What is Spread?
Quick answer
The spread is the gap between the highest price buyers will pay (the bid) and the lowest price sellers will accept (the ask). A tight spread means a low trading cost; a wide spread means a higher cost and more slippage. In copy trading, wider spreads make a copied fill more likely to differ from the leader’s.
Every tradable asset has two prices at once: what buyers are bidding and what sellers are asking. The spread is the gap between them, and it is a real, if often overlooked, cost of trading.
How the spread works
The bid is the highest price a buyer will pay; the ask is the lowest price a seller will accept. When you buy, you generally pay the ask; when you sell, you receive the bid. The difference is the spread, and it is effectively a cost you pay to trade. Spreads are tight on liquid, actively traded instruments and wider on illiquid or volatile ones, and they can widen further in fast markets or outside regular hours.
Why it matters in copy trading
A wider spread means a higher cost to enter and exit and a greater chance of slippage, so a copied order on a wide-spread instrument is more likely to fill at a different price than the leader got. It matters most on thinly traded stocks and options, where spreads can be meaningfully wide. Being aware of it, and sizing conservatively, helps you keep those costs in perspective.
Frequently asked questions
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