How or why do stock prices change and who changes them? Is it an automated system that raises prices if people keep buying and vice versa?
In: Economics
it’s a continuous (sort of) auction for every stock there is a ticker which is just a name under the ticker people can place orders to buy or sell that stock.
if you want to buy you place a “bid” order
if you want to sell you place a “ask” order
the platforms I’m aware of list only the highest “bid” and the lowest “ask” for stock. as well as the volume of each (how much they want to buy or sell)
the highest bid is the price that you can sell at immediately
the lowest ask is the price you can buy immediately
those are the real “prices” of the stock at any given moment they change based on weather someone wants to buy or sell there could be lots of reasons for either.
because that’s just a little complicated that’s not what gets reported on as the “price” of the stock. instead they list the price of the last transaction that took place which may or may not represent the current bids or asks.
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