The spot market (cash market) is where you buy or sell an asset for immediate or near-immediate delivery — you pay and receive the stock (or gold, crypto…) in your account.
In plain terms — Spot = «I actually buy the stock». There is no contract expiry like a future. The price you see is the spot price.
| Spot | Derivative | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | The underlying (or cash equivalent) | A contract on the underlying |
| Expiry | No | Often yes (futures, options) |
| Short | Harder (stock borrow) | Often symmetric (CFD, futures) |
| Example | Buying shares in a brokerage account | S&P 500 future |
Buy and sell on spot
A spot buy opens a long: you own the issue. A spot sell closes a long or, with borrow mechanisms, opens a short. See buy-and-sell and long-and-short.
Execution goes through a matching-engine or a market-maker, depending on market and broker.
Spot vs derivatives in charting
Technical analysis applies the same way, but on futures and cfd margin, roll, and contract spread matter — not just the cash chart.