Market Mechanics

Trading isn't just about identifying patterns or managing risk. It's about understanding the machinery behind every price tick. When you click buy, your order travels through exchanges, matching engines, and market makers before it ever finds a counterparty. Without understanding this process, you'll wonder why your stops get hit by phantom spikes, why limit orders fail to fill, and why spreads widen at the worst possible moments.

This module reveals how markets actually work. You'll learn about the four types of market participants: market makers, institutions, algorithms, and retail traders. And why each behaves differently. You'll understand how orders flow through the system, why price discovery happens through continuous negotiation between buyers and sellers, and how the infrastructure of exchanges and dark pools affects every fill you get.

Most traders skip this foundation and pay for it with poor execution, unexpected slippage, and blown accounts. Understanding market mechanics won't give you better trade ideas, but it will make your existing ideas work. You'll know when to use market orders versus limits, how to avoid getting run over by large orders, and why your fills behave the way they do.

By the end, you'll understand markets at a deeper level than most retail traders. Let's begin.