I have been holding various coins since I have been on Steem and used the likes of ShapeShift/Changelly to move assets. Last week just before the BCH pump I join Poloniex, which I have used to monitor order books for a while.
I have indulged in a bit of trading the swing and hence watched the order books very close. What I have noticed is that trading bots rule the roost. When there are big swings it is almost impossible to react, there is just a flood of trades that kick off in whatever direction the swing is.
The other thing I have noticed is that when you see a large block in the order book and you try and place anything just before it above about $100 it the whole block can insta move to match you before you have even clicked the OK on the trade confirmation dialog.
I even managed to move one of these large sell blocks by keep placing just below it then removing my trade and repeating. I assume they wanted to match bigger trades as they ignored all the noise of the small value trades.
So are these both just a fact of life on exchanges that you have to factor in when getting the best prices you can?
Woz