Hong Kong’s Stock Market Struggles to Find Shelter From the Storm


港交所是全世界唯一会因为恶劣天气而休市的主要交易所，通常每年都会发生几次，这给投资者和券商带来许多麻烦。而解决问题的责任并不只在港交所身上。


港交所是全球唯一会因为恶劣天气而休市的主要交易所。

11月初，香港举办了国际金融领袖投资峰会，展示这座城市已向世界开放。但时机不巧，香港金融市场当天被迫提前收市。 6park.com
When Hong Kong hosted a summit for some of Wall Street’s top executives in early November, its aim was to show the city was open to the world. In a case of bad timing, its financial markets were forced to close early that day. 6park.com
  
11月2日下午快2点的时候，香港天文台发出了八号烈风或暴风信号，导致港交所当天余下时间暂停股票和衍生品交易。 6park.com
The city’s weather observatory issued a Typhoon No. 8 signal a little before 2 p.m. on Nov. 2, causing its exchange to suspend trading in stocks and derivatives for the rest of the day. 6park.com
  
港交所是全球唯一会因为恶劣天气而休市的主要交易所，通常每年都会发生几次。纽约、法兰克福、东京和新德里等城市的证交所能在自然灾害等不可预见的事件发生时继续交易。今年9月，一场强台风袭击了韩国南部海岸，造成韩国部分地区出现停电和洪涝灾害，但韩国市场仍照常开盘。 6park.com
Hong Kong’s bourse is the only major exchange in the world that closes for bad weather—which typically occurs several times each year. Stock exchanges in cities including New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo and New Delhi are able to keep trading through unforeseen events, including natural disasters. In September, markets remained open in South Korea when a strong typhoon battered its southern coast, causing blackouts and flooding in parts of the country.



受影响的还不只港交所。挂出八号风球说明风速至少为每小时39英里，这时香港全市都会陷入停滞。人们无法出去工作。银行关闭，无法结算交易。 6park.com
It isn’t just a problem for the exchange. When the T8 signal is raised, as a result of winds blowing at least 39 miles an hour, the city grinds to a halt. People can’t get to work. Banks are closed and can’t clear transactions. 6park.com
  
去年，当得知香港股市因“黑色暴雨”警告信号无法开盘时，港交所行政总裁欧冠昇(Nicolas Aguzin)惊讶不已。黑色暴雨警告信号在每小时雨量超过2.75英寸时发出。 6park.com
Nicolas Aguzin, the chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd., was surprised to learn last year that the market couldn't open when there was a “black rainstorm” signal, which is issued when rainfall amounts to more than 2.75 inches an hour. 6park.com
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去年7月，刚上任不久的欧冠昇在一次活动上说，他不想让任何人在台风或黑色风暴期间面临风险，但现实是必须找到一种方法，确保在人们交易时市场是开放的。 6park.com
“I don’t want to put anyone at risk during a typhoon or a black storm. But the reality is there must be a way where we can make sure that when people trade, the market is open,” Mr. Aguzin said at an event in July 2021, shortly after starting his new job. 6park.com
  
在回答提问时，港交所的一位发言人说：“我们总是把团队安全放在首位，但随着技术进步，我们仍在研究如何延长和拓展全年交易时间。”这位发言人还表示，港交所在今年早些时候推出一项计划，允许非港元计价衍生品在公假期间交易。 6park.com
In response to a query, an exchange spokesperson said: “We always put the safety of our team first; but as technology advances, we continue to look at ways in which we can extend and broaden our annual trading hours,” adding that it launched a program earlier this year to allow non-Hong Kong dollar-denominated derivatives trading during public holidays. 6park.com
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香港金融市场因为恶劣天气而关闭的风险给投资者和券商带来许多麻烦。香港已加强和中国内地的交易联系，特别是通过港股通等互联互通机制。但当香港市场因台风休市时，中国内地市场仍保持开放，投资者只能眼看价格波动而无法调整头寸。 6park.com
The risk of the market closing for bad weather creates a number of headaches for investors and brokers. Hong Kong has put a greater emphasis on trading links with mainland China, particularly through the Stock Connect program. But when Hong Kong is closed due to a typhoon—and China’s market remains open—investors are forced to watch price movements without being able to adjust their positions. 6park.com
  
香港的八号风球也可能在指数提供商调整股票权重的交易日挂出。Citadel Securities驻香港的全球股票发展业务董事总经理Jonathan Finney称，这可能对退休基金、主权财富基金和终端投资者造成很大影响。 6park.com
The T8 signal can also be issued on a rebalancing day, when index providers adjust stock weightings. That could be “quite significant for pension funds, sovereign-wealth funds and end investors,” said Jonathan Finney, the Hong Kong-based managing director of global equity development at Citadel Securities.


