Offer Price Meaning: Bid and Offer

What "offer" means

The offer (also called the ask price) is the price at which a seller is willing to sell, so it is the price you pay when you buy at market.

Every quote has a bid (the price buyers will pay, and the price you receive when you sell) and an offer. The offer is normally higher than the bid. The gap between them is the spread, and it is a cost of trading.

A quote has two prices: you sell at the bid and buy at the ask. The difference is the spread, a cost paid on every trade. Illustrative example: made-up numbers for learning, not real prices or a broker's conditions.

Formal definition

In an order book, the offer is the best offer: the lowest price at which any seller is currently willing to sell. A market buy order takes liquidity at that price. If the order is larger than the volume available at the best offer, it can fill at higher offers. See fill and partial fill.

In dealer markets, the dealer or broker quotes its own offer. Your counterparty then sells to you at that price.

Worked example (hypothetical)

Suppose a EUR/USD quote on your platform shows a bid and an offer a little above it.

You open a buy. It fills at the offer.
You close the trade straight away. It closes at the bid, because closing a buy means selling.
If the price has not moved, your result is a small loss equal to the spread multiplied by your position size.

To put real numbers on this for your lot size, use the spread and pip tools on the calculators page. Leveraged forex and CFD trading can lose money fast, and the spread is paid on every trade, whether it wins or loses.

Where you see the term

MetaTrader (MT4, MT5): Market Watch lists Bid and Ask columns. Charts are usually drawn from the bid, and you can turn on an ask line in the chart settings.
Order rules in MetaTrader: Buy orders open at the ask and close at the bid. A buy limit or buy stop triggers when the ask reaches its price. The stop-loss and take-profit of a buy position are triggered by the bid.
Bank and central bank quotes: The State Bank of Pakistan homepage shows USD/PKR rates with bid and offer columns.
Interest rates: In "offered rate" benchmarks such as KIBOR (Karachi Interbank Offered Rate), "offered" means the rate at which banks offer to lend.
News: "The dollar was offered" means sellers were dominant and pushing prices down.

Edge cases

Spread widening: Around news releases, at the daily rollover or in thin markets, the offer can move away from the bid. During a flash crash the offer side can thin out sharply.
Funds and new issues: In mutual funds, the "offer price" of units can include a front-end load. In a share offering, it is the fixed price at which new shares are sold. In both cases it is a set price, not a live market quote.
Bonds: Offers may be quoted as price or as yield. In a bond auction, the bids and offers come from participants, not from a running market.
Small moves: Spreads are often measured in pips or basis points. Dealers may drop the big figure when they quote.

Forward points, which are also quoted as bid and offer
Fill or kill and IOC
Currency pairs and Fiber (EUR/USD)
Trading basics, Risk management, Trading glossary

Frequent questions

Is "offer" the same as "ask"?

Yes. Both words mean the price at which you can buy at market.

Why is my buy trade negative right after opening?

It opened at the offer, but your platform values it at the bid. The difference is the spread.

Is the offer always higher than the bid?

In a normal market, yes. A crossed or locked quote, where the offer is at or below the bid, is unusual and usually short-lived.

Does the offer stay fixed?

No. It changes with supply and demand. It can also jump when liquidity is thin.