The Chinese stock market closed down over 5% yesterday, 45% off of its all time high last October. With one notable exception this is contrary to most analysts’ predictions. IT is always impressive how much financial experts are paid to be wrong.

"The collapse of the Chinese stock market is not a question of if, only when. The real question will be how many dominoes it will take with it." William Gamble Financial Times May 15, 2007

"This month Stanley Ho, the Macao gaming king, signaled his bullishness about the Hong Kong market by predicting that, once the flagship index breached 30,000 (it finally did yesterday, hitting 30,405.22), it would power towards 40,000" Financial Times Oct 27, 2007

"Jing Ulrich, JPMorgan chairman of China equities, rates the A-share market as expensive but doesn't believe it will crash - corporate earnings growth remains robust, the quality of listed companies joining the stock market is rising every month and the macroeconomy remains strong." Financial Times Oct 27, 2007

"If share prices in Shanghai continue to soar and more Chinese companies carry out IPOS, it will push China’s total stockmarket capitalisation ahead of Japan’s and second only to America’s. Chinese firms will increasingly dominate international corporate rankings. Already, by late 2007, three of the world’s six biggest companies by market capitalisation were Chinese. In 2008 PetroChina could even eclipse Exxon Mobil as the world’s largest company by market value " Pam Woodall | HONG KONG From The World in 2008 Economist print edition

"Jim Rogers, the investor and author, has warned of an "incipient bubble" in the mainland Chinese stock market in an interview with the Financial Times. He is recommending that investors should buy Hong Kong-listed shares in Chinese companies instead." Financial Times Oct 30, 2007

"Adrian Mowat, JPMorgan's chief Asian and emerging markets equity strategist, says this huge discount on Hong Kong-listed mainland companies now represents an excellent buying opportunity for investors to accumulate Hong Kong-listed shares of mainland companies. What message is Mowat conveying to clients in the U.S.? "I am telling them to buy, and buy aggressively," he says." Business week August 22, 2007

"Gene Sit of Sit Investment Associates says once the hot market cools down, a soft landing will make many stocks attractive. Gene Sit thinks China's stock market is ready to burst. But he figures the damage won't go deep. A soft landing to us means a correction to about 5,300—so 1,000 points, or around 15% below where we are now. That would bring the p-e to 35 on next year's earnings. If we're wrong and all hell breaks lose, you could see 4,500, or a p-e of 30." Business Week October 17, 2007

"Some fearless forecasters predict that the Dow will streak to 16,000 and that the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index will go to 1,700 over the next 6 to 12 months. I agree with that forecast. Why? Let me be brief: It's the global economic boom" Gene Marcial Business Week October 17, 2007