Cracking Down on Cross-Border Trading, I Choose to Hold Firm

In 2020, I opened an account with Vantive International (a US-based Chinese bank), but the maintenance costs were too high, so I eventually closed it.

In 2021, I opened a Tiger Securities account.

February 2025, I successively opened accounts with Futu Securities, Longbridge Securities, and Interactive Brokers (IBKR), along with a bunch of Hong Kong bank cards.

The truth is, I don’t actually have a need for large cross-border transfers. I’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a digital nomad, but never acted on it. My life, family, income, and expenses are all on the mainland — I can’t just walk away for now.

I have a quirk: I like collecting accounts, all sorts of odd ones. As long as the barrier to entry isn’t too high and I can set one up in 10-20 minutes, I’ll go for it. To manage hundreds of accounts and random passwords, I even bought 1Password. I also like collecting various email suffixes and hoarding short domain names — including this blog’s domain, which cost me several thousand yuan, making it my second most expensive investment in writing.

But collecting early does have its advantages. When something is just emerging, the doors are wide open; once everyone piles in, the road slowly gets blocked. Like China Telecom Macau’s student plan — back then you could sign up casually, and I’ve been using it for four or five years now, unwilling to switch. Or DMIT’s hosting, which you used and then it became out of print. Or the Mac mini I bought not long ago, which has practically turned into an investment product.

Yesterday afternoon after market close, I saw the news about the Chinese government cracking down hard on cross-border stock trading and cross-border wealth management. My heart sank — because I’m heavily leveraged in Xiaomi through Futu Securities margin trading, currently sitting on a floating loss of nearly 50%. If I can only sell but not buy, and can’t deposit funds, I won’t be able to day-trade, nor can I withstand the margin call risk from further stock price declines.

After calm analysis, I realized the actual impact isn’t that severe. My biggest risk right now is actually the margin risk; without leverage, I could simply transfer my positions elsewhere.

First, buying stocks through local Hong Kong banks is completely unaffected. This policy doesn’t restrict stock purchases through banking channels. For example, HSBC’s Trade25 — pay 25 HKD monthly, and you get 250,000 HKD in free trading quota. Additionally, China Merchants Wing Lung Bank, ZA Bank, Airstar Bank, and others all offer HK and US stock trading services. Fees are a bit higher, but they still work.

Second, US-based brokerages are largely unaffected. My Interactive Brokers account is a US account, not a Hong Kong account, so it’s completely fine. At times like this, I really feel this account is particularly worthwhile.

As for fund security, there’s no need to worry too much. Hong Kong’s financial regulatory system is relatively well-established, and the risk of a platform running away is virtually zero.

In short, the impact exists, but it’s not particularly devastating. There’s absolutely no need to panic.