For all the hyperbole surrounding the launch on Monday of Stock Connect there is a distinct sense that China is keen to manage expectations about just how big of a bang this is likely to be – even though it is undeniably the biggest development in the opening of China’s capital market for years.
The reason lies in the operational complexity of the link, specifically the extremely short settlement cycle of “T plus zero”, in the jargon.
This means that anyone wanting to sell a security today must already have moved that security from their custodial account to their brokerage account the day before yesterday in order to be able to trade.