GLOSSARY // Orders & Execution
Ask
The ask (or offer) is the opposite side of the quote from the bid: the lowest price at which any seller is currently willing to part with shares, posted with a size. It is the price a market buy order pays.
The ask ladder is the visible supply. Buyers lift the offer when they pay the ask, and a stock that keeps eating through offer after offer without new sellers stepping down is showing genuine demand. A single huge offer sitting above the market often behaves like short-term resistance, until the moment it gets pulled or consumed.
A stock is quoted $32.10 x $32.13 with 900 shares offered. A 400-share market buy fills cleanly at $32.13. A 1,500-share market buy instead takes all 900 at $32.13 and 600 more at $32.16, moving the quote up a level in one order.
Related terms
Educational only — not financial advice. Definitions simplified for clarity; markets are messier than definitions.