Based overseas, a blogger with an anime-style girl avatar has recently become popular for remotely controlling the surge in small and mid-cap stocks in the A-share market, even being deified as a stock market guru. This phenomenon has brought to the forefront a warning sign for the A-share market.

Source: ChiNext Observation

This financial blogger, named "Serenity," has 758,000 followers on overseas social media platforms. Due to her anime-style white-haired girl avatar, she is known as the "White-Haired Stock God" or "White-Haired Witch" among domestic stock market investors. She is participating in the A-share market in an almost absurd way.

Market controversy ensued. The "white-haired stock god's" cross-border stock-picking activities apparently drew public criticism from domestic securities analysts on social media, with comments such as, "These bastards are doomed sooner or later; they think they can do whatever they want just because they're abroad."

What has attracted even more attention is how to effectively avoid this closed loop of cross-border stock manipulation, information backflow into the domestic market, and stock price manipulation.

Event Recap: A "casual mention" triggered two stocks to hit their daily limit.

On June 8th, the stock market experienced a significant correction, but two stocks—Green Harmonic, a company embodying the concept of intelligent robots, and Easetech, a company embodying the concept of digital new energy—both hit their 20% daily limit. Connecting these two companies, which originally had very different businesses, was the aforementioned overseas social media financial blogger, "Serenity."

Serenity's "magic power" in the A-share market began on June 5th, with two casual remarks triggering two 20cm limit-up moves.

First, there was Green Harmonic. On June 5th, Serenity posted overseas, stating that "Green Harmonic is my favorite Chinese listed company when investing in the humanoid robot sector." This coincided with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's optimistic remarks about industrial robotics, causing related stocks to collectively rise. However, Serenity's post, quickly translated and circulated back into Chinese online communities, acted as a catalyst, causing Green Harmonic's stock price to surge to its 20% daily limit in the afternoon. On June 8th, the stock rose again by nearly 9%, bringing its cumulative monthly gain to almost 40%.

“Green Harmonic is my favorite Chinese listed company when I’m investing in the humanoid robot sector.”

Next up is Easun. Just three days later, on June 8th, Serenity released another list of 800V DC power concept stocks, including over 30 companies. Easun, with the stock code "300376.SZ," was prominently featured. Less than 15 minutes after the post was published, Easun's stock price also surged to its 20% daily limit. Faced with such a frenzied surge, even Serenity himself posted overseas in astonishment: "Everyone knows this is just a crowdsourced list, right? How can it rise by 20%?"

Easun Technology (300376.SZ) is mentioned in the list of 800V DC power concept stocks.

The "White-Haired Stock God" seems to be basking in this "victory." Regarding the two A-share stocks hitting their daily limit, his latest post mentions, "Looks like I've become the focus of Chinese news? I just published a research report on green harmonics and their role in the humanoid robot supply chain. It seems the Chinese robotics sector is rising, and green harmonics have also hit their daily limit? Thank you all for calling me 'God of Overseas'."

Serenity posted a message thanking fans for bestowing upon her the title of "God of Overseas".

As Serenity's influence in China has grown exponentially, some Chinese stock market investors have even been sending him private messages asking him to "recommend their stocks," stating bluntly, "I know you're Chinese... I can pay you." The reporter noted that Serenity already has 758,000 followers, and this number continues to increase as the two stocks he recommended hit their daily limit. In his latest profile, Serenity has also added the tag "White-Haired Stock God."

As the "White-Haired Stock God" effect continues to amplify, it has not only sparked speculation among domestic stock investors about the true identity of the "White-Haired Stock God," but has also seemingly provoked public criticism from domestic securities analysts . One analyst allegedly posted on his WeChat Moments: "These bastards are doomed sooner or later. They think they can do whatever they want just because they've run away to a foreign country."

It was precisely this comment that sparked controversy surrounding Serenity's actions, including accusations of cross-border stock manipulation and market manipulation. The controversy centers on whether the "white-haired stock guru" achieved ulterior motives by promoting stocks on overseas social media platforms, raising concerns about the potential for information backflow.

