Understanding Markets

Lessons in this path

1. 1
   Bull vs Bear Markets

   Two words that describe the market's direction and mood — and are only official in hindsight.

   7 min read

2. 2
   Market Cycles

   Markets breathe in four phases — recognizable in hindsight, useful as a map, dangerous as a timer.

   8 min read

3. 3
   Supply and Demand in Markets

   Prices don't move because trades happen — they move because urgency shifts sides.

   7 min read

4. 4
   Market Participants

   Know who is on the other side of your trade — and why each player moves prices differently.

   7 min read

5. 5
   Price Discovery

   How scattered opinions, news and money become one number — continuously, in public.

   7 min read

6. 6
   Market Liquidity

   Liquidity is the market's shock absorber — invisible when present, catastrophic when it vanishes.

   7 min read

7. 7
   Market Sentiment

   The crowd's mood is data — most useful at its extremes, and most dangerous when it's yours.

   7 min read

8. 8
   Market Regimes

   Trending, ranging, or turbulent — identify the weather before choosing the tools.

   7 min read

9. 9
   Market Momentum

   Winners tend to keep winning — for a while, for human reasons, until the crowd finishes arriving.

   7 min read

10. 10
    Liquidity and Spreads

    The order book up close: where your order actually lands, and what execution really costs.

    8 min read

11. 11
    Trading Volume Through the Cycle

    Participation has seasons — quiet accumulation, feeding frenzies, and the exhausted flush at the end.

    7 min read

12. 12
    Macro Drivers

    The tides under every boat: growth, inflation, rates and liquidity — and how they reach your holdings.

    7 min read

13. 13
    Rates and Markets

    Interest rates are gravity for asset prices — when the anchor moves, everything repriced against it moves too.

    8 min read

14. 14
    Inflation and Markets

    How rising prices reprice everything else — through costs, through rates, and through fear of both.

    7 min read

15. 15
    Earnings and Expectations

    Earnings season is not a test of companies — it is a test of the numbers the market wrote down beforehand.

    7 min read

16. 16
    Event-Driven Moves

    Scheduled or shock, every event trades the same way: the gap between what happened and what was priced.

    7 min read