You can't tell. But some day traders click buy and sell and sell and buy and buy and sell and sell and buy and buy and sell and sell and buy and buy and sell and sell and buy ..... because trading could be very boring. Only those Exchange members would do it because they enjoy lower commission. For me, I'd stay away from such a market.
But isnt that a sign of algo trading where the price fluctuates between set number? can an actual person control price with such precision and speed?
It is common for the price to move in a very small range. When there is no major news/events, the market will hardly move. The big boys could be waiting for the coming major news/events. So the market sleeps. Will the algo traders trade it? yes and no. It depends on how they write their algorithms. I wouldn't trade a dead market.
talking about es a few years back it was algo trading in about a 4 point range so they would fade both sides of the market and anything outside of it - example this is how stops are run. m
it was moving this is after the big move. i see this so much now that i assumed that flat square wave looking pattern is always algos just buying selling at one cent increment. i just dont understand why . i remember one of the videos saying that they make money from some kind of price imbalance when they make 1000s of trades like that but i dont think penny stocks would be the case here. or is that where algos make money like that?
it seems like these often show up after alot of volatility. like the stock is top 5 most traded and it gets its lil battle royale rush and then it dies down and i see this kind of chart in between moves.
also what i really dont understand is how someone can control the price with such precision? like when i see an ascending triangle false breakout and then it just ranges for like 5 minutes and it gets cut at exactly same price down to a cent. or it bottoms to same exact price in a straight line. how the hell does that happen with so many random traders trading a stock?
Aloha mute, This is another open ended question that wont get you where you want to go. Did you cutoff the price axis in your photo on purpose so that people will stop giving you the sound advice of stop trading penny stocks? Price moves the way it does because the people/algos running things have the most $$. That's all there is to it.