What Is a Quoted Price?

A quoted price is the most recent price at which an investment (or any other type of asset) has traded. The quoted price of investments such as stocks, bonds, commodities, and derivatives changes constantly throughout the day as events occur that affect the financial markets and the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:perceived value of various investments. The quoted price represents the most recent bid and ask prices that buyers and sellersᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ were able to agree on.

Understanding a Quoted Price

The quoted prices of stocks are displayed on an electronic 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:ticker tape, which shows up-to-the-minute information on trading price and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:trading volume. For most major exchanges trading hourওs are 9:30 a.m.&nb🐓sp;to 4 p.m. EST.

The ticker tape shows the stock (indicated by a one to four-letter 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:stock symbol or ti🗹cker symbol—e.g., AAPL for Apple Inc. or TGT for Target Corporation), the number of shares traded, the price they traded at (in decimal form), whether the quoted price represents an increase or decrease from the last quoted price, and the amount of the change in price.

Quoted Price and Bid and Ask Prices

The quoted priಞce represents the most up-to-date agreement between buyers and sellers, or the bid and ask prices.

Bid Price

The bid price is an offer that an investor, trader or dealer makes in order to purchase a security, commodity, or currency. The bid price is the highest price a pro🐬spective buyer is willing to pay to acquire the security or asset. Quote services and stock tickers will generally display the highest bid price available for the security.

Ask Price

The bid price is opposed by the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:ask price, which is the ♚lowest amount of money the seller will accept for an asset or securi꧒ty. An ask price—also often referred to as the offer price—is always higher than the bid price.

The difference between the bid price and the ask price is the spread. The 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:liquidity of the security is often indicative of its spread size. Low-liquidity stocks will often have a wide spread. Stocks that are especially liquid will have small spreads, ♍often just pennies apart, or even a fraction of a penny.

When a purchase fills at a higher price than the last price, both the bid and the ask may move higher for the next transaction. A security's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:current price is the last price paid for it, which is usually different from t♔he bid and the ask.

Special Considerations

For individuals that are 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:trading their own portfolios, quoted prices are often displayed in a rectangle in an easy-to-spot location on their online trading platform. The bids and asks are constantly moving if the security is in high demand and trading with a large volume. If the security is not well covered and does not have significant demand, th🌄💞e quoted price may not move much up or down over the course of the trading day.

Quoted Price and Traders

Many stakeholders follow the quoted prices of stocks, including company management, the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:investor relations team, major investors, and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:retail investors. Traders, in particular, are constantly watching and predicting a security’s quoted price in order to place bets for their clients or their own accounts. When a trader works for a financial institution, they generally trade with the company's money and credit. Alternatively, a trader may work independently, in which c𓂃ase they would not receive the same salary and bonus as for a larger 🍌entity but are able to keep all of the profit.