Generally speaking, individual investors lack expertise, nor do they have deep financial resources. Thus they lack confidence and staying power, are easy prey for rumors, and blindly "chase the market up and slash and burn it as it falls." They are easy targets for speculators; the bourse's reputation as a "cannibal market" was built on the pile of bodies of fallen individual investors.
一般說來，散戶缺乏專業知識，又沒有雄厚的財力做後盾，因此買賣之間沒有自信，往往輕信謠言，盲目地「追漲殺跌」，成為股市炒手宰殺欺騙的對象；以往股市「吃人市場」的形象，正是建立在一片倒的散戶身上。