RAC - Charts & Price Action, page-3612

The machine trades are still there. A lot of those trades are testing market depth. My understanding is that the trades are placed in the queue at certain strategic points so when executed the instantly provide a price point. Not so much about manipulation as informing an interested party that a price point has been reached.

It is very difficult to understand what the machine trades are doing, or their purpose, without understanding the logic behind them.

There are gratuitous examples where a sale of one share into the buy side drops the price. If you see a single share sale in a closing auction it's difficult to understand any logic except to close the days trade lower, the the machine trades today appear to be more like trip wires, those sales are being executed as the price rises - and presumably reporting back to whoever put the trade there. Think of it as a way to monitor hundreds of shares in real time without having the have people sitting there and looking.

So in summary, still plenty of machine trades, but I can't see a lot of manipulation - and a MASSIVE caveat - I am only guessing. Only the person who arranged those trades truly understands what they are for.