Investors of all stripes are running for the exits in emerging markets amid concern that a tapering of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing will weigh on economic growth in those markets.

And retail investors are on top of the selling wave.

Since June 1, they have taken $18.1 billion out of emerging market bond funds, approximately one-third the amount they had invested since the financial crisis, according to fund tracker EPFR Global, The Wall Street Journal reports.

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Meanwhile, institutional investors have withdrawn $9.3 billion, or approximately 10 percent of what they put in since the crisis.

The same dynamic holds among emerging market stocks, with retail selling continuing while institutional investors have largely stopped their selling, according to The Journal.

Some experts maintain that the retail investors have it all wrong.

"[Retail] investors are behaviorally doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing," Steve Blumenthal, CEO of CMG Capital Management Group, tells The Journal. "Emerging markets have perhaps the best valuation level of any of the markets, but they're in a selloff."

However, "retail investors aren't a big enough factor in emerging markets to trigger a crisis with their exit. And large investors aren't likely to take their cues from their smaller counterparts," The Journal notes.

To be sure, not everyone is optimistic about developing markets.

"I don't see any near-term positive indicators out there for investors to start piling back into emerging markets," Kevin Daly, who invests in emerging market debt for Aberdeen Asset Management, tells The New York Times.

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