Orca Crypto
Trading term

Spread

The gap between the best buy price and the best sell price.

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Updated 2026-08-303 min readDefinition
Definition

The gap between the best buy price and the best sell price.

The spread is an immediate cost. Buy at the ask and sell at the bid and you have already lost the spread before price moves at all.

Tight spreads indicate healthy competition between market makers. Wide spreads indicate that few people want to quote both sides, which is a liquidity warning.

In practice

A 0.01 percent spread on a major pair is normal. A 3 percent spread means you start every trade meaningfully behind.

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