A situation where extremely large numbers (thousands) of very tiny trades (100 shares or less) are done at approximately the same share price (within a
penny or two) for a short
period of time (typically <30 minutes) that causes the tools, software, and websites that retail investors use to buy/sell stocks to
fail. Examples of
failure include graphs that were showing the activity of the stock while the markets are open suddenly disappearing and showing "Data Not Available". Where multiple attempts are made to view the graph and continue to
fail for a
period of time. Inability to view the current stock price, current volume, current translations in progress, or other details due to server
failure or sever overload. Inability to log in to investment websites to
change buy or sell stocks because the websites do not respond or do not load. Server error messages when submitting a buy or sell order that prevents it from being registered with the market. It is rumored that these types of attacks are done to prevent retail investors from being able to buy the stock so that the hedge funds can drive down the price and purchase it at a lower price using tools, software, and websites that are not available to retail investors.
The short
ladder attack prevented the
average investor from being able to purchase shares at the lower
price and by the time it was over, the price was already back up to where it was.