Opinion

The Short Seller

Since the outbreak of COVID 19, the world has been hit by its impact, and the global financial markets have been in turmoil – from the record-breaking U.S. stock market meltdowns witnessed at the beginning of the pandemic, to the continuous rise of Chinese and foreign technology network stocks to new highs, to the recent stock price commotion caused by China’s move to regulate a number of industries. The thrill of the financial markets is actually very relevant to our lives. After all, in the modern business world, “if you ignore money, money ignores you” – an attitude of indifference to investment and financial management is likely to eventually put you in an increasingly passive situation.
 
However, in the course of our growth, we seldom have the opportunity to learn the concept and skills of “financial management”, let alone “stock speculation”, which is regarded as, a “speculation”. This is perhaps one of the major loopholes in traditional Chinese society, especially today when frauds are becoming more and more pervasive and a lack of “financial education” makes it easier to fall into the trap of “greed” or “ignorance”.
 
Therefore, this interesting book for young people The Short Seller is worth recommending to everyone, especially parents who want their children to understand what “stock trading” is all about. The story is about a 12-year-old girl who hates mathematics. Then she has a chance to operate the bank account on behalf of her father and learns how to buy and sell stocks. Due to some initial success, she begins to greedily “borrow” her parents’ account funds to speculate on the stock market, not realising that a tense and stirring adventure is waiting for her! 
 
The author of this book, Elissa Brent Weissman, is an American author who writes mainly for children aged 8 to 12. The book allows young readers to understand financial terms that sound difficult and boring such as short term operations, short selling, hedging, insider trading, bull and bear markets, limit orders and securities trading, etc… The downside is that for young readers in Macau, there is still a gap in terms of understanding and engagement because the book is set in the context of US stock trading (but for adults who are interested in investing in US stocks, it is probably a good and easy introduction to the subject).
 
By the way, it is not uncommon in the English-speaking world for such financial books to have children (or “layman” readers) as their target audience, such as the once popular and still long-selling Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, as well as the cartoon short film series Secret Millionaires Club, created in cooperation with one of the world's richest men, Warren Buffett. The English-speaking world is enviable for its abundance of introductory financial reading. The reason behind this is probably the different views of different societies on the matter of “making money”, as well as the influence of culture and the driving factors of the publishing market.
 
In short, in the ever-changing world of today, there is still a lot we can do as parents and adults to help prepare our next generation to learn how to face the unpredictable future. After all, there are many things that affect children deeply and extensively, such as: how to invest money? How to make friends and meet people? How to face success? How to embrace failure? These are important skills in life that are usually not taught in the school classrooms.
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