Hart is not alone.
In the last year, 15.8 million investors have dumped their stocks and stock-related securities, estimates Sindlinger & Co., a Wallingford research firm.
Few investors seem willing to forget Oct. 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 508 points, wiping out 22.5 percent of its value in 6 1/2 hours of frantic trading. Sindlinger's surveys found that only 4 percent of the households that still owned stocks had immediate plans to buy more, down from 35 percent during the peak of the bull market last year.
It doesn't take an expert to gauge the fear and uncertainty. The market no longer makes sense, they say. It is like a crapshoot, one that often seems divorced from economic forces.
Judy Hasan, a U.S. government worker from Delran, began trading stocks just months before the crash. She's still trading, though she acknowledges the risks.
"There are just so many forces outside the small investor's control," she said. "You have things to worry about like the prime interest rate, what oil prices are doing, what the metals are doing, the program trading, insider trading and the budget deficit.
"There are so many factors, and we have no control over any of them. You either ride with it and accept this tremendous volatility, or you get out and don't be in the market."
One who has mostly gotten out is Hugh C. Roberts, a Philadelphia insurance executive. Roberts used to trade individual stocks, but has moved much of his money into mutual funds, letting professional managers handle his stock investing.
"I was motivated by this idea that somehow I could beat the averages," Roberts said. "But I have given up a little bit in that respect. Now I am investing in value and just trying to match" the market's performance.
