FOUNDATIONS3 MIN READ
A stock exchange — the London Stock Exchange, the NYSE — is a marketplace: a matching engine that connects everyone who wants to buy a share right now with everyone who wants to sell it. You don't trade there directly. You go through a broker, who routes your order to the exchange and holds the resulting shares on your behalf.
Every listed company has a short code, its ticker — AAPL, BARC, VOD — that identifies it on the exchange. Some tickers trade thousands of times a second; others barely trade at all. That gap is liquidity: how easily you can buy or sell without your own order moving the price.
Thinly traded stockYour large sell orderYou push the price down yourself
The fewer people trading, the more your own order moves the price.
Educational content only. It is not personal financial advice.