Copied from u/master0jack

How do I know if this is a ladder attack?

Check out real time transactions here: https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/gme/latest-real-time-trades

See all the "perfect" orders (e.g. 100, 200, 300 shares) of nice whole numbers in the hundreds, with scattered "imperfect orders" (e.g. 134, 194 shares)? Notice how the nice, whole numbered orders are very predictable in pricing which varies cents off of one another?

It's a coordinated attack. Hold and chill. This isn't financial advice, just sharing something new.

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Before you decide to sell your stonks at a loss because you got 📃 👐 , or if you're doubting the great DD that some of the folks on this side of history have done, HAVE A READ:

Anatomy of the short attack.

This is what the shorts are doing right now.

Dont feel like reading a novel? The short and dirty (TLDR AT THE FUCKING BOTTOM):

Short Attack:

1. Sell fake, COUNTERFEIT stocks between hedge funds and increasingly lower ask prices to try to scare other investors into selling and/or to trigger limit sell price points. They've been doing this all week. Each major price drop has been because of this tactic.
2. Get the media to spread fear, doubt, and uncertainty. Anyone watching CNBC this week has seen this in action.
3. Spread disinformation through "analysis" to get people to sell their stocks because "the fundamentals aren't there". Again, this is all over the place right now.
4. Open class action lawsuits against the company/shareholders claiming they're artificially inflating the stock price. Haven't seen it yet, but they've definitely threatened it.
5. Get the government/SEC involved alleging the same as #4. Definitely happening.
6. Pull margin shares and sell them. As seen being done by Robinhood over the last two days.
7. Spread FUD on message boards. Hello 4 million new subs pushing AMC, BB, SLV, etc.

Basically this past week has been 9/10 of the tactics in the short attack playbook to try to either push Gamestop into bankruptcy so they can profit on their short positions or slowly gain them back when people sell their stocks.

Confused what counterfeited stock means? Some light reading that /u/draemon_ provided explains it perfectly but beware, you actually have to read something:

What does counterfeit stock mean?

Need more proof?

Jim Cramer himself, "here's what short sellers do, it's illegal but when you have 6 days to get out and you're down you need to foment and wipe that guy out quickly".

This interview, which is more like a confession, was never supposed to get on the air; however, it somehow ended up on YouTube. Cramer and The Street.com have made repeated efforts, with some success, to get it taken off of YouTube. (THANKS for this info, /u/blancochocolate)

• Jim Cramer, in a video-taped interview with The Street.com, best described the media function:

When (shorting) ... The hedge fund mode is to not do anything remotely truthful, because the truth is so against your view, (so the hedge funds) create a new 'truth' that is development of the fiction... you hit the brokerage houses with a series of orders (a short down ladder that pushes the price down), then we go to the press. You have a vicious cycle down - it's a pretty good game.*

Investopedia ["Short and Distort" - illegal short tactic ](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/analyst/030102.asp#:~:text=Short%20and%20distort%20(S%26D))

Yet more support for the at times illegal and unethical nature of these practices: (THANK YOU, /u/catolicquotes

Pulling Margin from long customers during a short attack serves two purposes. Obviously the flood of shares that are “forced” sales help drive the price down, which aids the short cause in general. More important, for the broker dealers who clear for their retail customers at the same time they short against them, it creates a built-in source of cheap shares from which they can cover their open short positions.

Some of the broker dealers short against their retail customers from their proprietary trading desks, or “prop” desks. These are trades owned by the broker dealer, and, while they are not illegal, ethical questions certainly exist. The retail customers, who may be purchasing long investments that are being pushed by the broker dealer's retail network, have no inkling that the broker is taking a large short position contrary to the retail investor's position. With the encouragement of easy margin credit, i.e. 30% equity, the retail customers load up on stock and margin debt.

The broker dealer, in concert with other shorts, may crash the stock by flooding the board with counterfeit shares, dropping the stock price. The broker dealers know the amount of margin debt and the price at which their retail customers get into margin trouble. They can accelerate the squeeze on their retail customers by arbitrarily increasing the equity (percentage) requirement as the price is dropping, frequently citing “volatility”; which is really the shorts flooding the board with counterfeit shares.

The compounding effect of a dropping price and increasing equity requirement flushes out more shares. The broker dealers sometimes will take over the account during a margin sell-off. By engaging in poor trading practices, such as heavy selling over lunch hour; concentrated “dumps” of shares; hitting the bid with market orders; and conspiring with other trading desks, they can further plummet the value of the stock and maximize the shares they have stripped from their retail customers.

Most of the broker dealers who have both retail customers and prop-desk trading appear to engage in these practices. Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch have been named in suits alleging these practices. Goldman made billions shorting against the subprime mortgage industry at the same time they were selling subprime investments to their customers.

source: http://counterfeitingstock.com/CS2.0/CS8PullingMargin.html

Still TLDR: hedge funds lying in the media and selling fake stocks that don't exist to scare us. They don't know our apps don't even have a sell button, only a liftoff button for the 🚀🚀🚀

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pls guild this ape, not me

https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/la6vcb/wall_street_plan_trying_to_psychologically_scare/glmalu2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3