Last Traded Price (LTP)

What it answers

When you glance at a stock and see a single live price ticking on the screen, what exactly is that number? On the NSE and BSE it is almost always the Last Traded Price (LTP), the price at which the most recent buy-and-sell match actually went through. It is a record of the last real transaction, not a quote or an estimate.

How it is set

Markets work through an order book of bids (buyers) and asks (sellers). A trade happens only when a buy order and a sell order meet at the same price. The instant that match executes, that price becomes the new LTP and the displayed price updates. In a liquid stock this can refresh many times a second; in an illiquid one, the LTP may be stale, reflecting a trade that happened minutes or hours ago.

LTP versus bid and ask

It is important not to confuse the LTP with the price you will get on your next order. The LTP is backward-looking, it is what just happened. What you can actually trade at right now is set by the live bid and ask: you typically buy near the ask and sell near the bid. In a thinly traded stock the gap between LTP and the available bid-ask can be wide, which is why a market order can fill at a price noticeably different from the LTP you saw.

Why it matters

The LTP anchors much of what investors see. Daily change percentages, your portfolio's mark-to-market value, and stop-loss triggers are typically computed off it. It also feeds into circuit-breaker bands that the exchanges use to halt runaway moves. But for decisions, treat it as a reference: the LTP tells you where the market last cleared, while the depth of the order book tells you where it is likely to clear next.