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Markets
Market Mechanics
- What a Stock Is and Why Markets Exist25 min read · A share is a residual claim on a business. Almost every trade you make is with another
- Exchanges, ATSs, Wholesalers: The Venue Map30 min read · U.S. stocks trade on more than a dozen exchanges, dozens of off-exchange venues, and
- Bid, Ask, Spread and Depth30 min read · You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so the spread is the price of trading now — and
- Market vs Limit Orders: Certainty vs Price35 min read · You can have a certain fill or a certain price, never both.
- Stops, Stop-Limits, Trailing Stops35 min read · A stop price is a trigger, not a fill. Once triggered a stop becomes a market order, so a
- Time-in-Force and Special Orders25 min read · Time-in-force decides how long an order lives and whether it may fill in pieces: day
Market Structure
- The Limit Order Book and Price-Time Priority35 min read · The book is a queue at every price: the engine matches on price first and time second, so
- NBBO, Reg NMS and the Order Protection Rule35 min read · Fragmentation means no single venue has the best price, so the NBBO stitches the best
- Routing, Payment for Order Flow and Best Execution35 min read · Your broker owes you best execution and is paid for your order at the same time.
- Market Makers and HFT: Who Provides Liquidity30 min read · A market maker is paid the spread to absorb two risks: inventory (you can be left holding
- Sessions and Auctions: Open, Close, Extended Hours35 min read · The open and the close are single-price auctions: the exchange publishes the price that
- Halts, LULD and Circuit Breakers30 min read · Halts buy time, not prices. Market-wide circuit breakers pause the whole tape at 7% and
- Clearing, Settlement and T+130 min read · Execution gives you the price and the exposure in milliseconds; ownership arrives at
- Short Selling, Borrow and Squeezes35 min read · A short sale is a loan of shares, not a bet against a company: your broker must locate
- Margin Accounts and the Post-PDT World30 min read · Margin is a loan, not a bigger account: the broker sets an initial requirement, marks the
- Indexes, ETFs and Creation/Redemption35 min read · An index is a rule, not a portfolio you can buy; a fund is the wrapper.
Execution, Events and Crises
- Transaction Cost Analysis and Market Impact35 min read · A trade has no single cost: it is the difference between your average fill and a
- Global Markets and Trading Hours30 min read · A foreign stock is two bets in one: the business in its own currency, and that currency
- Corporate Actions: Splits, Dividends, Buybacks and Spin-offs30 min read · A split changes the unit and not the value. A cash dividend is a transfer out of the
- Case: The 2010 Flash Crash35 min read · On May 6, 2010 a single sell program of 75,000 E-mini futures contracts, executed on a
- Case: GameStop, January 202135 min read · A short interest larger than the float, a wave of call buying that obliged dealers to
The Desk
- Market Quality: Reading Rule 605/606 Reports30 min read · Rule 605 describes execution quality — effective spread, price improvement, realized
- Market Structure Debates35 min read · Every market-structure argument mixes three kinds of claim: an empirical one (what
- Capstone Lab: The Order Desk Challenge40 min read · An execution plan is written in a fixed order: name the benchmark first, inventory the
Learn content is for education only — not individualized financial advice, a recommendation, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Options involve substantial risk. Examples are simplified and historical patterns never guarantee future results.