I accept that your explanation makes sense, but the fact that this can happen automagically in an intransparent way when someone just wants to buy a number of shares at a quoted price just feels wrong. And reading a few other articles on Nanex also give me weird image of what happens in stocks in general.
Then again, I have no idea about these things and should probably shut up.
"someone wants to buy a number of shares at a quoted price"
what you really mean is
"a giant investment bank or hedge fund with some privileged
information about a stock wants to buy so many shares that
they actually need to go to multiple exchanges to satisfy
their demand"
Then again, I have no idea about these things and should probably shut up.