A lot of people are expecting the Chinese stock market to fall, some time in the future. When it does – not if – it won’t be a smooth slide down. It will be a steep and hard fall. It just can’t be otherwise with this type of mania:

Hong Kong students are piling loans and family savings into a volatile stock market, a growing trend that worries social workers in the special administrative region…

…Rags-to-riches tales convince many that it is worth it.

One 22-year-old graduate was reported to have transformed his family’s wealth from US$9,000 to US$448,700 in three years.

But social workers say students are racking up huge debts on credit cards to fund day trading.

“Some students have no money, so they use their student grants and loans to speculate on stocks,” said Joe Tang, a social work director at the Caritas Addicted Gamblers Counselling Center.

The concept of stock market is new to China, and we’re witnessing their first of probably many bubbles.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn./china/2008-01/25/content_6420910.htm