First, the connotation of financial capital operation
Starting from the definition that capital is the value that can bring value appreciation, we can define financial capital as the value that can bring value appreciation in financial activities, which is commonly called capitalized currency. Its existence forms are various monetized or securitized assets, such as various deposits that can bring interest income and stocks that can bring dividends and capital appreciation income.
The operation of financial funds emphasizes the capitalization process of money, which is driven by the appreciation of money. Under a certain organizational mechanism, through the transfer of currency use right between different transaction subjects, the currency flows to the field of value creation, and finally the currency appreciates. Therefore, the operation of financial funds not only organically links all subjects in the financial field, but also closely combines the virtual economic activities to realize currency capitalization with the real economic activities.
What needs to be clear is that under the market economy system, the operation of fiscal funds is realized through market transactions, and the operation of fiscal funds should be equivalent to the operation of financial markets in a broad sense (covering the lending market and the securities market), and the research position and angle are clarified from the perspective of investors. In addition to the market, there is also a planned management mechanism in the fund distribution mechanism. Therefore, the scope of application of financial capital operation is wider than the concept of financial market operation.
Looking back on the history of social and economic development, every new technological revolution will bring about the revolution of productive forces and the innovation of production methods. The development of information technology with computer as the core will bring us intelligent production. Internet technology has brought the information technology revolution into a new stage. We might as well discuss its far-reaching influence on the operation of financial funds from two aspects: efficiency and mode.
Two, how to understand the role of Internet technology in improving the efficiency of financial funds?
The motive and goal of financial capital operation is the appreciation of monetary assets, and the improvement of operational efficiency naturally refers to the improvement of value-added ability. Since the operation of financial funds does not belong to the category of social wealth production, its value-added can only be based on the production and operation of the real economy sector. Therefore, under the condition of market economy, the improvement of the operating efficiency of financial funds is ultimately reflected in whether the financial market can form an effective price mechanism, guide the financial funds to flow to the most efficient economic sectors, and realize the optimal allocation of resources.
The wide application of Internet technology will improve the efficiency of the use of financial funds from two aspects: first, it will generate new industries, bring new profit growth points to the economy, and provide a new material basis for the appreciation of monetary assets; The second is to improve the adequacy and sensitivity of financial market prices to information and make resource allocation more effective. The former is to improve the operational efficiency of financial funds from an incremental perspective. The latter is to improve the operating efficiency of financial funds from the perspective of stock, and it is another improvement of the operating mechanism of financial funds. We can use the efficient market hypothesis in western modern investment theory to illustrate the latter.
The efficient market hypothesis divides the market efficiency into three levels according to the type and degree of information reflected by the market price. The more information the market price contains, the higher the market efficiency level. When the market price only fully reflects the information provided by historical data, the market is in a state of weak efficiency; When the market price not only reflects the information provided by historical data, but also includes various other public information, the market is in a medium efficiency state; When the market price not only reflects all kinds of public information, but also contains inside information, the market is in a state of high efficiency. When the market is at a high efficiency level, all the existing information has been reflected in the price level, and the market price will reflect the real value of assets, that is, the market price and value of assets are consistent. It is not difficult to see that whether the price fully reflects the information is the key to market efficiency. The adequacy of price to information directly depends on the degree and speed of information disclosure and the sensitivity of market participants to information reflection.
As the latest achievement of information technology development, Internet provides technical support for the sensitivity of the above reflection. The emergence of internet technology has linked countless electronic computers together, forming an endless supercomputer with infinite power. Form a new stage of the development of information technology revolution. The real-time and enjoyment of the Internet will make information spread rapidly, and few people can enjoy monopoly profits by virtue of information advantages.
Of course, advanced technology cannot guarantee the perfect state of the market, and the effect is also restricted by human factors. Among them, in addition to the differences of people's subjective ability, there is also the problem of people's subjective motivation. The main advantage of internet technology lies in the dissemination of information, but it does not have the function of identifying the authenticity of information. The contribution of the Internet to the free dissemination of information also "makes the rumors even more powerful". The wide spread of false information will also cause the deviation between the market price and the actual value of assets. This shows that highly developed information technology will effectively improve the operating efficiency of financial funds, but it will still not keep the operation of financial funds in an absolutely perfect state. From the dialectical relationship between efficiency and inefficiency, under the condition of backward technical level, inefficiency is absolute and efficiency is relative. And will highly developed information technology make efficiency absolute and inefficiency relative? Highly developed information technology, after all, provides technical support for the price to fully reflect the information, and has the same powerful ability to correct the deviation.
