Nanex thinks this is blatant manipulation. We don't: we think the following rollercoastering, fractalized charts (shown both zoomed out and zoomed in) of intraday trading in AAPL stock merely confirm what happens when the only trading is that done by momentum ignition algos desperate to force stop cascades in a world devoid of actual volume, when the smallest trading burst leads to a complete collapse of the bid/ask stack. Although who knows: it may well be both...
From Nanex [2]:
Trades color coded by exchange and NBBO. Note the wild price swings in less than 1 minute of time.
[3]
NBBO (red shading is when bid > ask, yellow when bid = ask) Note the wild, wide oscillations. And yes, the bid shouldn't be above the ask, but who cares anymore.
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Best bids and asks. Up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and..
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Showing just the NBBO. Yes, it's changing that much.
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Best bids and asks - participation from many exchanges.
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All bids and asks. Prices. Everywhere. Everywhere but stable.
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Zooming into 5 seconds of time. Prices oscillating 50 cents. Many times per second.
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Another 5 second close-up.
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and another.
and another one.
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and another one down.
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and another.
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This is zoomed out.
[14]
This is really zoomed out.
[15]
Oh yeah... "markets" LOL