🗓️ Last Updated: 22 Apr 2026
Ardan Kumar | AKTV | Trading Education | 12 minutes read
Read in Hindi: शेयर मार्केट में Price कौन ऊपर नीचे करता है?
Table of Contents
If someone tells you that prices go up when there are more buyers than sellers; they are lying to you. This is one of the most repeated myths in trading education. And by making you believe it, smart money quietly builds its profits at your expense.
Today I am going to show you how prices actually move. We will use supply and demand, order books, and Wyckoff logic. By the end of this article you will stop seeing charts as random candles and start seeing them as a battle between aggressive money and passive money.
The Biggest Myth in Trading
People say: prices went up today because buyers outnumbered sellers. This sounds perfectly logical. But here is the problem.
On any exchange; every single trade requires both a buyer and a seller. It is always the case that the quantity sold equals the quantity bought. There can never be more buyers than sellers in executed trades. They are always equal; by definition.
So what is actually changing?
The change is in who is more aggressive, which side is forcing the other side to execute at their terms. Prices do not move because some magical extra buyer appeared. They move because one side is attacking and the other side can no longer absorb that attack.
Two Types of Orders: The Real Supply and Demand
To understand true supply and demand you need to understand two types of orders.
Limit Orders: the patient ones These say: “I want to buy at this price or better.” They sit in the order book and wait. They do not move the price. They are the resting supply and resting demand. A limit buy order is resting demand. A limit sell order is resting supply.
Market Orders: the impatient ones These say: “I want to buy right now; whatever the price.” They hit the order book and consume whatever limit orders are sitting there. They cross the spread; eat up resting orders; and push the rate up or down.
The key insight: limit orders are supply and demand. Market orders are what actually move the price. Supply and demand sit still. Market orders attack them.
How Price Actually Moves
Price moves upward when: Market buy orders hit and consume sell limit orders sitting at the ask. If buyers keep attacking; they consume all sellers at that price level. The next available sellers are higher up. So price moves up to find them.
If short sellers have their stop losses set above a certain level; those stop losses trigger automatically and become market buy orders. Forced buying on top of actual buying. This is called a short squeeze, and it accelerates the move dramatically.
Price moves downward when: Market sell orders hit and consume buy limit orders sitting at the bid. Once those bids are exhausted; the next available buyers are lower. Price drops to find them.
As price moves down; stop losses of long traders trigger and become market sell orders. This creates a cascade of selling called liquidation, which is why drops can be sudden and violent.
The real summary: This is not a battle between buyers and sellers. It is a battle between aggressive buyers and aggressive sellers. Sometimes rates move fast not because one side is powerful; but because the other side simply disappears.
Liquidity Gaps: Why Prices Spike
Imagine a supermarket. A bottle of water costs ₹20. One day most suppliers disappear and the shelves go empty. In that situation; even a few buyers are enough to push the price up significantly; because there is no supply left to absorb them.
The market works exactly the same way.
If sellers remove their limit orders; the ask side becomes thin. Even small market buy orders can push price up dramatically. Conversely; if buyers remove their bids; even minor selling creates large drops.
This is called a liquidity gap.
Prices do not rise because everyone is bullish. They rise because there is no one left to stop them. Wyckoff called this “no supply” or “no demand”; one of the most powerful conditions you can identify on a chart.
Large price spikes and crashes almost always happen in low-liquidity zones. The order book is thin; a market order comes in; and price jumps several levels instantly. This is not manipulation; it is simply the absence of resting orders.
Volume and Price: Effort Versus Result
This is Wyckoff’s secret weapon. Think of it this way:
Volume is effort. Price movement is the result.
You do not need to know who is buying or selling. You just need to compare effort to result.
Pattern 1: High volume; small price move Big effort; small result. One side is attacking hard but the other side is silently absorbing the attack. For example; heavy buying at a resistance level but price barely moves upward. This means there are strong sellers hidden above; quietly filling every buy order. This is absorption, and it often signals a reversal.
Pattern 2: High volume; large price move Big effort; big result. The dominant side is winning. This is either a powerful breakout or a climax at the end of a move. Context decides whether the trend continues or ends here.
Pattern 3: Low volume; large price move Small effort; big result. The other side has disappeared. This is your liquidity gap. Price moved easily because there was nothing in the way. This can signal trend continuation or a manipulative move in a thin market.
