Ask
The lowest price a seller is currently willing to accept for an asset.
Also called: offer · ask price · best offer
In plain language
The ask — also called the offer — is the selling side of the market. It is the cheapest price at which someone will hand you the asset right now.
If you buy immediately with a market order, you pay the ask. That is why a position is usually showing a small loss the instant it opens: you bought at the ask and it is being marked against the bid.
The ask always sits above the bid. The distance between them is the spread, and it is the first cost of every trade.
Seen on a chart
Why it matters
Your entry price on a market buy is the ask, not the number on the chart. On wide-spread instruments that difference can be a meaningful share of your expected profit.
Common mistakes
- Planning an entry from the chart price and being surprised by the fill.
- Buying at the ask on illiquid instruments where a limit order a few cents lower would have filled anyway.
Keep exploring
These concepts are connected. Understanding one usually makes the next one easier.
The highest price a buyer is currently willing to pay for an asset.
The gap between the bid and the ask — the built-in cost of entering a trade.
An order to buy or sell at a specified price or better — it may not fill at all.
An instruction to buy or sell immediately at the best price currently available.
The difference between the price you expected and the price you actually got.