Experts say retail investors shouldn't wait for the national team to bail out the market! This generation of retail investors is really pitiful. When the market goes up, they're hyped to pump funds into the rally, but when it drops, experts tell them not to wait for the national team to save the day Lian Ping, Chairman of the China Chief Economist Forum, recently stated that the market is starting to foster a "national team safety net" mentality: Some investors believe that as long as the index plunges, the national team will step in to push it back up. So, they chase highs during rallies, refuse to cut losses during downturns, and even leverage up while waiting for a bailout. The problem is, once this expectation becomes widespread, it creates a classic moral hazard. Risks are borne by individuals, profits go to individuals; but when extreme downturns happen, they expect public funds to cover the final losses. In the long run, this weakens the market's ability to discover prices and distorts risk pricing. Lian Ping believes the national team's more reasonable role should be: To act as the "last line of defense" against systemic financial risks, not as a guaranteed fund for the index. This aligns with the common principles of mature capital markets: Rescue the system, not the price; stabilize liquidity, not every single correction. A truly healthy market needs to allow for risk pricing and for investors to bear the consequences of their own decisions.