# Recent trades explained **URL:** \ **Category:** 🤝 Help\ **Created:** [November 8, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616 "2020-11-08T18:49:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gfclappah](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.trading212.com/gfclappah/32/10085_2.png) [@Gfclappah](https://community.trading212.com/u/Gfclappah)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/1 "2020-11-08T18:49:07Z")
Can someone explain to me what this shows and how to use it. Surely a buy has to match a sell, what is the point of this screen? ![IMG_20201108_184812](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trading212/original/2X/2/23ebaf04e826371b315861cd6cc8cf5279e9743c.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![phildawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@phildawson](https://community.trading212.com/u/phildawson)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/2 "2020-11-08T19:48:37Z")
What do mean match? They aren’t buying and selling directly with each other. Wall of blue lots of buyers. Key column is volume how much is being bought. Trade price is what they got for each share and value at the end is how much if you multiple how may shares by how much the trade was at. Best ask is what was being asked. So the 101.10 is the best ask but they are taking above ask at 103.35 for example. So it’s telling me lots of demand, but there might be a reason. You also normally have total volume of buys and total volume of sells to get an idea what the feeling is. ---
**Author:** ![phildawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@phildawson](https://community.trading212.com/u/phildawson)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/3 "2020-11-08T20:00:41Z")
Like this. You can see the big uncrossing on close with heavy sell. **O** rdinary trade **A** utomatic Trade **U** ncrossing Trade ![Screenshot_20201108-200021](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trading212/original/2X/a/ac141e0e12496e67ca4c3592116459b9b78dc1e6.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Gfclappah](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.trading212.com/gfclappah/32/10085_2.png) [@Gfclappah](https://community.trading212.com/u/Gfclappah)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/4 "2020-11-08T23:04:55Z")
What I mean is, I understand 500 buy won’t equate to 500 sell but it could equate to say 500 buy 200 sell 200 sell 100 sell. Surely there has to be an equilibrium to buy someone has to sell. Also what is uncrossing trade I don’t get that? ---
**Author:** ![phildawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@phildawson](https://community.trading212.com/u/phildawson)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 8:16am UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/5 "2020-11-09T08:16:33Z")
Oh well its listing the trades made. You have a market maker in the middle that dictates the spread and takes the other half of the deal. So one might buy from the MM at 0.98, and the MM sell to another at 1.02 and the spread of 0.04 is taken as a fee to those involved. They’ll usually have millions held ready to keep the trades flowing. If the stocks very liquid you’ll have a tight spread as there’s very low risk to them. And a wide spread on volatility or no/low liquidity. The price offer is meant to reflect the supply and demand of a stock. Occasionally the MM needs shares to sell and will try hitting stop losses with quick drops. Most of the time it’s big whales and tutes saying I want to buy millions at an avg of X. It’s worth having a look at L2 and the order book. It’ll show how much is _ **potentially** _ waiting to be bought and sold at different bids and asks. The time and sales is actually what’s going through. Learning about the ax. Oh an uncrossing is an auction. You have auction times throughout the day to improve liquidity by matching traded so that single entry is the result of it. Stocks are traded SETS and SETSqx (Quotes and Crosses) ---
**Author:** ![Gfclappah](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.trading212.com/gfclappah/32/10085_2.png) [@Gfclappah](https://community.trading212.com/u/Gfclappah)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 8:40am UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/6 "2020-11-09T08:40:46Z")
Thank you Phil, that helps ---
**Author:** ![pintas](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.trading212.com/pintas/32/5395_2.png) [@pintas](https://community.trading212.com/u/pintas)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 8:44am UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/7 "2020-11-09T08:44:28Z")
> [@phildawson](#): > > You have a market maker in the middle that dictates the spread and takes the other half of the deal. This is how it works in INVESTING account? ---
**Author:** ![phildawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@phildawson](https://community.trading212.com/u/phildawson)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 10:08am UTC](https://community.trading212.com/t/recent-trades-explained/25616/8 "2020-11-09T10:08:44Z")
The simple answer is yes. There’s lots of layers to it, you have TOTV (traded on the exchange) and off-book trades marked OTC (over the counter). T212 / IB will handle the OTC where it’s managed to find a matching trade within its network. Or say fractional/value orders where it does the fractional. I think T212 will group orders too to achieve better execution and price. Here’s a good explanation of MM > **[The Role of Market Makers](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketmaker.asp)** > > Market makers compete for customer order flow by displaying buy and sell quotations for a guaranteed number of shares.