Definitely bot activity. Plain as day. After all, you can plan an algorithim to do pretty much anything including buy/sell execution of an illiquid stock.
As an example I made a trade to highlight how frustrating it can be (but something we have to live with). At 1306 I made atrade for 1250 as there was an opportunity with the sell side light at $1.03 with 1248 shares on offer. The next order sat at $1.04 with 46,000. So I obviously took out $1.03 and the last trade was at $1.04.
Frustrutingly, the bot came in 1 second later and traded at $1.035 (essentially with itself) so that $1.04 did not appear as the last price. The trade went through for 20 shares, surprise, surprise! Plus $1.035 did not occur in the market depth prior or after my trade.
Next, 10000 appeared at $1.03 which filled the gap in the depth and obviously brought the price lower again.
Bot trading. No doubt in my mind. Just have to live with it and buy quality stocks at deflated prices.
Also, sorry to the person sitting at $1.04 from whom I bought 2 shares. Buy yourself a coffee with the money (but don't expect much change!)
ARM Price at posting:
$1.02 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
