The illegal practice of seeking to get sufficient control of a particular asset (stock, commodity, etc.) in order to manipulate the price i.e. to drive it higher and then sell hoarded holdings for substantially more than purchase price. Cornering the market has the effect of hindering market competition and temporarily breaking down the mechanism of supply and demand. Historically, some investors attempted to manipulate the gold market (in 1869) and the silver market (in the 1970s) by buying large quantities thereof, forcing the price to shoot up. However, attempts to corner a market do not usually last long because high prices encourage investors to search for alternatives or producers to tap idle resources whose unearthing was previously uneconomic.