How is it possible for stocks to sell off, when there has to be a purchaser in order to complete the sell.?

Question

How is it possible for stocks to sell off, when there has to be a purchaser in order to complete the sell.?

Answer 1

There are plenty of buyers, but the price has to drop enough first before they are motivated to buy.  Putting it another way, the sellers are more eager to sell (supply) than the buyers are to buy (demand), so the market sets a price, but first the price drops to entice more buyers.

Everyone in the market is a seller and a buyer at different times, and a changing mixture of fear and greed causes them to switch from one side to the other.