Market Microstructure Liquidity and Transaction Costs

Imagine you walk into a fruit market. The stall sells you apples at 1.50. That gap stings. Now imagine buying so many apples that your demand itself pushes the price up to $2.30. Financial markets work the same way—prices depend on whether you are buying or selling, how much, and who else is watching. This chapter shows you what traders really pay to trade, why trading has hidden costs, and how secret information makes some assets harder to trade than others.