Bid: $148.94
Ask: $149.05
Price $149.20 (Market)
Can someone explain to me why my final purchase price with the market price doesn't equal to $149.05? From my understanding, isn't that the minimum price I am able to buy it?
Bid: $148.94
Ask: $149.05
Price $148.24 (Market)
And the same goes for the 2nd example, how is it possible to obtain with less than the ask price?
"Price" is often the last traded price. It's possible in the first example that the last trade was at 149.20 but a sell order at 149.05 came in after that trade.
Same (in the other direction) for the second example. A trade was executed at 148.24 but a buy order at 148.94 came in after that trade.
Typically these types of discrepancies indicate that an instrument is illiquid; otherwise the last price would track more closely with the bid/ask spread.
The exact reason can't be known without looking at Time And Sales data. There are some possibilities but they'd just be guesses as to what pertains to your fills:
(1) News is released - perhaps an earnings announcement - and share price is volatile. Because you have placed a market order, price is moving so fast that as soon as you are filled, price changes. Price is so volatile that you might not even see the quotes changing.
(2) You're involved with an illiquid stock and coupled with spoofing, the bid or ask price was pulled when your order hit, thereby providing an inferior fill.
(3) You're trading in the after market where again, price is erratic.
(4) Your broker routes orders poorly
And just to make sure that we're on the same page, your fills are the actually price of the trade and they don't include the commission, right?