These individuals, whose true identities are indeed domestic teams or individuals, publish stock recommendations on overseas social media platforms and then use domestic social media (Weibo, WeChat groups, Xueqiu, etc.) to spread and disseminate this information, thereby attracting domestic retail investors to follow suit and drive up stock prices. This has become a typical and egregious form of "export-to-domestic cross-border stock manipulation." It raises suspicions of circumventing domestic compliance regulations, colluding with funds or even major shareholders of listed companies to inflate stock prices and transfer profits, ultimately exploiting retail investors.

The reporter noticed a highly upvoted comment in Serenity's post, where a fan said, "This is how the Chinese stock market operates. Any small disturbance can trigger a wave of buying from quantitative trading and retail investors, quickly pushing up stock prices, and then everyone is waiting for the next buyer to take over."

Point of contention 1: Does it involve cross-border vote-buying and market manipulation?

Serenity's casual remark can accurately predict a 20cm limit up. The most heated and controversial issue is whether his behavior constitutes "pure and neutral sharing of overseas investment views" or involves "cross-border stock manipulation and market manipulation".

In his latest post, Serenity appeared to respond to the incident, which looked more like a "disclaimer." He stated, "All the media in China, like me, are confused about this stock code (referring to Easun). By the way, these are all stocks recommended by fans, not my personal recommendations. I simply compiled everyone's recommendations into a list of over 30 stock names related to 800V DC power." It's worth noting that Serenity is not a licensed investment advisor or institutional investor, and he has repeatedly added "DYOR (Independent Research, Risk Assured)" as a disclaimer in his tweets.

Serenity stated that the stocks she showcased were not her personal recommendations, but rather recommendations from netizens.

Based on communications with compliance personnel at securities firms and some lawyers, there are currently four points of discussion.

First, if Serenity did not have any A-shares in the relevant market before posting, or if she held the market strictly according to long-term investment principles after posting, and was simply sharing her research findings without any consideration or profit sharing, this falls within the scope of freedom of speech and normal expression of opinions overseas, and she bears no legal responsibility.

Secondly, if he or his interest group had already accumulated a large number of domestic shares at low prices before releasing the "Green Harmonic" or "Easun" lists, using his own influencer status to guide retail investors to drive up the stock price, and then dumping shares at the peak to cash out during the 20cm price surge, this kind of "first build up positions, then hype the stock, then dump shares" behavior is clearly defined as "preemptive trading" market manipulation in any mainstream securities law system.

Third, if Serenity's post was only intended for discussion in overseas communities, and domestic stock market investors or self-media spontaneously reposted it to domestic communities, leading to a follow-up surge in investment, then the stock's surge to its daily limit could be considered a "spontaneous market behavior triggered by the influencer effect." His exclamation, "Everyone knows this is just a crowdsourced list, right? How can it rise by 20%?", if genuinely expressed, leans more towards a passive market trend-following behavior.

Fourth, is there any intent to spread the information? If domestic funds are paying overseas influencers to release the list, and then domestic self-media teams simultaneously disseminate it on a large scale in WeChat groups, Xueqiu (a Chinese investment platform), and Weibo, guiding retail investors to rush in, then once this closed loop is formed, both the overseas "voice-makers" and the domestic "disseminators" have crossed the red line of cross-border market manipulation.

Behind a series of controversies, the true identity of Serenity remains to be verified. This fact increases suspicion that he may be a Chinese national promoting his products overseas or that he may be collaborating with domestic institutions or groups. Further verification is needed. According to his own account, he was previously an AI research scientist, and the market has packaged him as an "AI semiconductor supply chain guru" and a representative figure of the "bottleneck theory."

Serenity added the label "White-haired Stock God" to his personal homepage.

