what you have described re;RMTD is a trading strategy that i have seen employed innumerable times ..a market participant wants to buy or sell a large amount of a stock..they will show the whole order briefly or intermittently to try to attract a counter-party and signal that a block is available but they will not show the size continuously so as not to skew the market against their interest... as to any motivation i respect that you stated " i believe " as another person's motivation for any action is really unknowable