Mumbai, July 24 -- Retail investors, including high-net-worth individuals, have suffered significantly this week amid a market decline to below the 24,000 level, which has served as strong support for weeks.

These investors, who tend to be net buyers of index call options-the Nifty and the Nifty Bank-and net sellers of puts, apart from being bullish on stocks, actually played a negative card for this Tuesday's weekly Nifty expiry.

After being net long until last Thursday, retail turned net sellers of index calls on last Friday and this Monday, expecting the Nifty to correct, which happened, and they pocketed gains.

A call seller, or bear, gains when an underlying index or stock falls or remains flat. A put seller, or bull, gains when t...