Why is the bid price higher than the ask?
Together, they indicate the best price at which securities can be bought and sold at a particular time. The bid price is the highest amount a buyer is willing to pay for a security, such as a share of a stock. The ask price is the least amount the seller is willing to accept for that security.
If the 'bid' level was equal to or higher than the 'ask' level, then shares of stock would sell until either there were no more offers to buy at that price, or no more offers to sell at that price.
How much over asking price is too much? In a hot market, experts recommended offering at least 1% to 3% above the asking price in a bidding war. But today's home buyers may face less competition. In June 2022, the average home actually sold for about 1% below its list price, according to Redfin.
The bid and ask price matter to investors because they impact the price that investors pay to buy shares or the money they receive when selling them. If you want to buy a share, you have to pay the ask price. If you want to sell shares, you'll receive the bid price.
When the bid volume is higher than the ask volume, the selling is stronger, and the price is more likely to move down than up. When the ask volume is higher than the bid volume, the buying is stronger, and the price is more likely to move up than down .
Reject the bid. Explain the reason for the rejection, such as the estimated cost was too high or that another company had more experience with the particulars of the project. You may also say if there was something wrong with the bid, which can help the contractor to avoid making the same mistake in the future.
Key Takeaways
The bid price is the highest price that a trader is willing to pay to go long (buy a stock and wait for a higher price) at that moment. The ask price is the lowest price that someone is willing to sell a stock for (at that moment).
Offering $20,000 above the asking price can still mean you're getting a good deal, Conti says. "Buyers get caught up in thinking they're only getting a good deal if they get an offer accepted below listing price," Conti says.
Only a third of London homes selling at or above asking price | Evening Standard.
This can happen for a variety of reasons, but the simple answer is “no.” In real estate transactions, the seller can choose the offer they want and there is no obligation to accept the offer with the highest price. In fact, the seller is not obligated to accept any offer.
Do you buy a call at the bid or ask?
The first price is called the “bid” or sell price, and it's the price at which you could sell the option. If you had purchased a call option two weeks ago and were now ready to sell it back for a profit, you would look at the bid price. The second price is the “ask” or buy price.
How to profit from bid-ask spread? Traders buy stocks at the bid price and proceed to make those stocks available for the next set of investors. They offer the bid price (price to buy) and ask price (price for sale) for the stocks. The difference between the bid and ask prices becomes the profit for them.

The bid size is the number of shares investors are trying to buy at a given price, while the ask size is the number of shares investors are trying to sell at a given price. Differences in the size amounts suggest future movements in stock prices.
In a slower market, where sellers tend to be more flexible, it might make sense to offer below the list price — especially if you believe the house is overpriced. In a more competitive market, where sellers tend to receive multiple offers, going below the asking price could work against you.
- Bidding Mistake #1 – Bidding on jobs that don't match your skill set. ...
- Bidding Mistake #2 – Submitting a sloppy or incomplete proposal. ...
- Bidding Mistake #3 – Using a generic proposal template. ...
- Bidding Mistake #4 – Thinking that the lowest bid gets the job.
A number of factors go into a contractor's bid for a job, including experience, resources, pricing advantage, timing and location. All of these can affect the contractor's bid and may result in a significantly higher or lower bid than the other bids on a project.
A bid should show how you will provide value.
If your bid isn't showing the client how your company will add value, then it's not a good bid. Merely describing your company's capabilities isn't necessarily going to win you the job. Put teeth into your proposal by describing what results the client can expect.
Between bids of the same price, the bid, which was placed prior in point of time, shall supersede.
The best bid is the highest quoted offer price among buyers of a particular security or asset. The best bid represents the highest price a seller could expect to receive from a market order. The best bid and ask together make up the NBBO, which aggregates bids and offers from across exchanges.
A stock quote includes more than just the last price. It also includes its bid and ask price. The bid price is the best available price for sellers, as it reflects the highest price that somebody is willing to pay for the stock. The offer or ask price is the price that sellers are willing to accept from buyers.
How do you profit from a large bid-ask spread?
A market maker can take advantage of a bid-ask spread simply by buying and selling an asset simultaneously. By selling at the higher ask price and buying at the lower bid price over and over, market makers can take the spread as arbitrage profit.
Supply and Demand
Demand refers to an individual's willingness to pay a particular price for an item or stock. The bid-ask spread is therefore a signal of the levels where buyers will buy and sellers will sell. A tight bid-ask spread can indicate an actively traded security with good liquidity.
The bid size is the amount of stock or securities a buyer is willing to buy at the bid price, whereas the ask size is the amount a seller is willing to sell at the ask price. In other words, they're the opposite of each other. Think of it as a representation of a supply and demand relationship for a specific security.
Yes, this bid ask spread constitutes a hidden cost when you trade stocks. For example if a stock has a bid of $20 and an ask of $21, you would expect to lose $1.00 or 4.8% of your money if you bought at the ask of $21 and then immediately changed your mind and sold at the bid of $20.
Bid-Ask Pricing
You'll pay the ask price if you're buying the stock, and you'll receive the bid price if you are selling the stock. The difference between the bid and ask price is called the "spread." It's kept as a profit by the broker or specialist who is handling the transaction.
Wide markets
Markets with a wide bid-ask spread are typically less liquid than markets with a narrow spread. The spread widens because there aren't high levels of supply and demand, or buy and sell orders to easily match up.
How to profit from bid-ask spread? Traders buy stocks at the bid price and proceed to make those stocks available for the next set of investors. They offer the bid price (price to buy) and ask price (price for sale) for the stocks. The difference between the bid and ask prices becomes the profit for them.
The difference between these two, the spread, is the principal transaction cost of trading (outside commissions), and it is collected by the market maker through the natural flow of processing orders at the bid and ask prices.