RE: RE: TDThey're algorithms... someone has an algo that puts out bids and when they're not filled in a certain amount of time, they move up to the ask. It's a large institutional client and it's a computer algorithm, not a person entering tons of small orders. It makes sense that someone would want to trade with that kind of algo on a day where the market is crapping out. By buying in small chunks you can't run out of bullets and you won't look bad at the end of the day.
Furthermore, institutional clients don't pay per trade, they pay in aggregate on the total done at the end of the day (as a percentage, or per share amount). If a client buys 1,000,000 shares in one trade or 1,000,000 shares in 1,000 trades of 1,000 shares, they're going to pay the exact same commission.