In the world of English-speaking investments, Warren Buffett is regarded as a "knight-like figure." He possesses exceptional investment skills, takes pleasure in educating the general public, and also donates money for charitable causes.

In Chinese investment forums, Duan Yongping is the closest to the "Buffett" persona. He is recognized for his investment acumen and wealth (although the exact amount is unknown to the public), and he is also willing to share his insights with investors and answer their questions.

Duan Yongping, who has been gaining fame on Chinese internet platforms, recently encountered two events:

Firstly, he once again disclosed his actual trading in the investment forum, attempting to sell a small amount of Tencent's put options (similar to buying stocks, a method Duan Yongping has been using to purchase Tencent).

The other news is that the latest disclosed holdings of H&H International Investment, LLC (hereinafter referred to as "H&H Investment") amount to $16.632 billion in the U.S. stock market, an increase of nearly $2.2 billion, or approximately 15.7 billion yuan, compared to the beginning of the year.

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With a total holding of tens of billions of dollars, yet able to continuously achieve significant "investment profits," Duan Yongping may be the strongest money-making Chinese investor in the past six months.

Total holdings are nearly 120 billion yuan in scale.

According to publicly disclosed information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): As of June 30, 2024, an institution named H&H International Investment, LLC (hereinafter referred to as "H&H Investment") has the latest U.S. stock holdings of $16.632 billion.

The asset size of this institution is equivalent to nearly 120 billion yuan.

The filing documents show that this institution is led by Eric Hu as the Chief Compliance Officer, and from the name, it appears to be a Chinese individual.This investment institution, in the business records on other platforms, has indicated that the company has two owners, in addition to the aforementioned individual, including YONGPING DUAN. Judging from the spelling of the name, it is consistent with the well-known Chinese investor Duan Yongping, and the latter has never confirmed or denied the relationship between the two in public. The scale is continuously growing.

By combing through the disclosure documents of H&H Investments, it is evident that the institution has substantial financial strength. The first time this institution disclosed its U.S. stock holdings to the SEC dates back to the end of the fourth quarter of 2018, with a corresponding size of $836 million. In just two years (by the end of the fourth quarter of 2020), the holding size of H&H Investments had grown to $7.017 billion. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, H&H Investments has surpassed the milestone of $10 billion, with the scale continuing to expand.

An investment company with only two employees has such an astonishingly rapid growth trajectory, which fills the outside world with surprise and anticipation. Where does the funding come from?

Observing the historical holdings of the fund reveals that its expansion is mainly due to two aspects: one is the injection of external funds from the institution, and the other is the profits from the holdings.In the infusion of funds, from 2018 to 2020, the scale of H&H's investment grew eightfold. For such a large amount of capital, doubling it in two years might be a bit too demanding, and it is reasonable to explain that there were capital injections during this period.

However, looking from the perspective of the first half of 2024, the vast majority of the value added to the assets managed by this institution should come from investment profits.

It is quite simple to consider the stock price of its largest holding (accounting for more than 80% of the position), Apple, which increased by 10% in value in the first half of this year.

The second-largest holding, BKR (Buffett's investment flagship), has seen a nearly 13% increase.

Taking into account the other major holdings (as shown in the figure below), it is already very close to the growth rate of the institution's assets.

Why bet on Apple?

So why did H&H bet on Apple?

Duan Yongping recently stated in a Chinese investment community:

"We have been holding Apple for so many years, and there are always people around saying: 'You are so difficult!' Am I difficult?! Where is the difficulty? What is easier than this?"

He also mentioned that investing in Apple was a decision made after a "sudden enlightenment" one day, and because of this investment, he also sorted out his own stock selection criteria—business model, corporate culture, and price.Taking on "Buffett"

There is an interesting detail: although hailed as China's Buffett, Duan Yongping's operations in the second quarter of 2024 have created a gap with the real Buffett.

In that quarter, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holdings in Apple by nearly half, and cumulatively, Buffett has reduced more than 500 million shares of Apple stock this year, valued at about $84 billion.

However, compared to the end of the first quarter of 2024, Duan Yongping's H&H only reduced its holdings in Apple by about 1%.

Looking at Tencent and Alibaba?

Duan Yongping, who likes to hold long-term, has significantly increased his holdings in Alibaba, but on the forum, he still advocates for Tencent more.

Duan Yongping has mentioned on social media several times that he has bought this company, but also said that the actual holding amount is relatively low.

In January of this year, he once said: Among the companies that will still be there in ten years, Apple, Moutai, and Tencent should all still be there.

A few days ago, Duan Yongping also expressed a certain "regret" online:

"Tencent on US stocks does not have Options." He meant to emphasize that Tencent's ADR does not have an options variety, which prevents him from making options operations on the companies he continues to be optimistic about.Looking further ahead, in August 2022, when Tencent's stock was continuously falling, Duan Yongping bought at least 100,000 shares of its ADR near the price of $37. In December 2023, he stated that he had purchased an additional 200,000 shares of Tencent ADR, with the cost around $41. He also indicated that he would continue to buy.

In December 2023, he also remarked: "Tencent cannot sell put options on the decline, which makes it difficult to take action. The large South African shareholder is likely to continue reducing their holdings for a considerable time in the future; it would be nice if they could sell some puts."

On August 15th of this year, after a long hiatus, Duan Yongping posted again about his operations: "Just bought some Tencent. There are no puts available to sell, which is really troublesome. I changed the order several times, and each time I placed an order, I couldn't even buy 10,000 shares."

After going through various twists and turns, he started buying Tencent shares again.