**[Financial Times: Stop Blaming Retail Investors for Market Failures]** According to a report by Jinse Finance, on May 9, the Financial Times published an article stating that whenever the stock market experiences sharp fluctuations, Wall Street and the media often point fingers at retail investors, accusing them of being impulsive, ignorant, chasing gains, and cutting losses—labeling them as the source of market irrationality. However, this narrative not only oversimplifies the issue but also targets the wrong culprit. Indeed, retail investors have significantly increased their influence on the market in recent years. Technological advancements have gamified investing, while zero-commission trading platforms and social media have fostered hive-mind-like collective actions. Data shows that retail trading now accounts for about one-fifth of total U.S. stock market volume, with an even higher proportion in high-risk instruments like options. They tend to favor momentum strategies and are easily driven by social sentiment, which objectively may exacerbate short-term volatility. But blaming structural market issues on retail investors is clearly unfair. The core function of the market—price discovery—is being severely eroded by the passive investing and indexation wave. When large amounts of capital are mechanically allocated based on weightings, capital distribution is no longer based on merit but on scale. This structural distortion is far beyond the herd effect of retail investors. More critically, information asymmetry in the market has never disappeared. Risks such as insider trading before policy decisions, institutional investors leveraging algorithms and superior information for early positioning—these systemic issues harm market fairness far more profoundly than the irrational behavior of retail investors. In fact, retail participation brings liquidity to the market, enhances price efficiency, and even constrains corporate diversification impulses through attention mechanisms. Blaming market volatility solely on retail investors is not only shirking responsibility but also obscuring the institutional flaws that truly need reform. A healthy market should accommodate all types of participants and strive to provide fair rules for everyone, rather than rushing to find scapegoats during times of turbulence. *(Dongxin News Agency)*