Three, how to deal with the potential impact of the development of information technology on the efficiency of the use of financial funds?
Facing the potential impact of the development of information technology on the efficiency of financial capital operation, how should investors, financial institutions and regulators, as the main body of financial capital operation, respond?
Countermeasures of length investors
The improvement of financial capital operation efficiency is the result of investors actively digging, analyzing and digesting information in pursuit of excess profits in fierce competition. However, under the condition of high efficiency of financial capital operation, the chances of obtaining excess profits are very small, and information mining is often futile. The prevalence of this contradiction is not a bad thing, it will only make us more convinced of the scientific development direction of investment management.
Although scientific investment management theories and methods have been produced since the early 1950s, traditional basic analysis and technical analysis methods, which focus on finding assets whose prices deviate from their values and predicting their prices, have always been equally matched with scientific investment management methods in terms of the number of users and overall performance. The low efficiency of the market, coupled with the imperfection of the market management system, has been providing a high chance of success for traditional investment management methods, and the application of modern investment management theory is too expensive, so it is difficult to get support. For example, in the management of China's securities investment funds, the dominant basic analysis method is still to tap the investment value of listed companies, and some irregular operation methods make some securities investment funds become a new generation of bookmakers, which makes the market sit up and take notice. Fund managers who really try to follow the essence of securities investment funds for scientific investment management cannot produce competitive performance. It is said that "Taihe Fund is managed and operated according to the classic investment principle", but its manager was forced to apply for resignation. It must be admitted that although scientific investment management theory and management methods represent the general trend of the times, their application and good results are conditional, and the market environment is very important. Of course, the subjective ability of users cannot be ruled out.
The progress of information technology has greatly promoted the efficiency of market operation and helped to improve the market environment for the application of management methods. Because, according to the efficient market hypothesis, when the market is at a weak efficient level, the technical analysis of price forecasting based on historical data is inefficient; When the market is at a medium efficiency level, even the basic analysis of logical deduction of asset value based on various fundamental factors becomes invalid; When the market is at a high efficiency level, the market is impeccable, and investors can only take the average income of the market as the main goal. At this time, it should be a rational choice for investment managers to optimize the overall effectiveness of investment through portfolio management and effectively prevent systemic risks through risk management. It is of strategic significance to pay attention to this point when engaging in investment management or choosing a professional investment manager.
2. Countermeasures of financial institutions
On the other hand, the new information technology revolution triggered by Internet technology has triggered our thinking about the future development of commercial banks.
The emergence of commercial banks is based on the development of social division of labor and insufficient information dissemination, which leads to the difficulty in matching investment and financing. The characteristics of internet technology in information sharing and information interactive transmission have technically solved some original problems in the operation of financial funds, which makes it necessary for us to seriously consider the survival foundation and business development direction of commercial banks under the new era.
Taking the traditional banking business as an example, bank credit business is not only the inevitable result of its currency custody and settlement function, but also the function of bank credit business to make a living by turning a little into a lot. That is to say, the basis of bank credit in the operation of financial funds, on the one hand, is the natural derivative of the original business, on the other hand, it is attributed to insufficient information dissemination and imperfect market mechanism. Credit business has overcome the obstacles of financial capital operation and achieved remarkable macro and micro benefits. However, it inevitably includes the transfer of the respective interests of both investment and financing, because banks rely on deposit and loan spreads to maintain their operations. Therefore, indirect financing is a higher form than direct financing, aiming at certain technical and market conditions. Driven by the nature of pursuing maximum income, as long as technology and market conditions permit, investment and financing parties will inevitably seek direct contact, that is, the development of technology and market will make indirect financing surpass direct financing. The development of the securities market proves this from the market mechanism. The application of information technology in the operation of financial funds, especially the development of Internet technology, provides favorable technical support.
Of course, the support of technological progress for direct financing does not mean that the credit function and indirect financing of banks are completely denied. This is because technological progress is not necessarily related to the industry management and institutional norms of the financial industry. The influence of Internet on the functions of commercial banks will mainly be reflected in the weakening of derivative functions, and will not directly affect the original functions.
