Orders & trading
What is Bid, ask and spread?
Also called: Bid price, Ask price, Offer price, Spread
Hinglish mein padhein: Bid, ask aur spread kya hota hai?
The bid is the highest price a buyer is willing to pay, the ask (offer) is the lowest price a seller will accept, and the spread is the gap between them.
A market buy order usually fills at the ask and a market sell at the bid, so the spread is a hidden cost on every round trip.
Liquid large caps often have a spread of a few paise; thinly traded stocks can have much wider spreads.
Related terms
- Market depthMarket depth shows the best buy and sell orders waiting in the order book at different prices, with their quantities.
- LiquidityLiquidity is how easily you can buy or sell a stock quickly without moving its price much.
- Market orderA market order buys or sells immediately at the best available price, trading certainty of execution for uncertainty of price.
- SlippageSlippage is the difference between the price you expected and the price you actually got.