Ask Price

The ask price (also called the "offer") is the lowest price at which someone is currently willing to sell a stock, option, or other security. If you want to buy right now without waiting for a better deal, the ask is what you would pay.

Every tradable security has two live prices sitting next to each other: the bid, which is the highest price a buyer is currently offering, and the ask, which is the lowest price a seller is currently offering. These come from actual orders sitting on an exchange's order book. When you place a market order to buy, it fills against the ask; when you place a market order to sell, it fills against the bid. The gap between the two is called the spread.

The ask is not a fixed or "true" price — it moves constantly as new sell orders appear, get filled, or get cancelled. A stock's ask might be $50.05 one second and $50.07 the next, simply because different sellers are stepping in and out. What you see quoted as "the price" of a stock on most screens is often just the last trade, which can sit between the bid and ask or occasionally outside that range briefly.

The nuance that trips beginners up is confusing the ask with the price you'll actually pay on a large order. The ask price usually only guarantees that price for a limited number of shares or contracts (the size available at that level). If your order is bigger than what's available at the ask, the remainder fills at progressively higher prices, a process called slippage.