If you want to understand why the Thai market is more volatile than the rest of the region, then here’s your answer, retail investors represent more than 50% of the daily value traded. In all honesty I do believe that this is a positive thing it provides more liquidity and lets face it, institutions aren’t necessarily the best investors in the world and are limited by their own trading/investing mandates.

Online retail trading surged 239% to 1 trillion baht in February from a year earlier, the latest available data from the stock exchange shows. That was the biggest increase since March 2010.

Those transactions account for over 40% of total trading volumes, up from 27% in 2012. That ratio exceeds even Hong Kong, where retail online trading accounted for 9% of total market turnover in the year ended September 2014.

Source: Bangkok Post