The origin of the Chinese aunt incident

On April 15, 2013, the price of gold fell by 20% in one day. A large number of Chinese people rushed into the nearest store to snap up gold products, buying several kilograms at a time. They were called the "Chinese aunts" who were bargain hunting in the gold market. ".

Under the instruction of the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street giants raised the butcher knife of shorting gold. After a year of brewing, the Wall Street giants finally took action to short gold. Gold plummeted and the world was in an uproar. Unexpectedly, they were killed halfway. A group of "Chinese aunts" appeared, and 100 billion yuan and 300 tons of gold were swept away in an instant. The whole Wall Street was shocked. No matter how much gold Wall Street sold, the aunts took it all. In the short-selling war, Goldman Sachs Group, one of the world's top 500 companies, was the first to surrender. In a gold blocking battle between "financial giants" and "Chinese aunt", "Chinese aunt" won the victory.

This has caused concern among some investors, who believe that it will lead to more people irrationally buying gold. Chen Sijin, a senior consultant at the Royal Bank of Canada and an academic consultant at CCTV’s “Wall Street”, said in an interview that it is a joke to confuse the rebound in international gold prices with gold grabbing. The amount of gold in gold jewelry stores is not of the same order of magnitude as the entire gold market. “Chinese Aunt "It can't shake the entire gold market at all.

“Have you bought gold recently?” This may be a new greeting for Chinese people on the May Day in 2013.

Although Tan Yaling, president of the China Foreign Exchange Investment Research Institute, does not agree with the view that gold has entered a bear market, she also expresses doubts that China's rush to buy has reversed the price of gold. She said that when foreign investors see the phenomenon in China, they will follow the trend and use this state and situation to suppress gold.

The international gold market staged a "thrilling" scene in April 2013. The international gold price experienced a shocking plunge in mid-April, reaching as low as $1,321. Then there was a relatively large rebound period starting from the 26th (it closed at $1,467.4 per ounce on April 29, 2013). Regarding the trend of gold in the international market in May, various opinions are completely different, and the outlook for gold is still foggy.

After gold weakened, monthly sales of U.S. Mint gold coins hit a new record. The latest data shows that 196,500 ounces of gold coins were sold in April 2013, while 20,000 ounces were sold in the same period in 2012, which is almost a 10-fold difference. One-tenth of an ounce of gold coins is temporarily out of stock. Analysts said that demand for physical gold in Asia is one of the main reasons for boosting gold prices. In addition to the reported cases of gold cabinets in Hong Kong being frequently raided by mainland residents, physical gold in various Chinese cities has seen brisk sales.

During the May Day holiday in 2013, the blockbuster "City Full of Gold" was staged. Chinese housewives, mainly aunts, went crazy buying gold, which led to the "sweeping out" of gold counters in shopping malls in many cities. And empty." Not only that, there are also people going to Hong Kong and Taiwan to go shopping. “Wall Street analysts are no match for Chinese aunties” has become a hot topic. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) accounted for 99.3% of spot gold sales on the New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) over the past three months. This means that between February 1 and April 25, JPMorgan Chase has sold 1.966 million troy ounces (one gold futures contract represents 100 troy ounces) of gold. In fact, the amount of gold in gold jewelry stores is not in the same order of magnitude as the entire gold market; and the amount of gold bought by "Chinese aunts" cannot fundamentally shake the entire gold market.

Some investors said that "China's aunt is fighting Wall Street", which is the same as the Boxers shouting "invulnerability" and charging at foreign guns and cannons. This is not a war, but a pure death! Of course, some people think that Chinese aunts don’t look at futures, only whether they are worth it. Faced with the plummeting price of gold, Chinese aunts are "bold" and not afraid of "short selling".

Chinese aunts are ordinary people. They rush to buy physical gold. Of course, they also have the traditional concept of "saving gold and hiding silver", but they mainly hope to preserve the value of wealth and avoid inflation. The "gold rush" actually reflects the lack of private investment and financial management channels in China. Aunts are exchanging banknotes for "yellow goods", which also highlights the hidden worries of boosting domestic demand and consumption.

Being unable to invest or not daring to invest when you have money is a problem worthy of attention; on the other hand, not daring to spend money is also a problem. China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) in April, released on May 1, 2013, was 50.6, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. The data fell again after a brief rebound in March. On the one hand, this trend shows that the basis for the current economic stabilization is not yet solid; on the other hand, it also highlights the lack of economic growth momentum, especially the insufficient boosting of domestic demand and consumption.

The second quarter started weakly, with industrial activities shrinking and the manufacturing index lower than market expectations. Without good stimulus measures, the economic cooling trend may continue. If we want to expand domestic demand and promote consumption, we should consider how to bring back consumption from overseas that could otherwise remain within the country.

Chinese aunts joining the gold rush are actually saving money in disguise. It seems that in order to truly unleash domestic demand, we must adhere to social fairness and justice, effectively increase the income of urban and rural residents, narrow the income gap, and do a good job in ensuring elderly care and health. The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed "two synchronizations", "two improvements" and "one doubling". The implementation of these quantitative indicators should be truly felt by the general public. Chinese aunts have confidence in the future and the "Chinese Dream". Will we still worry about boosting domestic demand?

The latest report released by the World Gold Council shows that driven by the strong promotion of the Chinese and Indian markets, global gold consumption demand rose sharply by 53% in the second quarter of 2013. Gold consumption demand hit the highest level in five years. Among them, China Market demand for gold bars and coins surged by 157% year-on-year. For gold sellers, dama is the absolute gold master. "Chinese aunts are definitely the protagonists in the gold rush. They have not seen gold prices so low for a long time. For them, this is a huge attraction. Although damas are "invincible" in gold stores, they are not global gold The protagonist of the trading market, the claim that dama can shake the price of gold also lacks basic evidence. After dama went global, more foreigners began to discuss this special group. Some foreign media currently wrote an article pointing out that dama squeezed into the order controlled by English. The financial vocabulary team is a bit nonsense. “The group labeled (dama) is generally like this: enthusiastic but impulsive, energetic but often blindly obedient, good at calculating benefits but lacking ability and vision. Everything implies that dama is hardly the one who laughs last in business. "In fact, these foreigners do not understand that Dama has no intention of competing with Wall Street elites. What supports Dama's unremitting pursuit of gold is not entirely the temptation of appreciation, but mainly the lack of security.

According to statistics, last year, Chinese aunts’ gold-buying craze shocked the world, driving China’s gold consumption demand to increase by 32 to 1,065.8 tons (including jewelry, gold bars, coins and other minted products), setting a record high. China has become the world’s most important physical gold market. .