when Apple trades pennies why bother with wide spreads?
Presumably because that's where people think there's a bigger information asymmetry and more profit to be made by fishing in the middle. But, as seems to be the point of the entire thread, there are just some "dumb default" bid/asks which can be made to rest in the order-book for the sake of making a market... not a great market, but a market nonetheless. Therefore, in these cases, it may not be wise to cross the spread without a fair amount of due diligence.
Last edited: