Bid-ask spread
Trading & ordersThe gap between the best bid and the best ask.
In plain terms
The cost of being in a hurry. In illiquid stocks it is often your largest single cost.
Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
Showing 2 terms
The gap between the best bid and the best ask.
The cost of being in a hurry. In illiquid stocks it is often your largest single cost.
The smallest increment by which a security's price may move, typically 5 paise for most Indian equities.
It sets a floor on how tight a bid-ask spread can ever be. That floor bites hardest in low-priced stocks, where one tick is a meaningful percentage.