The individual public investor has always been an ant among elephants in the stock market, but it is now more pronounced. The titans of Wall Street have always had inside information and the ability to manipulate the market, but now there are more elephants...known as mutual funds and/or hedge funds. The difference is that the elephants no longer operate as syndicates, but now act as a giant herd of elephants. In other words, if a particular stock looks hot, the herd of elephants jump on the stock running it up in no time at all. The ants only find out about the run-up after it is too late to catch the upward rise. Conversely, when the herd of elephants determine that a stock is out of favor, the herd of elephants rush to get out at any price, just to get out...and the ants are left holding the bag!