Wondering what the force was that turned an orderly decline into a full-blown rout this morning? Mom and pop bailing.
In a spasm of panicked selling early Monday, retail investors offloaded a net $US1.36 billion ($1.9 billion) worth of stock by noon, most of it in the first hour, according to data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co strategist Peng Cheng. By his estimate, share disposals were 3.9 standard deviations heavier than the full-day average in the previous 12 months.
