Trading glossary
An order book is a live, real-time list of buy and sell orders for an asset, organized by price and quantity. Learn how order books work and what they reveal.
An order book is a continuously updated record of the buy and sell orders that participants have placed for a particular asset. Buy orders, called bids, sit on one side, and sell orders, called asks, sit on the other. Each entry shows a price and the quantity offered at that price. Together they present a live snapshot of supply and demand.
Orders are grouped by price level. On the bid side, the highest prices sit at the top because those buyers are willing to pay the most. On the ask side, the lowest prices sit at the top because those sellers will accept the least. The gap between the best bid and the best ask is the bid-ask spread, and the volume stacked at each level is often called depth.
Traders study the order book to gauge liquidity and to see where buying or selling interest clusters. Large resting orders can hint at price levels that many participants care about. On Tyrian Trade, order book views are provided for information and analysis. The platform does not match or execute orders and is not a broker or exchange.
Bids are buy orders showing what buyers will pay, and asks are sell orders showing what sellers will accept. The highest bid and lowest ask sit closest together, and the gap between them is the bid-ask spread.
Depth refers to the quantity of orders available at each price level. Greater depth generally indicates more liquidity, meaning larger orders can be absorbed with less price movement across the visible levels.
No. An order book shows current resting orders, but those can be cancelled or filled at any moment, and new orders arrive constantly. The prices shown reflect intentions at that instant, not a promise of execution.