I am trying to understand the display of prices in the Invest UI. Example:
Watchlist:
Portfolio:
Pending Orders:
What is the current price? Normally the current price is the last traded price. Should be displayed everywhere the same.
2 Likes
@chantal One is the buy (ask) price - 115.50. The other is the sell (bid) price - 114.00.
We’re not showing the last trade price because we think bid & ask are more relevant. When looking at the chart, you’re seeing how much it would cost you to purchase a share. When looking at open positions, you’ll see how much you can get for selling that share, that’s the whole concept.
Ok but when the last price of a share is $10 and the bid is $15 and the ask $7.50, then $10 would make more sense. I have some stocks in my portfolio where the spread between bid/ask can be big. For example ENPH sometimes is $0.50 difference.
@chantal Isn’t it more relevant for you to know how much it would cost you to get the share or how much you’d get if you wish to sell it?
it would if it was CFD, but for investing it is more important to know what the value of share is, not what others bid or ask. In my opinion that isn’t the true value.
If I want to sell it or buy it, I set a limit order, which differs from the last value. higher or lower.
Here is an example of a Dutch stock which isn’t traded that much:
For me the true value would be 22,30. If there were no trades until end of the day, the bid/ask doesn’t make sense, because both can change any second without having 1 share traded.
Markets don’t value based on assumed true price so it wouldn’t be any better than the current displays for knowing what your portfolio is worth. After all, your portfolio is only worth what you can sell it for at that moment. 
I agree with @chantal
It’s more important to know what was the last price… unless you’re trading a stock that has really low volume, you’ve got a 99% chance to sell or buy said stock at the last price.
For Dutch taxes you need to specify the worth of your investments at the end of the year:
You own 10 shares of Stock A.
Bid = 2.50 (10 x 2.50 = 25)
Last = 10.00 (10 x 10.00 = 100)
Ask = 25.00 (10 x 25.00 = 250)
Bid and Ask are both “what if” prices. As you can see the difference can be quite big at a certain moment. AFAIK all other brokers use the last traded price.