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system
does a market maker sell (buy) at a bid or ask price?
user
everyone buys at the ask price and sells at the bid price (no matter who you are). there are a few important things you need to understand. example: eve bid: 16.00 eve ask: 16.25 so if your selling eve at "market price" you are entering an ask equal to the highest bid ($16.00). if you buy eve at "market price" you are entering a bid equal to the lowest ask price ($16.25). its key to understand this rule: "an order executes only when both bid and ask meet. (bid = ask)." so a market maker puts in a bid when he wants to buy but the trade only executes when an ask price meets his bid price. when you see a quote for a stock it is the price of the last trade. so it is possible to have a quote higher or lower then both the bid and the ask.
assistant