💻 Who's actually on the other side of your trade?
Usually not another retail trader. Usually a market maker.
❓ What they do:
Post buy and sell orders at nearly every price, constantly.
When you buy, they sell to you. When you sell, they buy from you.
They're not predicting direction. They earn the small gap between the buy price and the sell price, thousands of times a day.
🔑 Why this matters to you:
Market makers are why your order fills instantly.
They're the orders sitting in the book.
When conditions get volatile or uncertain, they widen that gap, or step back entirely. That's when the book goes thin and fills get worse.
❗️So "the price moved against me" is sometimes just the other side stepping back.
Ready to start with?
Usually not another retail trader. Usually a market maker.
❓ What they do:
Post buy and sell orders at nearly every price, constantly.
When you buy, they sell to you. When you sell, they buy from you.
They're not predicting direction. They earn the small gap between the buy price and the sell price, thousands of times a day.
🔑 Why this matters to you:
Market makers are why your order fills instantly.
They're the orders sitting in the book.
When conditions get volatile or uncertain, they widen that gap, or step back entirely. That's when the book goes thin and fills get worse.
❗️So "the price moved against me" is sometimes just the other side stepping back.
Ready to start with?
