“The selling pressure was . . . coming from everywhere. The wires to other cities were jammed with frantic orders to sell. So were the cables, radio, and telephones to Europe and the rest of the world. Buyers were very few, sometimes wholly absent.”


–Jonathan Norton Leonard, journalist






Read the excerpt and answer the question below.





This excerpt describes the panic selling of stock shares on October 29, 1929. Which statement best explains why people were desperate to sell their stocks?



a.

Share prices were rising very quickly, so stock owners wanted to collect their big profits right away.


b.

Experienced investors were selling large amounts of stock; thousands of other stockholders followed their lead.


c.

Share prices were falling very rapidly, completely destroying the value of many stocks.


d.

Speculators were making vast fortunes, and many people feared that they would lose out on the stock bonanza.