Every live spot quote in the wholesale precious-metals market actually carries three numbers, not one — a bid, an ask, and a mid.
The single spot price you see on Gold Silver Ledger's Dashboard, on Holdings, and on every transaction record is the mid.
This article explains what each of the three numbers means, why we picked mid for the app's calculations, and how those wholesale numbers relate to the retail prices stackers actually pay.
What each of the three numbers means
In a live market, there's no single "spot price" — there's a continuously updated pair of quotes, plus the average between them.
Bid: The price a market maker is willing to buy at right now. If you were selling wholesale, this is what you'd receive per ounce.
Ask: The price a market maker is willing to sell at right now. If you were buying wholesale, this is what you'd pay per ounce.
Mid: The midpoint between bid and ask. Not a tradable price — no one actually transacts at the mid — but it's the neutral reference everyone uses when describing "the" spot price in a single number.
For example, if gold is quoted bid $4,694.20 / ask $4,694.80, the mid is $4,694.50.
The spread
The gap between bid and ask is the spread. It's the market maker's margin — the small amount they earn for standing ready to buy or sell at any moment — and it's also a real-time signal of how liquid (deep, active) the market is.
Tight spread: A small gap between bid and ask. Usually a sign of a deep, liquid market with many participants. Gold typically trades on a very tight spread.
Wide spread: A larger gap. Usually a sign of a thinner market with fewer participants or fewer trades. Palladium typically trades on a wider spread than gold.
Spreads move with conditions. During high-volume sessions in active hours, spreads tighten; during quiet hours or in fast-moving markets where market makers want extra cushion, they widen. None of this changes the structure — it's always bid below mid, ask above mid.
Why Gold Silver Ledger uses mid
The app uses mid for every spot-based number you see — the four Dashboard cards, the live value of your holdings, the spot-at-time recorded on transactions, the cost-vs-current chart on Analytics, all of it.
A few reasons mid is the right choice for a portfolio tracker:
It's the most-quoted public reference: When financial news reports "gold at $4,694," they almost universally mean the mid. Matching that convention means the number on your Dashboard matches the number on any spot chart you check elsewhere.
It's neutral between buying and selling: Using bid would bias every value toward the seller's perspective; using ask would bias toward the buyer's. Mid sits between the two and tells the same story regardless of which side of a future trade you'd be on.
It keeps internal calculations consistent: Premium analysis, cost-vs-value comparisons, and the Annual Report all rest on the same reference number across every metal and every time period.
It avoids amplifying small market-maker margins: A tight bid-ask spread on gold of maybe sixty cents doesn't meaningfully change anyone's portfolio picture. Picking either end of it would just add a fixed bias.
So the single spot number you see anywhere in the app is the mid, computed continuously from the live feed.
See Where our spot prices come from for the sources behind that feed.
Bid, ask, and dealer premiums — wholesale vs retail
The bid / ask spread on the wholesale market is what professional market makers quote each other in real time. It's almost always small — fractions of a dollar on gold, cents on silver. That's not the spread that matters when you're buying a coin from a dealer.
A retail bullion dealer has its own quoted bid and ask, but the numbers look very different:
Dealer ask (their sell price): Spot mid plus a premium covering fabrication, distribution, dealer margin, and the cost of holding inventory. This is the number on the product page when you're buying.
Dealer bid (their buy-back price): Spot mid minus a discount, since the dealer needs to make money reselling the coin. This is what you'd be quoted if you were liquidating to them.
The gap between a dealer's buy and sell prices — the retail spread — is typically much wider than the wholesale spread. A 1 oz gold coin might wholesale at a bid/ask spread of $0.60, but trade at a retail dealer with a $200+ spread between their buy and sell prices.
That's not a market-maker margin; it's the cost of physical fabrication and the dealer's retail business model.
Gold Silver Ledger's premium analysis — your over-spot percentage on every purchase — is measuring the gap between what you actually paid and the wholesale mid at that moment. It's calibrated to surface that retail-side cost honestly.
Spreads across the four metals
The four metals the app tracks have meaningfully different wholesale liquidity profiles, which shows up in their typical spreads.
Gold: Deepest and most liquid of the four. Spreads on the major venues are typically very tight — a fraction of a percent — during active hours.
Silver: Liquid and heavily traded, but more volatile day-to-day. Spreads slightly wider than gold, especially during sharp price moves.
Platinum: Thinner market than gold or silver. Spreads typically wider, and they can widen further during quiet hours.
Palladium: The thinnest and most volatile of the four. Spreads can be meaningfully wide, particularly outside the most active sessions.
The mid price the app uses for valuation doesn't change based on these spread differences — mid is mid regardless. But it's useful context if you're ever comparing the app's spot to a quote from a smaller venue, where less liquidity can produce a price that drifts further from the aggregate mid than you might expect.
Where you might see bid and ask elsewhere
Inside Gold Silver Ledger, only the mid is currently surfaced. You won't see separate bid or ask columns on your Dashboard, in CSV exports, or on transaction records.
Outside the app, the distinction matters in a few places:
Comparing app spot to a dealer's spot: Dealers usually quote against the mid, but a few quote against bid or ask. If a dealer's "current spot" is a few dollars below the app's, they may be referencing bid rather than mid.
Reading price charts and tickers: Most public charts plot mid; some plot just bid or just ask. The label on the chart will say which.
Wholesale trading: If you ever sell wholesale (rather than through a retail dealer), bid is the price you'd be quoted; if you ever buy wholesale, ask is what you'd pay.
For tracking a personal stack against the broader market, mid is the right anchor — which is why it's what we use.
Where to go next
Where our spot prices come from: The aggregation that produces the live mid.
How often spot prices update: The minute-by-minute cadence behind the feed.
Entering the premium you paid: Where retail premium meets wholesale spot.
The "stale price" warning explained: What happens when the feed falls behind.