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1. Look up the desired security pricing using your trading account website or the website of an online broker that offers quotes without requiring an active account. For example, the E-Trade website will allow quote look-up from the homepage without requiring an account or sign in. Stock prices can be found by entering the stock symbol. Option prices can be found by selecting option chains after looking up the underlying stock.
2. Write down the bid and ask price of the selected security. For example, on a day in September 2010, Aegean Marine Petroleum Network--stock symbol ANW--was quoted at a bid price of $17.09 and an ask price of $17.27.
3. Subtract the bid price from the ask price for the bid-ask spread. In the ANW example, the spread is 18 cents.
4. Divide the bid-ask spread amount by the ask price to convert the spread to a percentage. For the ANW example, dividing 18 cents by $17.27 results in a spread of 1.04 percent.