: Are BID and ASK the minimum and maximum? I am interested in buying stock for my first time. I am using the broker E*Trade. When I look at some stocks it shows this. Is the BID the minimum? I want to buy maybe 100 shares but

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

So in your screenshot, someone or some group of someones is willing to buy 3,000 shares at .45, and someone or some group of someones is willing to sell 2,000 shares at 3.88.

Without getting in to the specific mechanics, you can place a market buy order for 10 (or whatever number) shares and it will probably transact at .88 per share because that's the lowest price for which someone will currently sell their shares.

As a small fish, you can generally ignore the volume notations in the bid/ask quotes.