Can a gaggle of demigods, skilled in martial arts and sorcery, prise open the Nasdaq market for Chinese listings? Chinese start-ups, once staple fodder for the US bourse, have given it a wide berth for a year. After raising almost $2bn through 11 listings in 2007, just two braved Nasdaq in 2008, according to Dealogic. Both have performed ignominiously. ATA, an online education company which was the last non-fund entity to list, trades at half its initial public offering price.

Changyou.com, which operates the multiplayer online role playing game, Tian Long Ba Bu, aims to restore some of the former magic. Early signs are good. The $120m or so IPO book will close early, on Tuesday rather than Wednesday, as bankers like to do when the luxury presents itself. There are quibbles with the business model. Virtually all revenues derive from a single game, TLBB, which in turn earns cash by selling virtual items such as magic medicine. Rapid growth has been and gone. Last year, revenues increased fourfold and net income 20-fold year on year but, over the latest quarter, revenues nudged up just 7 per cent. Average revenues per active TLBB subscriber were below the peak in the first quarter of 2008. Changyou is being spun out of internet portal Sohu.com, also Nasdaq listed, and it always pays to be alert when a parent cashes out.