GLOSSARY
Ask price
The higher of the two prices your broker shows — the one you buy at.
Updated 2026-09-04 · Educational content · No broker owns this site
Quick answer. The ask price is the price at which the market will sell a currency pair to you, and therefore the price at which you can buy. It is always the higher of the two prices quoted.
The ask — also called the offer — is the higher of the two prices in a forex quote. It is what the market is asking in order to sell to you, so it is where you buy.
When do you trade at the ask?
- Opening a long. Going long means buying, so you enter at the ask.
- Closing a short. You sold earlier at the bid; to get out you must buy back, so you exit at the ask.
Worked example. EUR/USD is quoted bid 1.08420 / ask 1.08430 and you buy one mini lot — 10,000 euros:
- Cost: 10,000 × 1.08430 = $10,843.00
- Value if you closed instantly at the bid: 10,000 × 1.08420 = $10,842.00
- Position opens showing −$1.00
Every position starts underwater by exactly the spread. That is not an error and not a hidden fee — it is the structure of a two-sided market. Price has to move your way by the spread before you are level.
Does the ask move independently of the bid?
Yes, and it matters. The two prices are quoted separately and the gap between them widens and narrows with conditions — typically tightest when a pair is busiest, and wider around major news releases, at the daily rollover, and in thin weekend-adjacent hours. A pair showing a 1 pip spread in the London session can show several times that around a central bank announcement.
This is also why charts can mislead slightly. Most platforms plot the bid line by default, so the price you see on the chart is not the price you buy at — the ask sits above it, invisibly.
The mistake beginners make
Setting a buy entry at a level read off the chart and being confused when it does not fill. If the chart plots the bid, the ask is already above that level, and a buy order references the ask. The order fills a fraction later than the chart suggests, or not at all. On tight scalping entries this is the difference between a trade and a missed trade — check whether your platform charts bid, ask, or mid before blaming the execution.
Related terms
- Bid Price — the other half of the quote — where you sell
- Spread — the gap between bid and ask
- Exchange Rate — the mid-price these two sit around
- Pip — the unit the gap is measured in
Every term above is part of the same idea: how a forex price is written down and what it costs you to trade on it. Start at currency pair if you are reading these for the first time, or browse the full glossary.