What is the "bottleneck theory"? Its core logic lies in not directly investing in terminal giants like Nvidia, but rather identifying the most critical upstream components (such as optical communication, silicon photonics, indium phosphide substrates, optical modules, and testing equipment) that are most "bottlenecked" in the construction of AI computing centers. Previously, Serenity gained fame for its accurate bullish predictions on AXT, a global giant in indium phosphide substrates; AXT's stock price has quadrupled or quintupled this year.

Currently, Serenity's true identity cannot be confirmed. However, browsing the comments section, reporters found that many fans and netizens are trying to piece together his personal information, and the prevailing conclusion is that Serenity is a Chinese person living overseas. He has also responded to similar questions, saying, "I am very international. I am currently in Japan, learning Japanese; I lived in China for a period of time, so I know some Chinese; I used to play football in Mexico, so I can speak Spanish; and I often play League of Legends with my Korean friends."

Point of contention two: Does this involve illegal stock recommendations? How should regulators intervene?

Currently, if Serenity is simply an overseas blogger obsessed with industry chain analysis, and his outstanding track record has led some speculative funds in the A-share market to mythologize him as a "golden touch," it only indicates that the speculative atmosphere in some small and medium-sized stocks in the A-share market is too rampant. Conversely, we should be highly vigilant if it is not.

Under my country's Securities Law, any institution or individual that provides securities investment advice to investors and directly or indirectly receives economic benefits without obtaining permission from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) or securities investment consulting business qualifications is considered to be illegally recommending stocks. Although there are significant practical obstacles in actual enforcement regarding this gray area where overseas individuals use cross-border communication to influence A-shares, once Serenity accepts a "paid" request from relevant domestic stakeholders to promote stocks for them, even if its servers and accounts are located overseas, as long as the results of its actions occur in the A-share market, Chinese regulatory authorities still have jurisdiction.

Will regulators take action? It remains to be seen, but given the regulatory attitude towards influential online figures (VIPs) in recent years, this cross-border capital irregularity has clearly come to the attention of regulators in the A-share market, where retail investors are numerous and highly sensitive to technology concepts. Domestic regulators have been cracking down on illegal online stock recommendations and managing violations by influential online figures in recent years.

For example, accounts such as "Captain Jack's Macro Strategy" and "Captain Jack's Macro Strategy Gossip" were used by Hu to continuously fabricate and disseminate false or misleading information regarding capital market regulatory developments and policies since August 2023. This disrupted the normal order of the securities market and violated relevant provisions of the Securities Law, constituting the act of fabricating and disseminating false information. In response, the regulatory authorities imposed an administrative penalty on Hu, fining him 800,000 yuan and banning him from the securities market for three years.

Point of contention three: Why does this happen? Be wary of cross-border information backflow.

Behind the two 20cm limit-up moves triggered by "White-Haired Stock God" Serenity, in addition to speculation about the true identity of the influential figure, a phenomenon that deserves high vigilance from the entire A-share market is emerging: cross-border information inflow.

The so-called "information backflow" refers to the behavior of specific interest groups or speculative funds within China that take advantage of the gray areas and information gaps in domestic and foreign regulations, using overseas social media platforms as "packaging plants" and "voices," and then disseminating short articles "exported and then re-imported" to domestic communities, thereby precisely manipulating A-share stock prices.

Because domestic regulators have maintained a long-term, high-pressure crackdown on illegal stock recommendations, the black market industry, and unsolicited advice, the space for traditional illegal stock manipulation within China has been greatly compressed. As a result, the profit chain has begun to extend overseas, and the ultimate goal of this information outflow is always the harvesting of funds.

What's even more alarming are the screenshots of private messages circulating in the community, showing that some domestic stakeholders have attempted to pay this overseas influencer to promote domestic investment targets. This suggests that cross-border "information backflow" may be showing dangerous signs of becoming fixed, commercialized, and industrialized.

Custodia and Vantage Bank Launch Live Tokenized Deposit Network for US Banks

Popular Articles