What the market is and who trades on it
Price goes to where other people's orders are stacked: a large player needs someone to buy from and someone to sell to.
What the market is and who trades on it — what it is?
A market is where buy orders meet sell orders. Price doesn't move on its own: it goes to where large orders can find someone on the other side.
The participants aren't equal. A bank or a fund wants to buy a lot, but it can't just press one button: its own order would push price up, and it would end up buying higher than planned. A retail trader has no such problem — the market simply doesn't notice their size.
Hence the key word of this whole course: liquidity. That's the name for a cluster of other people's orders that lets a large participant fill their size. Put simply: a place where plenty of people are willing to take the other side. Most often those are the ones trading obvious rules and placing stops in obvious places.
What the market is and who trades on it — how it is built?
Keep one simple check in mind: every trade needs a second side. If someone is building a large position, someone else is handing it to them right now. What you need to learn is not to be that someone.
What the market is and who trades on it — common mistakes
Believing price moves "because of the news". News is the occasion, not the cause: the move is prepared in advance.
Thinking someone is personally running the market against you. The mechanics are impersonal: price is pulled to where other people's orders sit.
Looking for "the one who knows". Everyone has the knowledge; the edge belongs to whoever understands the mechanics.