Thanks. Good thinking.

I've tried to compete with bots before I knew there were such things - some call them market makers - hmmmm. I did waste a bit of time once playing with one - driving the buy price upwards without any intention of buying - my bad!

Perhaps some clever duck will devise a "Beat-the-Bot" program or strategy that will negate the bots effectiveness and people will resort to more human trading techniques - like, say, throwing darts at a list of alternatives and buying the one the point touches.