The maximum price a buyer is willing to pay for a stock is called the bid price.
In a stock market quote, the bid represents the highest displayed price that a buyer is currently offering for one share. A sell order can execute against that bid, subject to the order’s size and market conditions. The buyer may be an individual investor, a market-making firm, or another institution.
The bid is paired with the ask price, which is the lowest price at which a seller is willing to sell. The difference between the two is the bid-ask spread. For example, if a stock is quoted at $49.95 bid and $50.05 ask, the spread is 10 cents.
A common mix-up is “ask price”: that describes the seller’s minimum acceptable price, not the buyer’s maximum. “Strike price” belongs to options contracts, while “spot price” generally means the current price for immediate delivery of an asset.