How Prices Form — and What Moves Them
Before you trade, it helps to understand where a price even comes from. This series explains, step by step and jargon-free, how prices are formed across stocks, crypto, currencies, and options.
Three principles that apply to every market
A price is an agreement
The price you see is simply the last price a buyer and a seller agreed on. It is not a “true value” — it is a compromise that is renegotiated tick by tick.
Expectations move markets, not facts
Markets trade the future. A price moves when reality differs from what was expected — not when good news arrives that everyone already anticipated.
Liquidity sets the speed
Where many buyers and sellers are active (high liquidity), prices move smoothly. Where few trade, even a small order can cause large jumps.
Choose a topic
Each page stands on its own. If you are brand new, start with supply and demand.
Supply, Demand & Order Flow
The foundation of every price: how buyers and sellers meet in the order book and settle on a price.
StocksWhat Moves Stock Prices?
Earnings, expectations, interest rates, and sentiment — the forces behind rising and falling shares.
CryptoWhat Moves Crypto Prices?
Why Bitcoin and friends swing so hard: scarce supply, liquidity, narratives, and 24/7 trading.
ForexWhat Drives Forex Rates?
Interest-rate gaps, inflation, trade balances, and central banks set the price of a currency.
OptionsHow Options Prices Work
Intrinsic value, time value, and volatility: why an option costs what it costs.
Prediction marketsPolymarket: Prices as Probabilities
What a price of 0.63 means and how prediction-market contracts compare with binary and vanilla options.
Where to go next
Once you understand how prices form, the next steps make a lot more sense:
Learn this properly
Short lessons from the BeInOptions Academy — on exactly the questions this page raises. Free, and readable without an account.
Intrinsic vs Time value
Which part of the premium is real and which part is just time
Open the lesson →Implied Volatility & IV Rank
What the market has priced in, and what you pay for it
Open the lesson →Theta — time decay
Why the option is worth a little less every day
Open the lesson →