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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Fund Manager Commits Suicide After China Stock Market Crash

By Brendan Byrne. Originally published at ValueWalk.

36-year-old Liu Qiang allegedly jumped to his death from a building in central Beijing.

Liu, a fund manager at Ruilin Jiachi asset management in China, was apparently suffering from depression. News of his death first surfaced on social media on July 24, according to Caixin Online.

liu fund manager suicide China Stock Market Crash

Liu spent 3 years being treated for depression

A lawyer for Liu’s family issued a statement on July 27, in which he specified that Liu had died on July 21. The statement cited “personal reasons” for his death, unrelated to his work as a fund manager or the recent volatility of the Chinese stock market.

The report cites “several people close to Liu” who stated that he had only returned to work in April after 3 years of treatment for depression in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan. ”He has had a very tough time in recent years,” one of Liu’s friends said.

Other friends claim Liu had grown frustrated by government attempts to intervene in China’s stock market. He apparently believed that ”the rules and order of the market had been broken … and was desperate, feeling that he was at his wit’s end,” one of his friends said.

Liu published a blog post on July 7, questioning his involvement in the market. ”The stock market disaster has turned many of my investment principles upside down … and made me doubt many times whether I’m still suitable for the market,” he wrote.

“Value investor” sadly takes his own life in China

Liu entered the futures market in the 1990s, one of the first in China to do so, and developed a reputation as a value investor. That investment philosophy is now being questioned online as commentators analyze his performance.

His death prompted speculation that he committed suicide due to losses incurred by the recent volatility,  it is not thought that he suffered large personal losses. However recent data reveals that the fund he managed did lose approximately 18% of its value in 2015.

Officially the fund would have been shut down if losses had reached 20%. However most of the investors were friends of Liu that trusted in his long-term approach to investment and were willing to keep the fund open.

China Measures July 9 (1)

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