Trapped in carnival of horrors

Investors, regulators and the media have all played their part in the great market panic

Small investors have been badly hit by the turmoil that has engulfed the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets. Around $3.5 trillion in value has been wiped off in the space of three weeks.

But before the markets started to tumble, investors were riding a wave of euphoria on the back of an amazing bull run. So what went wrong? How did confidence in the markets drain away?