We have analyzed possible mechanisms of the crossover to the Gaussian distr
ibution of the logarithmic returns in the Cont-Bouchaud herding model of th
e stock market. Either the underlying cluster distribution is not in the Le
vy attraction regime, or a cut-off effect is responsible for the crossover.
The cut-off can be due to the finite size of the system, where clusters ar
e created. If such finite size effects are responsible for the crossover, a
delicate interplay between the size dependence of the deviation from the G
aussian and of the number of values to be summed up in one step may result
in a size-independent crossover value of the activity. It is shown that thi
s is the case for percolation clusters in spatial dimensions from 2 to 6. A
further origin of the cut-off can be the limited number of clusters taken
into account.