What is bid size and ask size in wealth simple?

Question

I'm new to wealthsimple app and wanted to know what some numbers mean. If we look at Microsoft stock for example and look at these numbers shown in the app:

Bid $259.87 x 17,481
Ask $259.90 x 10,387
Last sale $259.89 x 0

I know the bid price represents the maximum price that a buyer is willing to pay for a share of stock or other security. The ask price represents the minimum price that a seller is willing to take for that same security. And Last sale is the price of the last transaction some trader did.

But what does the 17,481, 10,387 and 0 mean? I think it relates to the bid/ask size, but not entirely sure. Does anyone know?

Thanks

Answer 1

Brokers usually use round lots for their NBBO volume quote. A round lot is any multiple of 100 shares and an odd lot is less than 100 shares. Some web sites provide the actual volume in their quote rather than odd/round lot data.

In your quote, the bid is $259.87 x 17,481. Assuming round lot data, this means that some number of buyers are willing to buy 1,748,100 shares at $259.87. This means that one could only sell 1,748,100 shares at that price, assuming that no other buyers came in at that price after current bid volume was taken out. If one wanted more shares, one would have to pay more if the bid price then increased.

The last sale volume of zero is odd. It would imply that the last trade was an odd lot and it was rounded down to zero.

The best answer would come from contacting wealthsimple and asking for clarification.