In wide bid/ask markets, liquidity is often thin, meaning a trader could miss out on acquiring shares if only small parcels ...

A bid is the highest price a buyer is willing to pay for a stock, while an ask is the lowest price a seller is willing to accept—the difference is between the two is known as the bid-ask spread.

You see the bid price of $10 and an ask price of $10.02. If you'd placed a buy order with your broker, you'd pay the ask price of $10.02. This means you'd pay $1,002 for 100 shares instead of the ...