Today, almost all the most liquid assets, be it gold, oil, stocks, indices, futures, crypta and others are traded on the stock exchange. That is, you can buy something and sell something on it. By themselves, exchanges are divided into stock, currency and crypto platforms (crypto exchanges).
If trading on currency and stock exchanges is mainly carried out through professional participants - brokers (banks, investment companies, etc.), then crypto exchanges work directly with investors themselves, providing them with their online platforms for trading 24/7.
It depends on which exchange we work on (through a broker/aggregator or directly) the very principle of trading and the mechanism of asset purchase and sale does not change. However, there are some technical issues in the interface of trading platforms, which, especially for novice traders, cause certain difficulties.
Let's try to figure it out.
Having registered on the exchange and having the opportunity to trade in front of the trader in the TRADING mode, a table of limit orders for the traded asset is formed, called the stock glass.
The stock glass is a tabular form of submitted limit orders for the sale or purchase of the underlying asset.
It usually has a form where all the offers of sellers (red background) and buyers (green background) are indicated by price and volume.
Let's consider this mechanism on a simple example of cryptocurrency trading – TLR (taler) on the stock exchange CREXSOFT.COM
Let's say we want to BUY TLR right now, then the optimal deal for us will be a limit order in the stock glass (block -2) put up by someone for sale at a price of 0.0045923 USD in the amount of 1859.19 TLR. If it suits us, then we activate this position by clicking on it. The data will be automatically reflected in block 1 (purchase data entry form), after which, by clicking on the BUY button, USD will be exchanged for TLR on our balance.
Suppose that the price of 0.0045923 USD does not suit us (we want to buy cheaper), then we can place our purchase order, which will be reflected in the stock glass of all purchase orders (block -4). Our position will be higher or lower, depending on the prices of those applications that are already placed in the glass.
Since the highest price in purchase orders is 0.002 USD, and we want to make a deal faster (attract a seller), we will try to find a compromise, for example, in the price of 0.00254175 USD. I.e., the seller cannot sell at 0.0045923 USD at the moment, and the buyer can buy at 0.002 USD, therefore, we set the price between these values and wait for the execution of the order.
This is the situation in the case of a transaction for the purchase of TLR.
If we want to SELL TLR right now, then the optimal deal for us will be a limit order in the stock glass (block -4) put up by someone for sale at a price of 0.002 USD in the amount of 6500.00 TLR. If it suits us, then we activate this position by clicking on it. The data will be automatically reflected in block 3 (the data entry form for sale), after which by clicking on the SELL button, TLR will be exchanged for USD on our balance sheet.
- For the seller (the one who wants to sell at the moment), usually more attractive positions are in purchase orders (block 4) and occupy the very first lines.
- For the buyer (the one who wants to buy at the moment), usually more attractive positions are in the sell orders (block 2) and occupy the very first lines.
This is the general principle and mechanism of buying and selling assets in stock trading based on the stock glass.
The stock glass is the principle of trading on the stock exchange: the mechanism for buying and selling assets is something like that!