The development of information technology affects not only commercial banks, but also financial institutions with direct financing. In the stock exchange market, it is difficult to determine the advantages and disadvantages of order-driven system and two-way quotation-driven system. The order-driven system directly matches two parties with similar conditions through a certain trading system. Among many competitors, the bidder is the highest bidder among the buyers and the lowest bidder among the sellers, which not only embodies the competitive principle of survival of the fittest, but also does not reveal interests. Peer-to-peer electronic automatic trading system provides technical support for it in terms of efficiency and prevention of broker fraud. However, it is difficult for the system to effectively control the situation that there is no market, the transaction is too hot or too weak. In the two-way quotation-driven system, market makers are responsible for maintaining market order, which is helpful to maintain the continuity and stability of the market. However, don't forget that a market maker is just a special trader, and its primary goal is to make a profit. Its profit mode is similar to that of commercial banks, which comes from the bid-ask price difference in two-way quotation. Therefore, the market maker is obviously a link linked to the cost, and its monopoly is certain, because it is at the core of the two-way quotation system. In fact, the problem of order-driven system will only appear at special market moment, and there is no empirical result to prove that the operation of two-way quotation system is better than order-driven system at this special market moment.
The computer order-driven system adopted in China once saw the landscape of a busy city in 1996 12 16. /kloc-On the evening of 0/5, People's Daily published a strongly worded editorial on the overheating of the market, and investors were deeply aware of the seriousness of the problem. /kloc-on the morning of 0/6, the sell orders were hung up one after another, and the trading system was caught in an embarrassing situation where almost no orders entered the market. However, in foreign markets dominated by the market maker system, there has been more than one collapse. Therefore, the advantages of the market maker system are obviously not very convincing.
When determining the development strategy of brokerage business, China's securities companies should pay full attention to the inherent pursuit of high efficiency in the operation of financial funds and the support of technological progress to the order-driven system. When developing the national debt market, growth enterprise market and derivative financial instruments market, the CSRC should also give full play to the late-developing advantages of China's market and directly adopt the most advanced technology in the world, instead of trying various institutional arrangements in the development of western financial markets step by step.
3. Regulators' countermeasures
The development of information technology will improve the efficiency of financial capital operation, which raises a basic question for regulators, that is, whether the status and role of regulators need debugging under the new situation.
The necessity and reasonable basis of government intervention in economy lies in the failure or inefficiency of market mechanism in many fields, that is, "market failure". The development of information technology promotes the speed and degree of price information and helps the "invisible hand" to play a guiding role in the market. Therefore, with the advent of the Internet era and the further development of information technology, the government's demand for market supervision and regulation will be weakened to make up for the market failure caused by insufficient information. However, the uncontrollability and enjoyment of Internet information dissemination have also brought new problems to regulators, that is, how to strengthen the construction of standardized information dissemination methods and channels? The arbitrary disclosure of information and the cross-flow of rumors are also not conducive to the stability of financial markets. The solution to the problem lies not in supervision, but in making full use of the advantages of the Internet and strengthening the information disclosure system. It is conceivable that regulators will establish a unified information platform for the society on behalf of the government as the initial release point of market information. The annual report of 1999, a listed company in the domestic A-share market, has been required to be published at the designated Internet address, which contains this idea, but it needs to be improved in technology and content.
Among the regulatory agencies for the operation of fiscal funds, the central bank has the most complete means of supervision, not only administrative means, but also economic means. In addition, it can directly control the issuance of money. Therefore, according to the internal relationship of financial funds, some people in China's academic circles have been trying to find ways for the central bank to regulate all financial funds (including not only bank lending funds, but also securities markets and private lending funds). However, the improvement of market efficiency reduces the need for government economic intervention, which makes us question the functional focus of the central bank and the future of its monetary policy. If the focus of government functions will change due to technological progress, the central bank, as one of the government's economic regulation functions, is no exception. As the issuing bank, the bank of the bank and the bank of the government, the central bank should also change the focus of its functions and the way it plays its role. Will the development of online money and online credit break the monopoly of the central bank on currency issuance? Will the decline of the credit business status of commercial banks and the development and deepening of financial markets further weaken the credit demand of commercial banks for the central bank? To what extent and how should the central bank participate in macro-control? The function of the agent treasury may be the least affected by technical factors. In any case, financial management is necessary. In this way, can we discuss weakening the active intervention of regulatory agencies including the central bank, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission in the operation of financial funds, and let the regulatory agencies return to the role of "night watchman"?
