I understand how supply and demand works but I’m confused as to who actually is in charge of setting the price to display to all trading platforms. Since the stock price is constant across all trading platforms, what algorithm or system is in place to ensure there are no clashes or discrepancies between said platforms? Is there one dominating platform that monitors all stock prices which other platforms refer to such as the NYSE?
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Stock “prices” is actually a misnomer. What is displayed is usually “last transacted price”. As long as the transaction is registered and posted, any exchange will have the same information to them.
If a stock “price” says $10, it doesn’t mean that $10 will be the next transaction – a buyer is not guaranteed to be able to buy at $10 and a seller is not guaranteed to be able to sell at $10. It simply means that the last time this stock was traded, it was traded at $10.
The market does not “make up” or “manage” the price – it simply provides the information of what has already happened.
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