Understanding bid/ask/last

[dweems]

I have gone into the Price Line indicator and turned on showing the bid, ask and last lines. Oddly the bid and last lines are always the same and the ask is always far above. I notice that no new prices appear at or above the ask. This confuses me. Logic would say that the last price is the most recent buy or sell, and buys are allowed at or above the ask line and the sells are allowed at or below the bid line. As such, the last line should bounce between the bid and ask. But instead all prices are at the bid and none ever approach the ask. This makes no sense to me. Please explain. I'm receiving my tick data from Forex.com.

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hello, thanks for writing in. The Bid price is used to build bars and chart data in forex connections. This page will explain what you are seeing with the price line indicator:

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/?working_with_forex.htm#HowBarsAreBuiltAndOrdersFilled

You can change the "Price based on" setting in the data series menu to the Ask or bid price to see the difference.

[dweems]

Ah! That fits with what I'm seeing. Would have been nice to see last data, but it is what it is. Thanks