No mystery on this type of trade...it's people who don't use AON trades. That gives MMs free reign to make these small trades. Note also that this is not necessarily a single trade with commission (i.e. buys 181 shares for $1.80 minus $9 commission). E*Trade, for example, charges a single commission fee for any number of transactions that are part of the same order. For example, I might put in a buy for 1,000,000 SIRG shares at .01, and the broker makes individual trades of 181, 329, 500, 900,000, 89,000, 90, and 9,900 shares that take all day to execute. Those trades of 181, 329, 500, 90, and 9,900 look strange, and seem to make no sense because of commission, but the entire trade of 1,000,000 shares is only charged $9.99. Nothing odd.