Price Taker Essential Guide to Market Dynamics
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A price-taker is an individual or company that must accept prevailing prices in a market, lacking the market share to influence market price on its own. All economic participants are considered to be price-takers in a market of perfect competition or one in which all companies sell an identical product, there are no barriers to entry or exit, every company has a relatively small market share, and all buyers have full information of the market. This holds true for producers and consumers of goods and services and for buyers and sellers in debt and equity markets.In the stock market, individual investors are considered to be price-takers, while market-makers are those who set the bid and offer in a security. Being a market maker, however, does not mean that they can set any price they want. Market makers are in competition with one another and are constrained by the economic laws of the markets like supply and demand.
