So, I started using Bittrex yesterday for trading and I've noticed that there's some serious automated bidding going on on the platform which one can easily point out as behavior of a bot. Specifically, for the following coins (in the Ether market) I've noticed that some of the bids are automated (you can tell by the behavior):
- OmiseGO
- Civic
- AdEx
- FunFair
On either side of the trade (whether you're bidding or asking), if you specify a price, let's say 0.0044 for a coin, you will in a second see about 4 - 5 trade bids that precede you and outbid you by a factor of 0.000001 or so. Other things to notice here (if you have a keen eye) is that:
These "automated" trades that pop up usually have the same amount of coins they're bidding for;
They keep canceling their book order as soon as it's about to be fulfilled, or they keep on outbidding the old bid effectively driving the price up or down on either end of the trade;
All these coins are "trending" on bittrex with a change in coin value ranging between 40 - 200%;
These behavior is especially true with new coins or lesser known coins.
This to me is a sign of caution, especially because your money stays stuck in the system for a good while (as outmatching the bot bids are quite impossible, and it doesn't help that them outbidding us drives the price up and down). I've already contacted Bittrex support asking them about this. I actually really like their platform but if they're somehow involved I would stay away from them.