No, they are observers. A market is strictly and only made up of a series of transactions. When the value of something is "marked to market", it's book or assumed value is recorded as the same value as the last recorded transaction that took place. It is NEVER set to the "cheerleader" price or to the "knocker" price. The difference between your traded price and the current mark to market is your current profit or loss. Doesn't mean you now have to trade at that price and it certainly doesn't mean that the next trade can't be different. What it does mean however is that you DO have a mark to market profit or loss, whether you like it or not. All these people that say if you don't sell you don't lose money are dreaming. You have a mark to market loss..you just haven't crystallised it.

and the LE has no hole either.

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Unless you mean those tiny pinholes, but they're on pretty much everything.

And the term "seller" is a bit misleading anyway. Both parties are sellers..one is selling a machine, the other is selling cash. The guy with the machine is using his machine as currency to buy dollars. All purchases are really just asset swaps. Finance is fun isn't it? Isn't it??

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And if there is "no sale" then it never becomes part of the market. So all is moot. There has been no price set at all.

Transactions are simply like voltage polarity. +/- and you have to have both. The two parties are swapping what they have. They are a seller of what they have, they are a buyer of what they are swapping into. Cash, pinball machines, goats, doesn't matter.. if it's going you're selling it, if it's coming in you're buying it. And the "value" is set when they match.