Why are retail investors especially prone to "water reversal"?

Compared to institutional and professional traders, retail investors often have the following characteristics:

Almost all are active orders

Order sizes are concentrated

Pace is not discreet, no order splitting

No hedging mechanisms

In highly liquid mainstream coins, these effects may be offset by other trading pairs; but in small altcoins, your orders are often the main market signals in a short period.

In other words, in small coin markets, you are very likely to directly become the counterparty to market makers.