June 4, 1989


On June 4, 1989, the Chinese government brutally crashed the student-led democracy movement by military force.

The days and nights of month-long hunger strike and following days during the martial law are still vivid in mind.

The ambulances … directing the traffics and guarding the life lines along the Changan street …

The low flying military helicopters … blocking the subway stations … the buses with flat tires sitting in front of subway entrances … the rumors that the troops are in the subway tunnels …

The AK-47 automatic gun-shots heard from all directions and tracers seen in the sky … the tanks and APCs speeding from many directions … the fires in many places … the waves of moving troops from the darkness behind the large buildings along the Tiananmen Square …

The PLA assault team raiding the monument in the center of the Tiananmen Square where we stayed until early morning on June 4 … the tanks crashing into the camps …

The long withdraw back to the campus … the deaths of fellow students … the silent rainny nights except hearing gun fires from distance … sitting on the roof top at Tsinghua …

The hopelessness … the angers …

We never forget.

May the fallen heros rest in peace!

How to short Bond market

If you think the bond market is close to its top, you might consider shorting it. How? Here’s one way to short bond – buy this Rydex Juno fund (RYJUX) (annual expense ratio 1.4%). The downside risk is that the interest rate may go even lower or stay low for a while. The upside is that the interest rate moves higher.

Taking profits

The market went up again. Both NASDAQ and DOW are almost at their 52 week highs. Although it could move higher, there is nothing wrong taking profits here.

Closed IBM, CSCO and LOW positions.

ETFs

I did some research on ETFs for fixed income and market exposure in China at ETFConnect. Here’s the list:

  • TFT – ETF Advisor Trust Treasury 1 Fixed Income Trust Receipts: it can be used as cash equivalent, and currently yields about 1.26%. Edit: I found out today that TFT was closed for liquidation at AMEXTrader.
  • GCH – Greater China Fund, Inc: Other 6.10%, China 24.60%, Taiwan 30.70% (% for COUNTRY DIVERSIFICATION)
  • CHN – China Fund: China
    5.40%,

    United States
    7.90%,

    Taiwan
    33.90%,

    Hong Kong
    47.10% (too little exposure in China)

  • JFC – Jardine Fleming China Region Fund: China
    24.40%,

    Taiwan
    26.30%,

    Hong Kong
    49.10%

  • TCH – Templeton China World Fund: Taiwan
    7.70%,

    Hong Kong
    34.70%,

    China
    40.30%

  • The market moved higher in the morning then gave up most of gains and ended slightly higher. Profit taking maybe …

    A lot of selling on MSFT pushed price to drop 0.38 in volume of almost 100 million shares.

    Hitlist

    I read Hitman’s Hitlist quite often. It’s a interesting saga of love affair, trading, and many things in life.

    The market went up a bunch today after consumer confidence and new housing start data was released. DOW ended @8,781.35, NASDAQ @1,556.69, Russel @427.71 and S&P @951.48.

    Targets: IBM @90, CSCO @16.6, MSFT @26 and LOW @42 (gap down as resistence).