Pressure: Behind The Abnormal Death In The Workplace

Ostentatious finance Professionals, the pressure is Workplace The pressure of, but also the pressure of survival, who will release for them pressure ? 
On May 4, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Index lost 2900 points. Domestic stock index futures fell, and the main contract fell 2.60%.

Zhao Lichen, who studies stock index futures, can no longer see this scene. Today is his seventh anniversary.

On April 28, a week ago, Zhao Lichen, a researcher of Shenyin Wanguo, jumped off a building and died at the age of 33; Before him, there were also accidents such as the "sudden death" of CICC researchers, the "death from overwork" of PwC female masters, and the first generation "suicide" in the City of London in China. They were also young and had just started their careers.

The financial industry has always been heavy, and under the impact of these extreme cases, it has become more real.

The Mystery of Death

On April 28, Zhao Lichen jumped down from the 11th floor where he usually worked. This floor is the headquarters of Shenyin Wanguo Securities Investment and Derivatives, where Zhao is engaged in stock index futures research.

Even though the information is limited, we can still piece together a typical image of young people in the financial industry.

Zhao Lichen, born in 1978 in Liaoning, holds a master's degree in the School of Finance of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. After graduation in 2007, Zhao joined Shenwan Head Office, and applied for quantitative research on financial derivatives at that time; On December 13 of the same year, he obtained the securities practice qualification certificate.

The death of young securities trader researcher

It seems that Zhao Lichen's resume in Shenwan has been smooth.

In April 2009, Zhao participated in Shenwan's two projects related to stock index futures and won the second and third prizes of 2008 Financial Product Innovation Award of China Securities Association; In the same year, he also cooperated with alumni of his alma mater to publish papers in a national first-class academic journal.

Referring to the salary system of the securities industry, Zhao Lichen's above qualifications can be exchanged for about 300000 annual salary, as well as a certain number of quarterly and year-end awards; Compared with people of the same age in the society, such status is enough to be envied.

However, Zhao Lichen personally stopped all this.

The news of his suicide was accompanied by a rumor that "Zhao Lichen served as a derivatives investment manager during his lifetime, and the stock index fell sharply recently, leading to an explosion of positions"; The market trend since April makes this information more complicated.

According to the data, on April 11, the CSI 300 index rose to 3380.53 points in the first half of the period, but then fell in succession; By the last trading day of the month, namely, 3147.14 on April 29, the accumulative total had dropped by 6.90%.

"At present, the margin of futures companies is generally about 15%, which is equivalent to about six times the leverage. When the CSI 300 Index drops nearly 7%, it means a loss of about 40% at most. If some investors persist in long positions at a high level, or even have been covering positions, the result will be an explosion of positions." The founder of a private equity company in Shanghai gave an example to reporters.

"But this is a very extreme situation," the person in charge emphasized; In reality, once continuous losses lead to insufficient funds, investors will be required to add margin or forcibly close their positions. It is not common for real losses to burst positions.

More importantly, the securities industry in which Zhao Lichen is engaged is subject to stricter supervision on stock index futures trading.

In the judgment of Zhao Lichen's department during his lifetime, the Securities Investment and Derivatives Headquarters is responsible for Shenwan's proprietary account operation. Under the regulatory regulations, the purpose of securities dealers' proprietary participation in stock index futures is firmly limited to the scope of "hedging".

Hedging refers to buying or selling futures contracts with the same number as the spot market but in the opposite direction to hedge the future risks of the spot market.

"If the hedging operation is followed, the spot positions held by securities companies are basically long positions, and the corresponding hedging transactions should be short sold, instead, they should profit from this downward trend." The head of the derivatives department of a securities company explained to reporters.

On the evening of the 28th, Shen Wan responded for the first time to the rumor of "stock index futures exploding": "The employee is a researcher in the company's headquarters". The company explained that as a researcher, Zhao Lichen would not contact the actual investment operation.

In addition, Shen Wan also stressed that the company has carried out the stock index futures hedging business since last year, and has not carried out stock index futures trading in other ways, and the stock index futures hedging business is operating normally and in a profitable state, and has not carried out the operation of this business recently.

Elite under overdraft

"There is pressure in the financial industry. This pressure may not be the pressure of your survival, but the changes in the market, as well as the emotional anxiety caused by this change." After learning about the Zhao Lichen accident, a senior manager of a Beijing securities firm said to the reporter with emotion.

Previously, there had been cases of the sudden death of CICC researchers, the jump of the vice president of the fund department of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and the death of a female master of PricewaterhouseCoopers. On April 22, Liu Ying, the head of the City of London in China, had just ended her life in the parking lot under the office building.

The latest suicide accident has even more distressed the financial industry people with beautiful appearance.

In the impression of his colleagues, Zhao Lichen is "introverted and not good at releasing pressure"; And his former colleague recalled that Zhao had planned to change jobs recently, but it was not successful.

It was only after Zhao Lichen's accident that these fragmentary memories were recalled.

Different from the researcher in the traditional concept, Zhao Lichen works in Shenwan's self support department, which also explains why no report has been released after four years of work. "We also have research reports, but they provide suggestions for the company's proprietary operations, and they are not disclosed to the public." A researcher from the proprietary department of another securities firm in Shanghai explained to reporters.

Therefore, the investigation of such researchers needs another system.

"We are required to establish our own simulated asset pool, and the company will compare everyone's income according to a certain cycle." In the industry, some brokers define the inspection cycle as weekly.

"Generally speaking, the shorter the cycle, the greater the pressure; this has higher requirements for our ability to grasp the market and select stocks." The above securities researchers commented.

In other aspects, the above researchers are not very different; Of course, overtime is included.

Xiaohua (not his real name) is a researcher of securities companies. Facing the golden signboard of finance, he jumped from a real estate company to his current position two years ago.

"Because of the morning meeting, we usually go to work at 8:00 a.m. and leave work at 5:00 p.m. according to the regulations, but basically we have to delay. If we can't finish it at around 8:00 p.m., we will go home to continue." Xiao Hua told reporters.

"What I fear most is to prepare for the strategy meeting or temporarily introduce a policy, which will make me stay up late; when I see the email, it is basically sent in the early morning; even some colleagues stay up late to write reports and immediately rush to the airport to participate in research."

"There is no overtime pay. The company gives us the benefits of free dinner and reimbursement of taxi fare when we go home."

Despite many complaints, Xiao Hua plans to stay.

"We have to endure in our business. Once we are famous, it will be easy to change jobs." Xiaohua planned. Around him, many colleagues have gone to fund, insurance, private placement and other buyer organizations, and even had the opportunity to trade in person; At this level, the corresponding salary may be millions of years.

However, Ma Nan, 27, did not survive.

On December 31, 2010, Ma Nan was found to have died suddenly at home. At that time, he was a research assistant in the agricultural food industry of CICC. Earlier, he was still working at KPMG. Although there was no official response afterwards, it was rumored in the industry that Ma Nan died of overwork after working all night for three days in a row; Because his team has the goal of impacting the top three in the industry, his work intensity is greater than that of other researchers in the company.