Direct answer
In forex, the bid is the price at which someone is willing to buy a quoted currency pair from you. It is typically shown as the left price in a bid/ask quote. If you sell the base currency, you generally receive the bid price.
Explanation of how it works
Forex quotes use two prices because trading happens at different moments for buyers and sellers. The bid represents the buying side of the market, while the ask represents the selling side.
- Bid: what buyers are currently willing to pay.
- Ask: what sellers are currently willing to sell for.
- Bid-ask spread: the difference between ask and bid.
Because the ask is commonly higher than the bid, the spread acts like a built-in cost when you enter and exit trades. For example, if a quote is shown as Bid 1.1000 / Ask 1.1002, the bid (1.1000) is the price buyers pay, and the ask (1.1002) is the price sellers request. The spread here is 0.0002 in quote terms.
Example checks you can verify independently
You can validate the bid/ask meaning using the quote you see in your trading platform or a market data screen:
- Which side is the bid? In most standard displays, the bid appears on the left of the two numbers.
- Which price is used when selling? When you close a position that involves selling the base currency, you typically use the bid.
- How does the spread change? During fast markets, the bid and ask can move and the spread can widen or narrow; the bid-ask relationship stays conceptually the same.
Relevant limitations and risks
- Quotes change continuously: bid and ask prices update as new orders arrive. Any single displayed value can be out of date seconds later.
- Displayed prices may differ by venue: liquidity, symbol conventions, and quote formats can vary across brokers or data providers.
- No outcome is implied: understanding the bid helps interpret quotes, but it does not predict future price movement.
If your platform shows a reversed format or uses a different convention for how the pair is displayed, confirm how it labels “bid” and “ask” before comparing numbers across sources.