It shows that 51 percent of Chinese investors buy stocks based entirely on tips or what they hear from family and friends. Perhaps even more unsettling, another 29 percent rely on the media for investing advice. The remaining 20 percent, the chart indicates, invest “blindly.” Says the 26-year-old Irishman, “Going to a brokerage in China is like going to a bookmaker at home.”
Lennon hopes to make it less of a gamble. In July he plans to launch a monthly magazine, Value Investor, aimed at China’s famously speculative stock investors. The magazine will champion bottom-up Graham and Doddstyle investment strategies and, Lennon says, be chock-full of company financials, business descriptions, director and major shareholder lists and, of course, charts. The magazine will also offer two proprietary ratings: One will assess companies’ financial health and the other whether it’s a good time to invest.
He maintains that, unlike many indigenous investment publications, VI will keep its editorial and advertising operations completely separate. “We hope to bring integrity to the market,” says the former writer for Economist Intelligence Unit, “and we have to start with ourselves.”
The fledgling media mogul -- who once labored at an ad agency in Dublin -- is working with a local publisher, Money Weekly, and has received financial support from a fellow expat.
One editorial problem Lennon faces is story length: They’re apt to be too short. Chinese with make-work jobs spend a good portion of their days reading and tend to choose magazines based on heft as much as content. Lennon must figure out how to deliver a clear, concise read without leaving his subscribers with a lot of time on their hands.
