> This is in part why it is irresponsible for exchanges such as mtGox to report a single "price" for bitcoin
No, it's not. They are reporting the price of an actual trade, where buyer met the seller. At that point the spread is effectively zero.
No, it's not. They are reporting the price of an actual trade, where buyer met the seller. At that point the spread is effectively zero.
In reality all three should be reported together when one is as they are all very important.
Just because there's a buy bid at $700 for 1BTC and a sell bid at $703 for 200BTC, doesn't make these two prices equivalent or equally important.