Please don"t laugh at my question. I am new to this whole trading game and I was wondering if there was a trick to spot which stocks of the day had wide bid/ask spreads. I am just randomly punches in quotes. I know that there has to be an easier way. I would really appreciate some pointers. By the way, don"t worry, I am just practicing with $100 at a time Thanks so much in advance.
A brokerage platform with a DDE quote link to Excel would do the trick. Import the symbols, set up a bid and asked column as well as one for the difference and add a sort/find feature. The only ? mark is how many symbols you want to chase and if the broker has a quote limit. If that occurs, you might have to use a data service (fee).
1) "Cheaper" stocks have wider bid-ask spreads when you express the spread as a percentage of the bid price. 2) "Expensive" stocks can have wider spreads when you look at the arithmetic difference between the bid and offer. Instead of one penny, it can be a two cents, three, five, ten or whatever.
A lot of bank stocks have wide spreads, the lower the volume, the wider the spread. So if you have a database of stocks you can sort by industry and then by volume, you will be able to find what you are looking for.
on Interactive Brokers theres the option to add a spread columb.... i sopose other brokers should have the same option...
Trader Work station - edit - global configuration - trading tools - trading window - default layout - prices ---spread