The arrival of the Internet era may also bring problems to the traditional monetary policy transmission mechanism. For example, it will be more difficult to quantify and count the money supply, thus shaking the position of the money supply as an intermediate goal of monetary policy. If the money supply is no longer a reliable control target, what is its substitute? The United States redefines the intermediate goal of monetary policy as interest rate. However, in the Internet era, the characteristics of financial capital operation will be the personalization of products and services, and the prices of financial transactions will naturally be personalized. Will the reference to representative market interest rate or benchmark interest rate lose its meaning? Although in principle, the emergence of efficient and new financial capital operation mode should bring new characteristics of the times to the monetary policy transmission mechanism.
In addition, Internet technology not only contributes to the open development of financial capital operation, but also provides technical convenience for international supervision of finance, thus making the improvement of financial capital operation efficiency break through the limitation of national boundaries.
Fourth, how to understand the innovation of financial capital operation mode of Internet and e-commerce?
The influence of internet and e-commerce on the operation mode of financial funds is reflected in two aspects. On the one hand, it affects the position and proportion of direct financing and indirect financing in the operation of financial funds; On the other hand, through technical support and the development of online commerce, a new organizational realization mode of financial capital operation-online financial capital operation mode has been promoted.
The operation mode of financial funds can be divided into direct financing mode and indirect financing mode. These two financing methods are different in financing nature, liquidity, controllability and adaptability to economic operation, with their own characteristics and applicable fields.
The advantage of direct financing is that it provides a variety of options with strong liquidity for long-term financial financing, and the income and payment of both parties to the transaction are also direct, with less leakage and strong price objectivity. The main obstacle to the development of direct financing is the inefficiency caused by information asymmetry. The openness of information brought by Internet technology and the enhancement of the service function of financial institutions are conducive to the sustained and stable development of the direct financing market.
The advantage of indirect financing is that it provides convenience for short-term financing. From the germination of traditional bank credit, indirect financing appears as a derivative of currency custody business and belongs to a typical behavior of mobilizing social idle funds. Therefore, indirect financing is necessary as long as banks continue to handle settlement business. However, the promotion of direct investment by internet technology will lead to the short-term source of funds for banks, which requires high liquidity for bank credit business. In the era of network economy, will the settlement business of deposit money banks be threatened by network institutions? Is the function of creating derivative deposits monopolized by deposit money banks? These are not technical problems. As long as the mode of macro-control does not change, it is useless even if technology is not a problem.
In terms of the influence of internet and e-commerce on the operation mode of financial funds, the most attractive thing is the operation mode of online financial funds brought by it. It is difficult to estimate what kind of revolutionary influence the emergence and popularization of online financial capital operation will have on financial capital operation, because the significance of online financial capital operation lies not only in the automation and real-time transaction realization process, but also in the fact that it can liberate financial practitioners from complex and repetitive mental work, enable them to concentrate on development and innovation, provide humanized and personalized financial products and services, and highlight the important position of creative mental work in maintaining the competitiveness of enterprises. The standardized features in the era of electronic technology will be replaced by personalized and humanized features, social and economic life will be more colorful, and people's needs will be greatly met.
The emergence and popularization of network financial capital operation mode requires a certain social and economic foundation in addition to technical conditions. In the United States, a country with high popularity of computers and Internet has just begun to appear, and naturally there is still a long way to go in China. The application of computers and computer networks in the operation of financial funds is nothing new. Since the 1950s, the financial industry in the United States, Japan and other western developed countries began to use off-line computers, and the online banking business began in the 1960s. Computers and computer networks have made great contributions to the improvement of labor productivity, management level and customer service in the financial industry. Since 1980s, the financial industry in China has developed computerized financial services. However, due to the limitation of knowledge structure, funds and policy support of human resources, the coverage of computerized financial services and regions is expanding slowly and the development is lacking in depth. In fact, many well-known IT companies provide electronic solutions for financial institutions, all of which are integrated business systems, information management systems and automated office systems solved by western countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Before truly experiencing the revolutionary influence of Internet technology on the operation of financial funds, investors, financial institutions and regulators still need to do a lot of basic preparations.