Bids and Offers Are for the Base Currency.

Traders always think in terms of how much it costs to buy or sell the base currency. A market maker’s quotes are always presented from the market maker’s point of view,so the bid price is the amount of terms currency that the market maker will pay for a unit of the base currency; the offer price is the amount of terms currency the market maker will charge for a unit of the base currency.

A market maker asked for a quote on “dollar-swissie” might respond “1.4975-85,” indicating a bid price of CHF 1.4975 per dollar and an offer price of CHF 1.4985 per dollar. Usually the market maker will simply
give the quote as “75-85,” and assume that the counterparty knows that the “big figure” is 1.49.

The bid price always is offered first (the number on the left), and is lower (a smaller amount of terms currency) than the offer price (the larger number on the right).This differential is the dealer’s spread.