It also seems to occur on tickers when they have higher than average volume. I've wondered if it was oddly enough connected to dilution mm's, although, still haven't really figured out why that would be unless the idea was to induce buyers by knocking the price down, which, for obvious reasons, seems counterintuitive. Usually when the paint is on the upside, the amount is higher than 100 shares.
The really tiny trades generally occur on low volume days, right? At least that is how they are for me, now that does feel like commission mining, have had my share of those although not nearly as many in the past few months. But, the 100 shares problem has only escalated though since late last year. Still, I doubt that that has anything to do with commission mining as it would be hitting the same buy order if occurring from the same place if they route to the same mm with each 100 shares sell. It is odd, however, I really don't think that any discount retail brokerage will have the answer. I am however, highly curious as to where the trades are originating from. For me personally, it isn't too problematic of an issue although, probably am hit with about 2-5 commissions a month directly due to it. Would be a lot more but, most of those that include 100 shares trades when filling, are filled or at least mostly filled the same day anyway. Given that discount brokers have a hard enough time anyway making money, it doesn't bother me really. If someone primarily entered GTC order amounts in the $100 total value range though, well, yes, it could be a real problem.
As it is, mostly just mildly annoying, gives the boards a lot of buzz, people are always convinced that it is a short seller trying to keep the price down, which, in time, almost led me to believe that was the purpose of the trades, to have people believing that a short seller was scared so they would keep on buying. Lol, only half joking...
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