Regulation NMS defines best available displayed price by comparing the national best quote with the best disseminated odd-lot order on the relevant side, with a timing rule for midpoint-or-better limit orders. This is a U.S. Regulation NMS term with side- and timing-specific conditions; do not reduce it to a generic synonym for the best visible market price.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionPhrases & Idioms
Quick answer
In Regulation NMS, best available displayed price is a rule-defined benchmark that can reflect either the national best quote or a better disseminated odd-lot price.
Key details
Canonical FormBest Available Displayed Price
Core MeaningRegulation NMS defines best available displayed price by comparing the national best quote with the best disseminated odd-lot order on the relevant side, with a timing rule for midpoint-or-better limit orders.
Further guidance
History Boundary
This is a U.S. Regulation NMS term with side- and timing-specific conditions; do not reduce it to a generic synonym for the best visible market price.
Meaning
In Regulation NMS, best available displayed price is a rule-defined benchmark that can reflect either the national best quote or a better disseminated odd-lot price.
Usage Boundary
This is a U.S. Regulation NMS term with side- and timing-specific conditions; do not reduce it to a generic synonym for the best visible market price.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
Executed Outside the Best Available Displayed Price is a current Regulation NMS defined term. This guide preserves the rule-specific benchmark and direction instead of replacing it with informal trading shorthand.
Executed With Price Improvement Relative to the Best Available Displayed Price is a current Regulation NMS defined term. This guide preserves the rule-specific benchmark and direction instead of replacing it with informal trading shorthand.
Under current U.S. Regulation NMS definitions, best bid and best offer mean the highest-priced bid and the lowest-priced offer. Treat this as a U.S. securities-regulation definition. Do not collapse it into the NBBO concept or generalize it to every use of best price outside this rule context.
Executed With Price Improvement is a current Regulation NMS defined term. This guide preserves the rule-specific benchmark and direction instead of replacing it with informal trading shorthand.
Make Publicly Available is a current Regulation NMS defined term. This guide preserves the specific U.S. securities-rule scope instead of substituting an ordinary-language meaning.
The National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) is the U.S. national-market benchmark formed from the highest displayed bid and the lowest displayed offer used in the applicable NMS framework. NBBO is a U.S. market-structure term and should not be generalized into a universal global best-price concept or confused with one venue’s local best bid and offer.
Price impact measures how much the price of a security changes in response to a trade of a given size. Price impact is a response-to-trade dimension of liquidity; it is not interchangeable with quoted spread or order-book depth.
Price improvement is the opportunity for an order to execute at a price better than the price currently quoted publicly. It is an execution-quality concept tied to a benchmark quote and is an opportunity rather than a guarantee; do not use it as a synonym for effective spread or for every favorable price move after an order is submitted.
