It is when the value of something comes from its volume of buys/sells.

And that does not describe the stock market. Volume affects liquidity and spreads, not fundamental value.

A market can set a price with a single buyer and seller. More volume just makes the price more accurate.

Sort of. I've addressed this with another commenter already [1]

>"What? THAT CASH comes from owning the inside spread on roughly half of every US equity share that trades. They quote a micro-price adjustment, and it pushes out anyone slower - which exactly the “service” that lets retail investors, like us, hit a bid or ask.

>

>Honestly, whether YOU want to call that trend-following or market-making - I can't be arsed, but it’s still data-retrieval that runs THE institutional scale"

I find this comment chain becoming cyclical, so I'll likely end it here.

1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44495361

tell that to the derivatives market. It should be obvious that the stock market is divorced from actual value. fundamentals are meaningless now, there is zero penalty for failing to deliver securities, and 95% of all retail trades dont even hit lit markets. Price discovery doesnt exist and neither does the concept of a free market. Open your eyes and see that the market is a sham ponzi scheme where siphoning real value out kf the system is its main objective.