>And there's no need to stop it - it stops by itself in a few iterations more, when the pool of candidate participants is exhausted. Since the chain letters (or chain trading, if you ever saw that) relies entirely on its exponential growth, it ceases by itself very soon.
Dragan,
Basically, this is correct. However, I understand a few people will continue sending the chain letter years after it started.
Hilmar.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)