Stock Market: Do margin accounts and calls worsen crashes?

Only answers from knowledgeable investors or traders, please.

There is a crash. Market topples and margin accounts get close to their calls and broker sell - off points. Does this incur a secondary crash or an extended first, since the broker will automatically sell off all this extra stock and those who get called would rather sell than put in more money anyway? It seems that any diversified portfolio or mutual fund would incur roughly the same losses as the market, and closing margin accounts would continue the plummeting. What do you think? Thanks!

Margin calls extend any severe drop in the market.

The excessive use of margin is almost always given as one of the causes of the 1929 market crash.

Having a margin account simply means that you are allowed to use the assets in the account for collateral. Many people who have margin accounts use the margin for other purposes. For example, you cannot short a stock unless you have a margin account. It is not having a margin account, per se, that would extend a market's fall. It is using the collateral in the account to borrow money to buy more securities that usually leads to margin calls.

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