For instance, if a stock is trading at 40 dollars per share, and there are one billion shares being traded, there will be a market capitalization of 40 billion dollars.
Let's say the markets are trading and the last trade is 40 dollars. Assuming there is a lot of liquidity at the time, another person holding onto shares should be able to sell them at 40 dollars at that moment.
My take on a stock price is that it is the perceived value of the company at any moment in time (due to fundamentals, news, etc,), which comes together through market forces on the buy and sell side.
What if everyone decided to sell all the shares at a given moment, let's say when the stock is trading at $40? I imagine supply would outweigh demand and the stock would fall.
But is this really the case? If there is no positive or negative news, what will happen? Since stocks are very liquid and there are forces acting on both sides, is the stock's price at any given moment the price at which all shares could be sold to new investors?