Bid/Ask Price

The bid price is what buyers are willing to pay for a currency, meaning the price at which you can sell. The ask price is what sellers are asking for, meaning the price at which you can buy. The ask is always slightly higher than the bid, and the difference between them is the spread, which is the primary cost of entering a trade.

The asymmetry between bid and ask means every trade starts slightly in the red. When you enter a buy position, you enter at the ask price, but the platform shows your floating P&L based on the bid (where you would sell to exit). Until the bid moves up to your entry ask, your position shows as losing even if the market has not really moved. This is why patience with spreads matters, especially on short-term trades where a few pips of spread can be the difference between a winning and losing setup.

For example, if EUR/USD shows bid 1.08490 and ask 1.08498, the spread is 0.8 pips. A buy of 1 standard lot enters at 1.08498. To break even, the bid must rise from 1.08490 to 1.08498, which is a 0.8 pip move. Once the bid is above your entry, you are in profit. At that pip value of roughly $10, each pip after break-even adds $10 to your trade P&L.

In copy trading, the bid-ask spread is a cost every subscriber pays on each entry and exit. SteadyFlowFX's 9 algorithms trade 8 currency pairs, and the spread your broker charges directly affects how closely your results match the master account. Choosing a broker with competitive bid-ask pricing on the traded pairs is one of the most practical steps a subscriber can take to improve copy trading outcomes.