港交所的市场基础设施已有将近30年没有重大升级改造了。

造成这个问题的原因之一是香港金融系统在台风期间大范围关闭。香港财经事务及库务局表示，在恶劣天气下保持市场开放需要考虑多种因素。该部门一位发言人说，对于此事将适时进行研究，考虑行业意见，以实现整个市场的最佳结果。 6park.com
The problem is partly a result of the wider shutdown in Hong Kong’s financial system during typhoons. Hong Kong’s financial services and treasury bureau said keeping the markets open during severe weather required the consideration of a number of factors. A spokesperson at the government agency said it is “something we will look at in due course, taking into account industry views to achieve the optimum outcome for the market as a whole.” 6park.com
  
据市场参与者称，香港经纪系统的分散性质，加上清算公司需要实体卡登录，意味着没有简单的解决办法。 6park.com
The fractured nature of the city’s brokerage system and the need for clearing firms to use physical cards to log in mean there is no easy fix, according to market participants. 6park.com
  
香港有700多家经纪公司，排名前65位的占到市场成交额的95%。多数经纪公司是服务于散户的小机构，无法完全升级到电子交易。 6park.com
There are more than 700 brokers in Hong Kong. The top 65 of them account for 95% of market turnover. Most are mom-and-pop shops that serve individual investors and can’t fully upgrade to electronic trading. 6park.com
  
亚洲证券业与金融市场协会(Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association)证券部主管赵荫人(Lyndon Chao)说，即使港交所、大型经纪公司和大型银行能够保持营业，小经纪公司也不具备在恶劣天气下继续交易的能力，这可能是港交所为保持平稳运行而需要解决的最大问题。 6park.com
“Even if HKEX, big brokers and big banks can stay open, the mom-and-pop brokers are not equipped to keep trading in inclement weather. That’s probably the biggest issue for HKEX to address to keep things running smoothly,” said Lyndon Chao, head of equities at the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association. 6park.com
  
另一个问题是港交所的市场基础设施，这套设施已有将近30年没有重大升级改造了。 6park.com
Another problem is the exchange’s market infrastructure, which hasn’t had a major overhaul for nearly three decades. 6park.com
  
香港股市的交易通过中央结算及交收系统(Central Clearing and Settlement System)进行，这是1992年投入服务的一个专有平台。 6park.com
Trades on the Hong Kong stock market go through the Central Clearing and Settlement System, a proprietary platform that started operations in 1992. 6park.com
  
该平台仍使用实体智能卡对经纪商和清算银行的登录进行身份验证，这在新冠疫情最严重的时期增加了交易难度，即便对大公司也是如此。智能卡通常须安装在办公室电脑中，在多数家庭网速下不能顺畅运行。 6park.com
The platform still uses a physical smart card to authenticate logins from brokers and clearing banks, something that made trading more difficult—even for large firms—during the worst of the pandemic. The smart card usually has to be installed in the office desktop and doesn’t function well with the internet speeds available in most homes. 6park.com
  
港交所9月份表示，正计划升级为无需实体卡的双重认证系统。双重认证已普遍应用于社交媒体平台、办公软件和个人网银平台，通过一个普通密码和一个手机应用生成的一次性代码即可完成验证。港交所将在明年第一季度开始测试新认证系统，并预计第二季度停止使用智能卡。 6park.com
In September, the exchange said it was planning an upgrade to two-factor authentication that can be achieved without the physical card. Verification can be accomplished with a regular password and a one-time code generated by a mobile app, technology that is already commonplace in social media, office software and personal banking platforms. The exchange will start testing the new authentication system in the first quarter and expects to decommission the smart card method in the second quarter. 6park.com
  
港交所曾尝试全面改革其清算和结算平台。据知情人士透露，港交所运营商在大约十年前启动了一个名为NextGen的项目，旨在对系统进行全面改造。但这一项目几乎没有任何成果。此后，港交所运营商转而对平台进行修补，发布补丁和更新。 6park.com
The exchange has tried to overhaul its clearing and settlement platform. The exchange operator launched a project called NextGen about a decade ago, aiming to give the system a complete makeover, according to people familiar with the exchange. Little has come of the project. The exchange operator has instead tried to tinker with the platform, releasing fixes and updates.


今年早些时候，一名男子在台风警报期间跳入香港维多利亚港。

这套清算系统的维护成本很高。据亚洲证券业与金融市场协会估计，业内每年需要为此支付数亿美元费用。 6park.com
The clearing system is expensive to maintain. The industry pays several hundreds of millions of dollars each year in related fees, according to Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association estimates. 6park.com
  
但香港陈旧的系统也有好处：事实证明它很稳定。 6park.com
But there is an upside to Hong Kong’s dated system: It has proved to be stable. 6park.com
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赵荫人表示，港交所的基础设施在全球属年代最久的，这是劣势，也是优势，因为其稳定性也在全球名列前茅。 6park.com
“HKEX infrastructure is one of the most archaic in the world,” said Mr. Chao. “But what is a liability is also a strength. It’s also been one of the most stable architectures in the world,” he said. 6park.com
  
据Citadel Securities整理的数据，仅2020年，全球各地证券交易所就发生过七次重大故障，其中包括英国、加拿大、日本、法国和德国的交易所，而德国交易所发生过两次。港交所则从来没有发生过重大故障。 6park.com
In 2020 alone, there were seven major outages on stock exchanges around the world, including the in the U.K., Canada, Japan, France and twice in Germany, according to data compiled by Citadel Securities. Hong Kong has never had a major outage. 6park.com
  
Finney表示，解决这个问题的责任不仅在港交所身上。他说，券商、清算行和其他方面也需要帮助寻找方案，让市场保持开放。 6park.com
Mr. Finney said “the onus isn’t just on Hong Kong Exchange” to solve the problem. Brokers, clearing banks and others need to help find a solution to keep the market open, he said. 6park.com