Glossary
Bid and ask
The bid is the price you can sell at; the ask is the price you can buy at. The gap between them is the spread.
Every instrument shows two prices. The bid is the price at which you can sell; the ask (or “offer”) is the price at which you can buy. The ask is always a little higher than the bid, and the gap between them is the spread — a core trading cost.
In MT4’s Market Watch you’ll see both the bid and ask for each symbol. When you buy, you pay the ask; when you sell, you receive the bid — which is why a new trade starts slightly down by the spread.
A tighter bid-ask spread means lower cost per trade.
Related terms
Back to the full MT4 & forex glossary. Trading is high-risk — see our risk warning.