The amount of trading going on in China's stock markets is mind-boggling

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The amount of trading going on in China's stock markets is mind-boggling

The eye-popping volatility and explosive nature of China's stock market lately has the world's traders watching in awe.

Business Insider's David Scutt noted that China's Shanghai Composite index crashed a breath-taking 11% in the past two days before recovering some of its losses.

Still, the index is up 43% since the beginning of the year and up 134% from a year ago. Indeed, the market is exhibiting many of the hallmarks of a market in a bubble. As Business Insider's Mike Bird notes, brokerage accounts in China are exploding and fund inflows from overseas have gone parabolic.

"The other statistic that was fascinating yesterday was that turnover (Bloomberg) on the [Shanghai and Shenzen] bourses discussed above was at a record $380bn on Thursday surpassing the $248bn on US stock exchanges and just under $9bn in the UK," Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid said. "That stat alone is enough to make us Brits feel small on the world stage."

That is an absolutely mind-boggling amount of trading. It's particularly stunning as China's stock market is only a fraction of the size of US'.

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