The growing ranks of asset management professionals in China could soon get access to a local version of the Journal of Investment Management, facilitated by connections forged almost a quarter of a century ago.
Gifford Fong, JOIM's editor since its founding in 2003, said in an email that Ding Chen, chief quantitative expert with xQuant, a Hangzhou-based financial software and service provider, "approached us to establish a 'hybrid' China JOIM" that could include papers selected and reviewed by the JOIM as well as local research and market data.
The two men aren't strangers.
Mr. Chen, a mainland native, in an interview said he took the Ph.D. in physics he earned at the University of North Texas in 1997 and got a job as an investment analyst at Gifford Fong Associates, a Lafayette, Calif.-based firm specializing in fixed income, derivative product and asset allocation analysis.
After a four-year run at GFA, and subsequent stints at other firms, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Moody's Investors Service, he returned to China in 2006.
But as his career on the mainland unfolded at Beijing-based Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd. and other local firms, Mr. Chen said he sensed there was an "important piece missing" at home.
China's capital markets are booming but fund managers and analysts there still lack easy access to information that lets them keep abreast of cutting-edge research and industry best practices, Mr. Chen said.
And so when he last returned to the U.S. in October 2020, Mr. Chen said he and Mr. Fong "had a very productive conversation" about launching a local version of JOIM, and everything started from there.
Both men remain very positive about the continued development of Chinese capital markets and believe that despite recent geopolitical tensions, bilateral financial ties should continue to grow, Mr. Chen said.
Mr. Chen said he and Mr. Fong are still hammering out details about what kind of information would best suit Chinese asset management professionals and how it can best be delivered to interested parties - with an initial offering hopefully by the end of spring or early summer.
