Basically, price discovery involves finding where supply and demand meet. In economics, the supply curve and the demand curve intersect at a single price, which then allows a transaction to occur. The shape of those curves is subject to many factors, from transaction size to background conditions of previous or future scarcity or abundance. Location, storage, transaction costs and buyer/seller psychology also play a role. There is no specific formula using all these factors as variables. Indeed, the formula is a dynamic process that can change frequently, if not from trade to trade.

Rather than consider price discovery to be a “thing” or a specific process, it should be considered to be the central function in any marketplace, whether it be a financial exchange or the local farmer’s Market. The market itself brings potential buyers and sellers together, with members of each side having very different reasons for trading and very different styles for doing so. By allowing all buyers and sellers to come together, these marketplaces allow all parties to interact and by doing so a consensus price is established. Without knowing it, all players do it again to set the very next price, and so on. 

Those parties with the freshest or highest quality information can have an advantage as they can act before others get that information. When new information arrives, it changes both the current and future condition of the market and therefore can change the price at which both sides are willing to trade.

Price Discovery vs. Valuation

Price discovery is not the same as valuation. Whereas price discovery is a market driven mechanism, valuation is a model driven mechanism. Valuation is the present value of presumed cash flows, interest rates, competitive analysis, technological changes both in place and envisioned and many other factors.

Other names for valuation of an asset are fair value and intrinsic value. By comparing market value to valuation, some analysts can determine if an asset is overpriced or underpriced by the market. Of course, the market price is the actual correct price but any differences may provide trading opportunities if and when the market price adjusts to include any information in the valuation models not previously considered.