3 ms·

The quoted price can and does move without transactions. The last-traded price does not.

• ethbr0 3y ago
  How would the quoted price move without transactions? (And I realize we're bleeding over into market making dynamics here)
  • bluepizza 3y ago
    Because the seller sets a lower boundary for selling, and the buyer sets an upper boundary for buying. There is no price over the counter for individual stocks. The ticker that you see is based on transaction execution, but not on the negotiated price. If there was an overnight discovery of infinite energy supplies, Exxon would wake up to a very different price than the night before, as any potential buyers would severely reduce their upper boundary. Sellers would need to continually lower their price until it finds a willing buyer.
  • bboreham 3y ago
    It’s entirely up to the entity quoting it. That could be me, for instance, putting a bid into the market because I read a hot tip on HN. Or you may prefer to imagine an automated market-making model that moves its price for Ford because it just saw a big sell-off in GM. Or consider prices at the open each day, which are set before any transactions take place.