Market Balances

Market balance is a general description of how buying and selling pressure compare in a market at a given time. When the quantity buyers want roughly matches the quantity sellers offer, the market is said to be in balance, close to what economists call economic equilibrium, and prices tend to move sideways. When one side dominates, the market is in imbalance and prices move until enough opposite orders appear, following the logic of supply and demand. Traders look for signs of imbalance in the order book, for example far more resting buy orders than sell orders near the current price; stock exchanges publish such imbalances before their auctions. The phrase has no single technical definition in crypto, and some platforms simply use "balances" for the funds held in an account; readers should check how a particular source uses it. Also see liquid market.