A new estimator of bid-ask spreads is presented. When the trade direction is known, any estimate of the spread is associated with a unique series of conjectural mid-prices derived by adjusting the observed transaction price by half the estimated spread. It is shown that the covariance of...

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the performance of estimators of the bid-ask spread in a wide range of circumstances and sampling frequencies. The bid-ask spread is important for many reasons. Because spread data are not always available, many methods have been suggested for...