assistant was not taken into account, and the other is that his personal investment style is not suitable for the product.
She further said, "People will always grow up, and the investment framework of Jianhong era is consistent with my investment style, so it is natural to perform well now."
Zhao Yuanyuan’s statement was also corroborated by a former colleague from wang xing, a Chinese fund company. In an interview with reporters, the wang xing fund manager pointed out that Zhao Yuanyuan did not count in the performance when he was the assistant manager of the Chinese prosperous growth fund, but when he officially took the helm of the product and calculated the performance, it coincided with the arrival of the stock market crash, so this performance has certain probability.
"In fact, I think this is not the core of the problem. The point is, who stipulated that poor performance in the past can’t be turned into good performance now? How many managers in Public Offering of Fund either quit their jobs or’ go public for personal gain’ just to find a place where they can give full play to their abilities, so as to achieve good results? It is a good thing that the market has doubts, but the premise of questioning is that there is a basis. " The wang xing fund manager said.
As for the fact that the net value data of Jianhong era was taken off the shelf by a website, Zhao Yuanyuan didn’t want to talk more. According to the reporter’s inquiry, as of August 13, regular platform websites such as Wonder Data and Tonglian Data Datayes! All of them are showing the net value data of Jianhong era as usual.
Industry voice
Starting from the two Weibo, this "OTC option storm" that swept the fund circle has been tossing for a week. Its influence on the capital market, especially in the fund field, is obvious. In recent financial forum messages, the number of messages abusing fund managers on this ground is obviously increasing.
If the shady rumors of fund managers’ OTC options are not true or false, how can we stop these phenomena from the perspective of securities market management? In this regard, Li Yinlin, a partner of Locke Capital, stressed in an interview that "the only suggestion is to penetrate the management of all investors’ sources of funds".
Jiang Zhenxiong believes that "penetrating the management of all investors’ sources of funds" is necessary, but it is not enough, and further improvement of regulatory policies is needed.
"Why can such rumors break out? It is because there is indeed a way for individual (unqualified) investors to enter OTC options through some intermediaries. So, why can these intermediaries do this? Is there a loophole in the previous policy? If so, it should be improved quickly. Better late than never. "
At the same time, Jiang Zhenxiong stressed that he hopes that the regulatory authorities can promptly intervene in the investigation of the OTC option storm. "If there are fund managers who borrow OTC options to make huge profits, whether it is more than 300 or three, it will have a huge negative impact on the entire fund industry and must be severely punished; If it is a rumor, it should also investigate and deal with the rumors, and also clear the fund industry and the OTC options industry. "
Some market participants also believe that the reason for these rumors and chaos is also related to the fact that there are too few financial derivatives in China, so it is suggested that the regulatory authorities vigorously develop them. Zhang Zhuran, the chief researcher of Jilianyun, holds this view.
In an interview with reporters, he said that under the background of salary restriction in Public Offering of Fund, fund managers make big money for their personal interests (that is, making profits through off-exchange options), even though it has not been completely confirmed at present, it is at least justified in business logic. "In fact, whether it is off-exchange options or on-exchange options, insiders will have the possibility of getting rich overnight, which is extremely tempting for fund managers of public offering or private offering."
Zhang Zhuran further pointed out that the main reason for this phenomenon (meaning that you can get rich overnight by using insider information) is that the development of derivatives in China’s capital market is seriously lagging behind, and the management lacks a clear plan and development path for the development of derivatives.
"Therefore, it is suggested that the regulatory authorities should improve this aspect and vigorously develop related derivatives and bring them into standardized and transparent management," he said.