That difference is known as the spread between the bid and asked price.

But immediately after those periods, they trade closer to their asked prices.

If an investor wants to buy a stock, he pays the higher asked price.

At times last week, huge spreads opened between bid and asked prices.

Under the current system, as originally intended, any public buy order entered would be executed at the best asked price.

Normally, of course, the bid price is below the asked price.

If the limit order was executed, the buyer would have gotten a better deal than had he simply bought at the asked price.

For generations, the over-the-counter market has operated with bid and asked prices.

In practice, it appears that would include only stocks with a spread between the bid and asked prices of at least 25 cents.

If all marker makers who had asked prices of $38.25 make the same assertion, the order might be executed at a higher price.

It is also called asked price or offering price or ask.

That market, some fear, could become less liquid, thus widening the spreads between bid and asked prices.

"There is a big spread between the bid and asked price, and we are not seeing many transactions."

He described the current period as "a temporary lull, with the bid and asked prices still apart."

Customers want the most liquid markets possible, with the smallest spreads between bid and asked prices.

Usually, members of the public could buy at the higher asked price or sell at the lower bid price.

If that were adhered to, then the combined best bid and asked prices could not be closer to each other than 25 cents.

So a given market-maker would have a wider spread between his bid and asked prices than was present for the overall market in that stock.

The tactic worked best in relatively illiquid stocks with large spreads between the bid and asked price.

Instead, it provides only bid and asked prices on stocks, and there is no public record of actual trades.

Compaq stock was trading with a spread of 4 cents between the best bid and the best asked price.

Brokers were entitled to pocket up to half the difference between the bid and asked price for Wellshire's favorite stocks.

He had asked Price why, as the son of a ship-builder, he had not joined the navy.

Nonetheless, the execution will come as a market maker either lowers his asked price or raises his bid.

Any broker can tell you the current quote, and yesterday afternoon the bid and asked prices were just 1 cent apart.