Raphael H. Heiberger examines the social factors influencing price formation in the stock market. The three dimensions of culture, networks, and institutionalized rules are operationalized econometrically and empirically tested against the contrasting capitalist ideal types of Germany and the USA. In addition to the practical insights into a culturally conditioned investment habitus, tradition-dependent network structures, and the short-lived nature of certain trading routines on the stock exchanges, the overarching goal of the work is to provide a general sociological explanation of economic phenomena by demonstrating the complementarity of sociological interpretation and economic methodology.