Open any brokerage app and you’re greeted by thousands of stocks, tens of thousands of funds, and various wealth-management sections with suspicious names. A beginner’s first reaction is usually the same question: what exactly can I buy, and what are the pitfalls of each?
This series does exactly one thing: it explains, one by one, every asset class that an individual investor in mainland China can easily get started with — the account-opening threshold, the trading rules, the fees, and who it suits. The scope is deliberately narrow: no futures or options (a 500,000-yuan threshold plus leverage), no Hong Kong or US stocks (Stock Connect requires 500,000 yuan, and offshore brokers sit in a compliance gray zone), no private funds (1 million yuan minimum), and nothing related to cryptocurrency (illegal in mainland China). What remains is everything an ordinary person can start with just an ID card and a bank card.
This first part is the map. We won’t cover any asset class in detail — we only answer three questions: what the shelves are, the threshold for each shelf, and the reading path for the series.
Seven shelves
Laying out the asset classes available to mainland individuals from low to high risk, you get roughly seven shelves:
1. Cash management — money market funds, bank T+0 wealth-management products, interbank certificate-of-deposit index funds, and government bond reverse repo (lending cash against bond collateral through the exchange). Annualized returns just above 1%–2%, almost never lose principal, excellent liquidity. This shelf is not for making money — it’s for parking money that’s waiting to be invested.
2. Pure bonds — savings treasury bonds, government bond reverse repo, pure bond funds, bank fixed-income wealth-management products. Annualized returns of roughly 2%–3.5%, with small but non-zero drawdowns (bond funds fall when interest rates rise quickly). This is the ballast of a portfolio.
3. Gold — gold ETFs, bank gold accumulation plans, physical gold bars. It pays no interest and relies on price appreciation over the long term; it’s the part of the portfolio that hedges currency depreciation and systemic risk.
4. Mutual funds (fixed-income-plus / hybrid / equity / index) — hand your money to a fund manager, or simply buy an index. Subscribed and redeemed over the counter, with thresholds starting at 1 or 10 yuan. This is the default form of “buying funds” for most people.
5. Exchange-traded funds (ETF / LOF) — buy funds on the exchange just like stocks, starting from one lot (100 units), usually just a few hundred yuan. Fees are an order of magnitude lower than over-the-counter channels, and this is the main battleground of the quantitative series that follows.
6. Stocks (A-shares) — four boards: the Main Board, ChiNext, the STAR Market, and the Beijing Stock Exchange, with thresholds ranging from zero to 500,000 yuan. The highest volatility, and the most rule knowledge required (T+1, price limits).
7. Special instruments — convertible bonds (T+0, bond floor below, equity upside above) and public REITs (rent-collecting assets with mandatory dividends). These two are distinctly “strong-charactered” instruments unique to the mainland market, and they deserve an article of their own.
Beyond the shelves there’s one more layer: the account dimension. The same instrument bought in a regular account versus a private pension account receives completely different tax treatment. Part 6 covers accounts and costs in detail.
Quick-reference threshold table
| Instrument | Starting capital | Extra requirements | Liquidity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Money market funds / bank T+0 products | ¥0.01–1 | None | Fast redemption capped at ¥10,000/day |
| Savings treasury bonds | ¥100 | None (buy at bank counter/app, often sells out) | Hold to maturity or redeem early (interest deducted) |
| Government bond reverse repo | ¥1,000 (Shenzhen) / ¥100,000 (Shanghai) | Brokerage account | Principal returned automatically at maturity |
| Over-the-counter mutual funds | ¥1–10 | None | Redemption arrives T+1 to T+N |
| Exchange-traded ETF / LOF | From ~¥100 (one lot) | Brokerage account | Sell in real time |
| A-share Main Board | A few hundred yuan (one lot of a cheap stock) | None | T+1 |
| ChiNext | Same as above | ¥100,000 in assets + 24 months’ experience | T+1 |
| STAR Market / Beijing Stock Exchange | Same as above | ¥500,000 in assets + 24 months’ experience | T+1 |
| Convertible bonds | ~¥1,000 (one lot) | ¥100,000 in assets + 24 months’ experience | T+0 |
| Public REITs | ~¥1,000 | Brokerage account + risk assessment | T+1 |
| Gold ETF / gold accumulation | ~¥100 / 1 gram | Brokerage account / bank account | T+0 (gold ETF) |
| Private pension account | Annual cap ¥12,000 | Enrolled in basic pension insurance | Locked until retirement or other statutory events |
The requirements column deserves a second look: ChiNext, the STAR Market, the Beijing Stock Exchange, and convertible bonds all have a dual “assets + experience” threshold. In other words, someone starting from zero can immediately touch Main Board stocks, all funds, gold, and REITs — which happens to cover everything a beginner needs, and the high-threshold instruments unlock naturally once you have 24 months of experience. That’s not a restriction; it’s protection.
An instrument’s personality matters more than its return
When looking at instruments, beginners stare at the yield; veterans stare at three other things:
- Drawdown shape: in this instrument’s worst historical moments, how much did it fall and for how long? Pure bond funds typically have single-digit maximum drawdowns that recover within months; equity funds can draw down 30%–50% in a bear market and grind for three years.
- Liquidity terms: once the money goes in, how long until it can come out? Money market funds are instant, over-the-counter fund redemptions take time, REITs and stocks have completely different lock-up logic, and private pension accounts are locked straight until retirement.
- Fee structure: for the same index, buying over the counter might cost a 1.5% subscription fee (0.15% after a 90% discount) plus redemption fees, while buying the ETF on the exchange costs only around 0.01% in commission. Over ten years, the fee difference is worth more than most people’s market-timing ability.
Every subsequent article in this series will dissect one shelf in the same fixed order: threshold → rules → fees → personality → who it suits.
Reading path
- Part 2: A-shares — the differences between the four boards, what T+1 and price limits really mean, and the market-cap game of IPO subscription.
- Part 3: The mutual fund family — money market / bond / equity / hybrid / index / ETF / LOF / QDII sorted out in one go, and the fee chasm between on-exchange and over-the-counter.
- Part 4: Bonds — savings treasury bonds, book-entry treasury bonds, government bond reverse repo, and convertible bonds (including the entry points for IPO subscription and the “double-low” strategy).
- Part 5: Public REITs and gold — how to buy two kinds of assets that “don’t generate yield but make sense in a portfolio.”
- Part 6: Account system and trading costs — what a brokerage account can do, how commission, stamp duty, and transfer fees are calculated, and whether a private pension account is worth opening.
- Part 7: How to choose — a decision framework based on capital size and time horizon, plus a pitfall checklist.
After finishing the series, you should be able to say three sentences about any product being pitched to you: which shelf it belongs to, what money it actually earns, and where its fees and risks are hiding.
Note: all thresholds and fee figures in this article are the rules in effect at the time of writing. Regulators adjust them, so always check the latest announcements from exchanges and official channels before acting. This series is a knowledge summary only and does not constitute investment advice.