On the 6th, the Taiwan stock market at one point plunged 3,737.67 points intraday, setting a record for the largest intraday point drop in history, before closing at 39,701.64, down 1,873.08 points for the day—the fourth-largest closing drop on record. The violent swings sharply shrank retail investors’ paper assets, and Yuxi, an influencer with over a million followers, also vented repeatedly on social media, first declaring “I’m done playing, give me my money back,” then joking that she “thought she was bottom-fishing, but it turned out to be getting wiped out.” Her posts quickly struck a chord with a large number of retail investors.
Yuxi started out in game streaming and has more than a million Facebook followers. In recent years, beyond lifestyle and luxury unboxing content, she has frequently shared her personal views on money management, once revealing that she had opened stock accounts for each of her two sons and deposited NT$300,000 (approximately $9,200) in principal into each, hoping to cultivate the next generation’s investing habits through long-term dollar-cost averaging. This time, amid the rare sharp selloff, she too found it hard to stay on the sidelines.
Late on the night of the 5th, she first posted a Taiwan stock market chart on her Stories, writing “I’m done playing, give me my money back” against a screen of deep red, and lamented on Threads: “After today, my Taiwan stock investing this year has basically been for nothing—one washout in June, another in November. This wave really wasn’t unfair.” The next day she posted again, sharing a sea-of-green market screen and describing her situation of entering to hunt for bargains only to be punished by the market as “thought it was bottom-fishing, turned out to be getting wiped out.”
When followers asked whether she planned to liquidate her holdings, Yuxi explained that the selloff had become somewhat irrational, so she had not rushed to cut losses or sell shares, nor had she rashly added to positions. It is currently difficult to judge where the market bottom lies, and how long panic sentiment will last is equally unpredictable, so at this stage she has chosen to wait and see.
She also summed up four points of thinking on how to respond. First, investors using margin trading should stop relying on leverage to hold on and should take moderate losses and reduce their equity exposure when necessary. Second, those holding cash shares with no urgent need for funds, if the fundamentals of their holdings are sound, do not necessarily have to sell in a hurry because of a short-term plunge. Third, if one truly wants to position for the decline, she believes Yuanta Taiwan 50 (0050) is an option worth considering. Fourth, after a sharp drop, a rapid rebound cannot be ruled out, but before the next rally arrives, investors should use the time to re-examine their holdings, especially relatively weak individual stocks, and not ignore potential risks.
The scale of this correction can be seen from the index figures.
Note: The above data reflect the performance of the centralized market on the 6th; the intraday and closing point drops are based on different statistical benchmarks.
Market participants analyzed that the Taiwan stock market has seen two major washouts so far this year—one in June and another in November. For investors holding cash shares long term, paper losses are painful, but as long as they have not used leverage, their room to withstand short-term volatility is relatively greater. By contrast, margin traders face pressure on maintenance ratios during sharp selloffs and are often forced to reduce positions at lows, which is why they are the group that has been hurt more in this wave.
From the perspective of market positioning, two forces typically pull against each other after a sharp drop: on one hand, panic selling and margin forced liquidations; on the other, long-term funds buying on dips. Institutional investors noted that after the index posts a rare massive long black candle in a single day, the short-term technical picture is weak, but the probability of a rebound after deep declines rises at the same time. What investors need most at this point is to review their portfolio structure, not to trade on emotion.
For ordinary investors, what this episode highlights is not any particular person’s investment performance, but the old problems of leverage management and capital allocation. When the market turns sharply lower, whether one can maintain discipline and avoid chasing highs and selling lows in a panic is often more practical than precisely predicting the bottom. As for when the index will stabilize, it still depends on subsequent international market trends and capital flows.
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