What does the spread of a stock mean?

Question

A stock's spread ?

Answer 1

it's the difference between the bid (sell) and ask (buy) prices.

Answer 2

The answer of the other guy is correct , a small mistake there is that

Bid is buy price and ask is sell price.

Difference between the two is the stock spread

Answer 3

A spread is the difference between two figures. As other answers have indicated "spread" is frequently used to mean the "bid-ask spread" or the difference between the bid quote and the ask quote.

You can also talk about the spread between exchanges when a stock is traded on multiple exchanges.

I have even seen a discussion about the spread between the high trade and the low trade of the day.

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Let me also try to explain a difference in perspective on two other answers you have received.

One answer indicates the bid price is the sell price and the ask price is the buy price. That is accurate if you want to look at the price at which a market order will be filled. A market order to sell will be filled at the bid price. A market order to buy will be filled at the ask price.

Another answer says "Bid is buy price and ask is sell price." That is accurate from the perspective of those who submitted the limit orders that set those prices. The bid price is the most someone is willing to pay to buy the stock, and the ask price is the lowest price someone is willing to accept for selling shares.

Answer 4

A tight spread is when the stock is moving briskly and the ask and bid prices are the same, or within a penny or two of each other.

A wide spread is when they are farther apart, as is often demonstrated pre-open/post-open when the market is settling on the proper price level to start the day. Consequently, the most opportunity for price movement is the early part of the day, when the range is broadest.