Small high frequency trades on Mt Gox

[rebuilder]

As of about 20 minutes ago, there's been a slew of small trades on mt Gox, which seems to have ceased just as I'm writing this.

Basically, there were lots of 0.01-0.02 BTC trades going back and forth, in the 10.92-10.97 USD/BTC range. You can see it as a dense knot on mtgoxlive.com, for example. Has anyone seen this kind of thing happen before. Is it common?

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[Bigpiggy01]

It's just a couple of bots reaching a point where their algorithms cross.

I happens quite often when the market should be moving in one direction based on bids or asks but isn't doing much of anything even though it should be moving. The really annoying thing about this is that these bots generally also spam the orderbook with tons of tiny orders to try to "guard" these positions.

[Mer]

I think this has been causing MtGoxLive to create lag: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38612.0

[Edward50]

Just thinking guys, can mtgox be profiting from these tiny trades? Mtgox makes commission on trades, so can they have a bot installed that tries and pushes these small trades?

If I owned mt gox, I would definietly be trying to make a bot do lots of small trades when it can to try and make extra comissions.

[Elwar]

It is happening again.

There will be a sale for .01 followed by a buy for .01 right after.

I was not sure if it was some dumbass thinking that going back and forth would make him money (not thinking about the commissions). But the bots back and forth makes sense.

[GeniuSxBoY]

Just thinking guys, can mtgox be profiting from these tiny trades? Mtgox makes commission on trades, so can they have a bot installed that tries and pushes these small trades?

If I owned mt gox, I would definietly be trying to make a bot do lots of small trades when it can to try and make extra comissions.

They get a percentage of the total amount traded. Micro orders don't really add up to anything significant.

[Yuvea]

Just thinking guys, can mtgox be profiting from these tiny trades? Mtgox makes commission on trades, so can they have a bot installed that tries and pushes these small trades?

If I owned mt gox, I would definietly be trying to make a bot do lots of small trades when it can to try and make extra comissions.

let's just do a reality check...

1$ trade means this fee:
1$ * 0.65% = 0.0065$

If I do 2 trades for half a dollar each, I traded a full dollar:
1$ = 0.5$ + 0.5$

and paid the same fee on both half's:
0.5$ * 0.65% = 0.00325$

which results in exactly the same total fee:
0.00325$ + 0.00325$ = 0.0065$

So no, you wouldn't do lots of small trades for that reason.

[Edward50]

My fault, when I read .01 increments, I thought of it as buying bitcoins with .01 difference in price. So like buying and selling bitcoins at 10.84 and 10.85. Did not think of buying .01 of a bitcoin, which you can.

So commissions would not matter here.