In reality, the stock market works like an auction: Sellers decide what price they’ll accept, buyers decide what they ... let's look at Apple (APPL) as an example. In 1980, its IPO raised ...

But unlike retail buyers, market makers must also display ... in dollars and cents reflects the price of the stock being traded. For example, a spread of 25 cents on a price of $10 equals 2.5 ...

Bids represent the demand side of the stock market, while asks represent the supply side. When a stock has more buyers (bids) than sellers (asks), its trading price goes up until supply and demand ...