Algos gone wild!

Someone's automated trading algorithm has gone rogue.

Here's a one-minute chart for Coca-Cola Co. (KO) for Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday is normal. Thursday is, well....

IBM and MCD showed similar regularities, although KO's was the most striking.

Bloomberg's story is here, although it's mainly speculation as to the cause.

In terms of analysis, it's an uptrend (higher highs and higher lows) and a swing-trader's dream. The day-traders must have been going crazy trying to deal with this.