Bid, Ask, and Last

[MaxPowers]

I am looking at buying some more BAC, I have Zecco
The Bid is 5.78
The Ask is 6.20
Last trade is 5.80

Why is there such a diffrence? It costs a lot more to buy, and I am not getting anything if I want to sell. Why does it do this?

[tulsa_sr5]

I think you are looking at after or pre market numbers. They often show wide spreads like that and have low volume. If you think you need to get in pre-market I'd put a limit order in at the last trade price. It seems like a lot of the time the price will trend back towards yesterdays close as the market opening approaches but as volatile as BAC has been I'm not making any predictions on that.

[disneysteve]

Don't seem to be a lot of interest in the stock.

Why do you say that? BAC has been incredibly active in recent days. I think they traded something like 800,000,000 shares the other day and so far over 354,000,000 today.

I actually bought BAC at $5. I wish I would have waited another day or so when it dropped under $3. At least it is finally back over what I paid. I'm sure a lot of people made a killing on it at under $3/share.

[banditfist]

Why do you say that? BAC has been incredibly active in recent days. I think they traded something like 800,000,000 shares the other day and so far over 354,000,000 today.

I actually bought BAC at $5. I wish I would have waited another day or so when it dropped under $3. At least it is finally back over what I paid. I'm sure a lot of people made a killing on it at under $3/share.

He said it because when a equity is not actively traded, the spreads will be high. But, the OP is looking at either post or pre market numbers. It is normal for a market maker to put in a crap bid on an equity or a price willing to sell at a much higher closing price. If an person who can trade afterhours and mistakenly puts in a market order, the bid/ask will be hit and the market maker makes a nice profit.