What is the mechanism by which a stock goes up or down by the second?
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If you want to buy a stock, you create a buy order on the exchange that stock is traded at. You can set it above or below the ticker price. A seller comes by and decides whether or not they want to take your offer. If they take it, the ticker price will adjust to represent that the stock was just traded at some price, at above or below the previous price. Same thing if you want to sell a stock. You create a sell order at some price you decide and if a buyer is interested, they will pay that price.
Market forces will dictate if it goes up or down. If more buyers are on the market, the price will go up as buyers can only find offers above the ticker price since the lower ones were already sold to other buyers. If more sellers are in the market, the price goes down as sellers can’t sell if their prices are too high. Robin hood and other consumer trading platforms do this on your behalf and in large orders with others buying/selling at the same time, and clearing a transaction (the buyer and seller exchanging the stocks/money) can take days.
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