limited to dollars e g 25 million of 10 year treasuries dollar or yield amount bid to buy a security dollar or yield amount offered to sell a security the general context of system operation is based on the repetitive operation of several functions and in its original embodiment implements these functions through a specially designed keypad or other input means generally the process begins when participants place bids and offers for a defined class of instruments these various orders are exhibited on the display screen in specific ways to reflect priority size and kind a participant can establish trading priority by placing a bid or offer at a select price and volume bids at the same price are displayed on the screen in time order in which they enter the system as are offers as such a u201c queue u201d of bids and offers develops with place in line set by time at the same price alternatively the queue can be set by a different metric ranking e g a combination of time and size this queue or a summary thereof is displayed on screen at the participant 39 s workstation typically there is a small difference between the bid price and the offer price u2014 the u201c spread u201d if no difference exists this is known as a u201c locked u201d market importantly a bid and offer are commitments u2014 once placed a bid.