reg stock price...

tabby2712 said: "Hi, Am kinda new to the stock market and have a question. Say, a scrip closes at Rs 100 and opens higher or lower the next day. How does this happen? I can understand if this change happens during the day as buying and selling take place, but overnight what can happen to change the price? What/who is controlling the price change? Mail me @ [email]varun.r@tcs.com[/email]"

Darren said: "most stocks have overnight trading these days."

ToastMonger said: "[QUOTE=tabby2712]Hi, What/who is controlling the price change? Mail me @ [email]varun.r@tcs.com[/email][/QUOTE] Those buying and selling the stock control the price. After all the stock price that shows up when you search on yahoo financials or something is just the latest agreement between a buyer and a seller. The price is going to be set at whatever the buyer and seller are willing to agree on. So let's say that a stock closes at $35/share. After trading hours they release a PR saying that they got a new contract. The stock is now more valuable and the trading is going to be a lot higher. Sellers will not sell for as low as they might have before and buyers will be willing to pay more. So the opening trade will be considerably different from what the stock closed at the previous day. It doesn't even need to have a PR to change like that. If someone different analyzes the stock differently they may put a buy/sell higher or lower than the previous day. The jump is just from different deals being made. No Market Maker or anything decides on the change of price."

MarquesH said: "I think of the stock market as just that a market. You can call what is being traded as "stocks" which is what they are or just call them "widgets" or whatever term u want. Its basically an auction. Say one person owns so many "widgets" and wants to sell them at 1 dollar. Another person wants to buy so many "widgets" because he can't live without them but only at a certain price say 50 cents. Well unless there is a lot of trading going on or volume you just might be stuck unless you come to some agreement say 75 cents. Or maybe you just hold out until one person either comes down in price or the other raises his price. The seller is the ask price and the buyer is the bid price. The only real value in a "stock" is perceived value. That is what one person "thinks" its worth. You can use all kinds of methods to determine what a "stock" is worth. But still in the end you have to find a "sucker" er I mean a person who is willing to buy what you are selling at whatever price you choose. Hopefully its higher than where you originally bought it at. :D"