Bid Price

A bid price is a price which is offered for a commodity, service, or contract. It is colloquially known as a “bid” in many markets and jurisdictions. Generally, a bid is lower than an asking price, or “ask”, and the difference between them is called a bid-ask spread​​​​​​​. Bids can also be made in cases where the seller is not looking to sell, in which case it is considered an unsolicited offer or unsolicited bid.

Bid price is the amount of money a buyer is willing to pay for a security. It is contrasted with the sell price, which is the amount a seller is willing to sell a security for.

Bid prices are often specifically designed to exact a desirable outcome from the entity making the bid. For example, if the ask price of a good is forty dollars, and a buyer wants to pay thirty dollars for the good, he or she might make a bid of twenty dollars, and appear to compromise and give up something by agreeing to meet in the middle-exactly where they wanted to be in the first place. When multiple buyers put in bids, it can develop into a bidding war, wherein two or more buyers place incrementally higher bids. For example, a firm may set an asking price of five thousand dollars on a good. Bidder A might make a bid of three thousand dollars. Bidder B may offer three thousand and five hundred dollars. Bidder A might counter with four thousand dollars. Eventually, a price will be settled upon when a buyer makes an offer which their rivals are unwilling to top. This is quite beneficial to the seller, as it puts a second pressure on the buyers to pay a higher price than if there was a single prospective buyer.

Investors and traders are required by a market order to buy at the current ask price and sell at the current bid price. Limit orders, in contrast, allow investors and traders to buy at the bid and sell at the ask, which gives them a better profit.