Some are legitimate "butt ends" of larger trades.For example if...

Some are legitimate "butt ends" of larger trades.

For example if someone places an order for 10,213 shares and the next sellers in the queue are 10,000 & 5,000 shares then you will see two trades go through for 10,000 shares and 213 shares.

However, some traders (through more expensive trading platforms) can place tiny trades including 1 share.

Price manipulators will set algorithms to sell a few shares into the BUY queue to drop down a half a cent or the reverse if they are trying to push the price up.

Why is this "tolerated" ?

It's argued that it creates "liquidity" - that is a stock is always seen to be trading. Stocks that just sit for days with gaps between buy and sell (can be a few cents) make it difficult to find the true market price. That's the theory anyway.

I think attempts to manipulate the price (particularly pushing it down) indicates interest in buying the stock. At times like this where we are possibly months from a humdinger announcement, people trying to accumulate as much as possible at the lowest price possible shows true belief in the stock. Of course, they could just be accumulating in preparation for a pump and dump.

I don't get too worried about it because I am a long term holder investing in fundamentals and avoid worrying about the daily price (though it is fun to watch and wonder what's driving it).

Just my opinion.