Bid / Ask (ราคาเสนอซื้อ / ราคาเสนอขาย)
Bid is the price you can sell at; Ask is the price you can buy at. Ask is always a little higher than Bid.
Every market shows two prices at the same time.
- Bid is the price at which you can sell. It is what buyers in the market are offering to pay.
- Ask (also called Offer) is the price at which you can buy. It is what sellers in the market are asking for.
The Ask is normally higher than the Bid. The gap between them is called the Spread, and it is a basic cost of trading.
Example
EURUSD is quoted as:
- Bid: 1.1000
- Ask: 1.1002
If you press Buy, you buy at the Ask price, 1.1002. If you press Sell, you sell at the Bid price, 1.1000.
The spread is 1.1002 − 1.1000 = 0.0002, which is 2 pips.
Suppose you buy at 1.1002 and close the trade straight away while the quote has not moved. You close at the Bid, 1.1000. That is 2 pips below where you entered, so the trade starts slightly negative.
Why it matters
A common beginner mistake is to look only at one price on the chart and forget that buying and selling use different prices. Many charts show only the Bid price by default. This means a Buy trade opens at the Ask but is closed at the Bid. Always check both prices, and remember that the spread can become wider when the market is quiet or moving fast.