In February 1987, when individual and institutional investors were driving the market higher on heavy volume, it took 155,000 shares to move the index.

But after a brief spasm of anxiety, investors drove prices higher for three more years.

And foreign investors who fled the stock market after October will drive prices higher if they return, he added.

After last year's loss, investors have driven Dime stock down to a quarter of the institution's net worth.

A long period of bad news could indeed induce investors to drive stocks to irrationally low prices, as happened in the 1970's.

If it is the small investor at work in the market, that same investor also may be driving robust consumer spending.

That is not to say that analysts and investors are driving every detail.

Steel Dynamics opened at $16, and investors immediately drove the stock to $24.

Consumers, employees, managers and - perhaps most important - investors are driving the phenomenon.

Skeptical investors drove HealthSouth stock to a series of 52-week lows.