There's no hard and fast rule as to what the bots (robotic trading) are trying to do. They are programmed to act in a certain way when the trading conditions are right, and obviously the way they act is designed to achieve their desired purpose (i.e. to buy shares at lowest possible prices or to sell shares at a higher price).
In the current situation, I think that the bot is probably trying to buy at the lowest price possible. If this is the case, I understand that it would be programed to take little chips away from the buy order colum, to make the stock look less attractive to other potential buyers and thereby keep the stock price down (until, that is the big trades come through - which is usually towards the end of the trading down).
It is a little strange that the bots only occurred in a limited space of time, and that they have not been chipping away all day. I think that given the were a number of 100 volume trades around the same time, there must have been a number of big player "bot machines" which all automatically flagged this stock around the same time.
If the above is correct, it is quite possible that the big players will get involved this afternoon (possible only right near close), and thereby push the sp up.
TRF Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
