Chinese Appetite for Luxury Ebbs; The Speed Trade Workshop 2012 Hongkong

July 13, 2012 - PRLog -- (July 13, 2012, New York)  As reported on WSJ, China's voracious appetite for luxury goods is starting to wane as wealthy buyers succumb to nervousness about the country's slowing economy and the government cracks down on corruption that often takes the form of pricey gifts.
Sales of everything from gold watches to leather handbags are declining, although they are still robust by global standards. Nevertheless, the downturn is a blow to the world's luxury-brand companies, who once considered the Chinese market to be immune to the economic malaise afflicting their business in Europe and the U.S.
In the latest sign that red-hot sales are cooling, shares of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd., 1929.HK -2.54% the world's largest retailer by sales, fell 8.7% in trading in Hong Kong Thursday after it reported late Wednesday that its revenue rose 16% in the three months ending in June. That compares with annual income growth of 61% for the 12 months through March. Nearly all the company's more than 1,500 outlets are in Greater China, which includes the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.
On Wednesday, shares in U.K. fashion label Burberry Group BRBY.LN +4.92%PLC tumbled after the company reported that sales growth from its Asian-Pacific region, dominated by China, fell to 16% in the first quarter from 67% a year earlier.
In the past several years, China has become a critical market for luxury companies. It has 2.7 million high-net-worth individuals with assets of more than six million yuan, about US$1 million, and 63,500 people worth more than 100 million yuan, roughly US$15 million, according to Shanghai-based wealth research firm Hurun Report.

As Chinese Appetite for Luxury Ebbs, Mr. Edgar Perez, author of The Speed Traders, will conduct the most thorough review of high-frequency trading at his upcoming The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Hong Kong: How High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX, August 4 (TheSpeedTradersWorkshop).
The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Hong Kong will reveal how high-frequency trading players are succeeding in the global markets and driving the development of algorithmic trading at breakneck speeds from the U.S. and Europe to India, Singapore and Brazil. The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Hong Kong kicks off a series of presentations in the world’s most important financial centers: Jakarta, Indonesia, June 13; London, United Kingdom, June 26; Mexico City, Mexico, July 27 and Moscow, Russia, August 10. More information can be found at TheSpeedTradersWorkshop.

Mr. Perez is widely regarded as the preeminent speaker in the specialized area of high-frequency trading. He is author of The Speed Traders, An Insider’s Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World, published by McGraw-Hill Inc. (2011) and currently being translated into Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia and Portuguese.  He is course director of The Speed Traders Workshop 2012, How High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX (Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Warsaw, Kiev, Beijing), and was Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, where he taught Algorithmic Trading and High-Frequency Finance.
Mr. Perez has been featured on CNBC Cash Flow (with Oriel Morrison), CNBC Squawk Box (with Geoff Cutmore), BNN Business Day (with Kim Parlee), TheStreet.com (with Gregg Greenberg), Channel NewsAsia Business Tonight and Cents & Sensibilities (with Lin Xue Ling), NHK World, iMoney Hong Kong, Hedge Fund Brief, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Valor Econômico, The Korea Herald,  FIXGlobal Trading, The Korea Times, TODAY Online, Oriental Daily News and Business Times.
Mr. Perez has been engaged to present to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, CFA Singapore, Hong Kong Securities Institute, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and Pace University, among other public and private institutions. In addition, Mr. Perez has spoken at a number of global conferences, including Harvard Business School’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference (Boston), High-Frequency Trading Leaders Forum (New York, Chicago, London), MIT Sloan Investment Management Conference (Cambridge), Institutional Investor’s Global Growth Markets Forum (London), Technical Analysis Society (Singapore), TradeTech Asia (Singapore), FIXGlobal Face2Face (Seoul) and Private Equity Convention Russia, CIS & Eurasia (London).
Mr. Perez was a vice president at Citigroup, a senior consultant at IBM, and a consultant at McKinsey & Co. in New York City.  Mr. Perez has an undergraduate degree from Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Lima, Peru (1994), a Master of Administration from Universidad ESAN, Lima, Peru (1997) and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, New York, with a dual major in Finance and Management (2002). He belongs to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. Mr. Perez resides in the New York City area and is an accomplished salsa and hustle dancer.