254 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
Similarly, in a wild bull market when the price structure is
becoming top-heavy and dangerous, the odd-lot investor tends
to liquidate his small lots of stock and take his profit. The
aggregate effect of this tendency is to restrain the rising tendency
 of the market at times when such restraint is most
salutary from the economic standpoint.
Thus, by extending the facilities of the Stock Exchange
securities market in this way to millions of small investors
throughout the United States and even beyond its borders, the
odd-lot dealer not only makes it a better wholesale market than
it could otherwise be, but also renders it a constant force in
forwarding the democratization of both American finance and
American society.