Financial term 筑底/构筑底部

[chrix]

Hi, I'm looking for a quick translation to a stock market-related term. I stumbled across the following sentence:

然而任何事情都是物极必反，中石油在历经半年筑底之后，这一“亚洲最赚钱上市公司”终将带领大盘重返高地*)

Now further research suggests that the term in question might be a shortening of 构筑底部, which literally means something like "constructing the bottom part"?

I've found a bilingual website, but its English version doesn't make too much sense to me:

最近两个月，股市出现大幅震荡，这种走势表明股市可能正在构筑底部。在这种筑底行情中，一方面是股价走势疲弱、市场人气低迷；另一方面也说明投资机会即将来临，此时需要关注选股和买进的时机。The last two months, stock market turbulence, this trend indicates that may be built at the bottom of the stock market. In such a market bottom, on the one hand is the trend of a weak stock market sentiment in the doldrums; On the other hand also shows that investment opportunities around the corner, at this time need to be concerned about the timing of stock and buy.

It obviously has something to do with stocks hitting rock bottom, but what exactly does the phrase mean? Is there a financial term in English that corresponds to this? Any suggestions welcome.

*) the above I have tentatively translated into German as follows: "Aber das Pendel schlägt bekanntlich wieder in die andere Richtung aus, nachdem der Tiefpunkt erreicht worden ist, und nachdem PetroChina(s Aktienkurs) ein halbes Jahr am Boden war, wird „Asiens lukrativste Aktiengesellschaft“ schließlich entscheidend dazu beitragen, daß der Aktienindex (大盘 steht für den Shanghai-Aktienindex) wieder in alte Höhen zurückfindet."

[chrix]

A friend has suggested that it might mean "to construct from the bottom", and might be a euphemism for 跌停, which I can't find in dictionaries either, but I guess it also refers to the stock market being at the bottom. The suggestion that it is not a predicate-object relationship but rather a locational one is great, but still not to sure how that would translate into English...

[roddy]

To have bottomed out or (horrible word) troughed? A quick read makes it sound like it means to fall, stay at a low level for however long, and then rise again - hence a good time to buy, if you can time it right.

跌停 is to fall so far in one day that trading (in a single share, or the market as a whole, I think) is suspended.

[gato]

"筑底" means "establish a bottom".

[chrix]

thanks roddy, that were the lines along which I was thinking, but I couldn't come up with a good English word (partly because I wasn't sure what the Chinese term meant exactly).

OK, so one thing that still puzzles me, what are the semantics behind the Chinese expression: "construct the bottom" in the sense of "finanlly built up a bottom part" in the sense of "bottomed out", or "construct from the bottom" in the sense "having bottomed out, now it can build up momentum to go up again"?

[chrix]

ok, so it seems to be a calque of an English term, "establish bottom", as found here. Thanks gato!

[studentyoung]

然而任何事情都是物极必反，中石油在历经半年筑底之后，这一“亚洲最赚钱上市公司”终将带领大盘重返高地*)

Now further research suggests that the term in question might be a shortening of 构筑底部, which literally means something like "constructing the bottom part"?

筑底就是构筑底部形态，一般是指一轮大跌止跌以后在底部的休整．筑底的时间长短取决于政策资金市场信心等等多方面因素，一般而言，这个时间都比较漫长，股谚云“筑顶需三月，筑底只三天”。

筑底就是在主力抬升某支股票前所做的各种形态和走势分析，使心中对它的动态有一个清晰的把握。

http://baike.baidu.com/view/1766901.htm

It obviously has something to do with stocks hitting rock bottom, but what exactly does the phrase mean?

筑底 is different from 触底(hit bottom). 筑底 means the stock tries to gain its vitality (to bound up again ) at the bottom of the market. 筑底 is like 打好基础 (lay a firm foundation [for]).

Cheers!

[chrix]

thank you studentyoung, so both the VO reading and the locational reading would make sense in Chinese then, even though in the English original only a VO reading would be possible....

[chrix]

also, I'm not sure what the German term for "establish a bottom" is, but since I had already used the metaphore of "Pendel" "pendulum" for 物极必反, I'll stay with the same imagery and use "auspendeln":

Aber das Pendel schlägt bekanntlich wieder in die andere Richtung aus, nachdem der Tiefpunkt erreicht worden ist, und nachdem PetroChina(s Aktienkurs) sich ein halbes Jahr lang ausgependelt hat, wird „Asiens lukrativste Aktiengesellschaft“ schließlich entscheidend dazu beitragen, daß der Aktienindex (大盘 steht für den Shanghai-Aktienindex) wieder in alte Höhen zurückfindet.

(this whole thing wasn't directly related to stock markets, but I was looking for examples for the above chengyu for my chengyu column on chinesepod. Thanks)

[gato]

You have a column on chinesepod?

[chrix]

on their German language community blog. And I'm neither one of the two people shown on the picture.

Contributors have also made it a point of not getting any compensation for this, making it abundantly clear that they pay for their subscriptions themselves. This was before my time, so I'm not sure why they were so adamant about this.

Edited June 2, 2009 at 08:50 AM by chrix