bid-offer spread. if you see only one price, which one will that be?

Question

I usually see bid and offer price in screen to trade. In the paper or online news, however, they show only one price for reference. Is that bid price or offer price? Thank you very much for your response!!

Answer 1

The bid and offer prices are prices that marketmakers are WILLING to trade at. The price in the paper is the price of the last ACTUAL transaction. Whether it was executed at the bid, the ask or somewhere in between is something that you can't find out very easily.

Answer 2

They are showing the last trade or in the case of the newspaper, the closing price.