A growing number of China's retail investors are opening trading accounts on messaging and social media app WeChat, and some institutional investors are even using it to instruct brokers, making it harder for regulators to monitor trades and spot illegal activity, traders and investors told Reuters.
近日，交易者和投资者接受路透社采访时表示，越来越多的中国散户在聊天和社交媒体应用微信上开设交易账号，部分机构投资者甚至利用微信向券商下达交易指令，导致监管者越来越难以监控交易行为和识别违法活动。
While using mobile messaging and social media apps for trading is not unlawful in China, regulations require reliable monitoring and recording of trades to prevent activities such as insider trading or market manipulation, and to keep on top of threats to market stability such as excessive margin trading.
虽然使用移动通讯和社交媒体应用程序进行交易在中国是不合法的，监管者要求提供可靠的监控和记录交易情况，以防止内幕交易和市场操纵等不当行为，防范保证金交易过度等市场稳定性风险。

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has been clamping down on breaches, including fining four brokerages in September for failing to collect information about the identities of clients who traded stocks through external systems.
中国证券监督管理委员会（证监会）一直在打击违规行为，例如9月份处罚了四家券商，因他们未能收集通过外部系统交易股票的客户身份信息。
It also shut down third-party trading software used by brokers that helped traders skirt regulations by dividing one account into many sub-accounts without the need to register a name, according to local media.
据本地媒体报导，证监会还关闭了第三方交易软件。经纪商利用这类软件可以把一个账户分成多个子账户，而且无须登记姓名，从而帮助交易商避开监管。
Even so, using apps to buy and sell stocks over mobile phones is common in a country where retail investors account for 80 percent of share market volume.
即便如此，在散户交易量占到80%的中国，在手机上通过应用软件买卖股票很常见。
Despite closer scrutiny from China's regulators, brokerages including large listed firms like China Galaxy Securities and smaller entities such as Great Wall Securities, started offering WeChat share trading account services last year in a bid to access the growing pool of retail traders.
尽管中国监管部门加强了审查，但银河证券等大型上市券商以及长城证券等较小券商去年开始提供微信股票交易帐户服务，以吸引不断扩大的散户群体。
China Galaxy Securities and Great Wall Securities did not return requests for comment.
银河证券和长城证券未回应置评请求。
Overall account openings swelled to around 46 million in the first half of 2015, from around 2 million over the same period in 2014, according to official data. For brokers, the advantages of using WeChat are obvious, since it is the preferred means of communication for many of its 600 million users.
官方数据显示，2015年上半年，开户总数增至约4600万个，2014年同期为200万个。对于经纪商来说，使用微信的优势很明显，因为在6亿微信用户中，微信是很多人的首选交流工具。
But a case in Hong Kong last month highlights regulators' concerns with the trend.
但上个月香港发生的一件事，凸显了监管机构对该趋势的担忧。
The regulator there suspended a trader for receiving a buy order on WhatsApp, a messaging app owned by Facebook Inc, in breach of the internal communication policies of the firm he then worked for, BTIG, noting that the company had no control over the recording and retention of such messages.
香港证监会上个月将一名交易员的执照吊销三个月，该交易员当时在BTIG工作，通过Facebook旗下讯息应用WhatsApp接到了一个买单，这违反了BTIG的内部通讯政策，BTIG无法对这类信息的记录和保留进行管控。