What kind of relationship do we expect to see between price and the desired quantity demanded? The answer is fairly obvious. As price falls (for most goods), people want to buy more. As price rises, people generally would prefer to purchase less.

This leads to an inverse relationship (moving in opposite directions) between price, P, and the desired quantity demanded, Q. The graph to the right depicts such a relationship. As the market price (P) rises, the desired quantity demanded (Q) falls, and vice versa.