Ask yourself on every candle: given this volume; or effort; is the price result strong; weak; or suspicious?
The Wyckoff Cycle: Where Are You in the Big Picture?
All these mechanics, limit orders; market orders; liquidity; volume, fit into Wyckoff’s four-phase cycle.
Phase 1: Accumulation Smart money quietly buys stock from weak hands within a sideways range. You see high volume at the bottom but price does not make new lows. This is absorption of supply, large players are mopping up every sell order without letting price drop further. Most retail traders see this as a boring sideways market and lose interest.
Phase 2: Markup Demand takes control. Pullbacks are shallow and low-volume. Breakouts happen on expanding volume. This is where the move begins, usually after retail traders have already given up on the stock.
Phase 3: Distribution Smart money unloads their accumulated stock near the top; selling it to retail traders who are now excited by the strong candles. They sell to you and you buy happily on momentum. But price never makes a new meaningful high from there. The big players have already exited.
Phase 4: Markdown Supply dominates. Rallies are weak and short-lived. Volume on up-moves shrinks. Price falls, often sharply, wiping out everyone who bought during distribution.
Your job as a trader is not to predict the future. Your job is to read who is accumulating and who is distributing at any given moment.
Practical Checklist: Use This Every Time You Open a Chart
1. Who is the aggressor? Are market buy orders dominating or market sell orders? Which side is attacking and which side is absorbing?
2. Read the order book Limit orders are resting supply and demand. Market orders are what actually move price. Always think in these two categories.
3. Monitor liquidity A thin order book means small orders create large moves. A thick order book means large orders are needed to move the rate even slightly. Know which environment you are trading in.
4. Effort versus result High volume with small moves means absorption, be careful. High volume with large moves means dominance, follow the direction. Low volume with large moves means liquidity gap, be alert for reversals.
5. Identify your phase in the Wyckoff cycle Are you in accumulation; markup; distribution or markdown? Are you trading with smart money or are you becoming their exit liquidity?
How AKTV Tools Use These Concepts
AKTV Radar identifies EMA crossover signals with volume confirmation across 200+ NSE stocks, the volume filter directly applies the effort-versus-result logic. A crossover without volume is low effort; we skip it. A crossover with above-average volume is real effort; we show it.
AKTV Sniper uses Opening Range Breakout with volume confirmation on NIFTY and SENSEX, identifying exactly the moment when market orders break through resting supply or demand with conviction.
AKTV Swing tracks MA50 crossovers on Nifty 50 stocks, which often align with the early markup phase of the Wyckoff cycle when smart money has finished accumulating and price begins its sustained move upward.
Conclusion: Stop Counting Buyers and Sellers
The next time you look at a rate chart; forget the idea that buyers outnumbered sellers. That is not how markets work.
Instead ask:
- Who is the aggressor right now?
- Is volume confirming the price move or questioning it?
- Is this a liquidity zone or a thick order book zone?
- Where are we in the Wyckoff cycle?
Once you start thinking this way; you stop chasing every green candle. You start looking for where big players are absorbing; where retail traders are getting trapped; and where the real opportunity is hiding.
That is the edge that separates consistent traders from everyone else.
Watch complete video tutorial: Click Here
Read in Hindi: शेयर मार्केट में Price कौन ऊपर नीचे करता है?
Also read: Fair Value Gap; Order Block and Reaction Block
Also read: Fake Breakout: How the Stock Market Traps Retail Traders
Also read: Risk Management in Trading
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. AKTV is not registered with SEBI. Nothing here constitutes investment advice. Trading involves substantial risk of loss.
Written by: Ardan Kumar | Founder | aktv.in
About the Author
Ardan Kumar
Ardan Kumar is the founder of AKTV, a free trading education platform for Indian retail traders. He served 8 years in the Indian Air Force as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, working on Mi-17 helicopters and earning special service medals for Operation Rhino in the Mizo and Naga Hills. After leaving the Force, he entered the stock market, learned trading the hard way, and built AKTV to teach others what took him years to figure out. He holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance from CRSU Jind where he topped the course, and has cleared UGC-NET in Management. He is also the co-founder of One Percent Capital LLC, Texas, USA. His YouTube channel AKTV Business has over 27,000 subscribers. Everything on AKTV is free: no login, no payment, no hidden charges.