When we talk about equity markets, we're talking about some of the most liquid, transparent, and efficient trading systems in the world.

Every time you buy or sell a share, you are taking part in a complex but well organized ecosystem that brings together retail traders, institutional investors, brokers and exchanges.

Understanding how this works explains why equities can be traded so quickly and cheaply compared with most other assets.

So what makes equity market special? Three things.

Liquidity, transparency, and cost.

Firstly, liquidity.

Electronic venues and modern order books create deep order flow, narrow bid, ask spreads, and low market impact.

So you can usually trade at significant sizes without moving the price much.

That's continuous stream of buy and sell Interest is what keeps prices efficient and responsive to information.

Secondly, transparency and rules.

Public markets mandate broad pre and post-trade transparency, quotes.

Trades and official prices are published in real time with a few limited exceptions, such as dark pools or temporary trading.

Halts exchanges also run under clearly defined rule books that specify when and how trading occurs.

Most exchanges use auctions to set official opening and closing prices during these short call periods.

Automatic matching pauses while orders are collected.

The book then un crosses at a single price that maximizes the volume of trades that can be executed at that price.

A fair equilibrium between supply and demand on the London Stock Exchange.

For example, the opening call runs from seven 50 to 8:00 AM followed by a random 32nd window before continuous trading begins.

The closing call runs from four 30 to 4:35 PM with similar random extensions.

Many exchanges may also hold intraday so-called volatility auctions when prices are moving too quickly, giving the market a short pause to reestablish balance.

These mechanisms help concentrate liquidity, reduce noise, and ensure fair price discovery.

And thirdly, cost equity trading is exceptionally low cost compared with most other asset classes.

That's thanks to Automation and straight through processing, or STP, which allows trades to flow from execution to settlement with minimal manual intervention.

Professional investors often use direct market access or DMA systems sending orders directly into an exchange's electronic order book via their broker's infrastructure to achieve faster execution and tight spreads.

Trading costs typically fall into three categories, commissions and fees.

The bid asks spread and market impacts together.

These can be referred to as the all in trading cost.

As a rule of thumb, the more high touch a trade, the higher the total cost.

High touch refers to trades, which involve human discretion or care orders, where a broker carefully works a large order over time to minimize market impact.

So whether you are a global asset manager trading millions of shares, or a retail investor buying a single ETF, you benefit from the same structural strengths, deep liquidity, full transparency, and low cost.