Tools
Spreads and trading costs
Spread and commission are the two costs that come out of your account on every trade, and they count against your profit target and your drawdown exactly like a loss does. On a 10% target with a tight trailing floor, a wide spread is not an inconvenience — it is a meaningful part of what you have to overcome.
Typical spreads by firm and instrument
Filter by market, platform and instrument category, search for a symbol, and sort any column. Each row is the newest recorded observation for that firm, platform and instrument, with the date it was observed.
How trading costs eat a profit target
Costs count against the target
A profit target is measured on account balance, and balance is net of spread and commission. Every round trip moves you further from the target before the trade even goes your way.
Costs also count against the floor
The same is true in the other direction. Commission on a losing trade takes you closer to the loss limit, which is why a high-frequency approach on a tight floor is a different proposition from a low-frequency one.
Futures quote differently
Futures spreads are quoted in ticks and commissions per side per contract; Forex/CFD in pips and per lot. The two are not comparable as raw numbers, which is why this table keeps the unit on every row.
Questions
- Where do these figures come from?
- Each is a typical spread Rex observed on the firm's own platform or read from the firm's published cost table, with the date it was observed. Spreads move through the day; treat a figure as typical, not guaranteed.
- Do prop firms publish their spreads?
- Rarely, and almost never in a form that can be cited and re-checked. Most publish an execution partner instead, which is why the firm pages record the execution provider rather than a spread.
- Does a tighter spread mean a better firm?
- Not on its own. A firm with a tight spread and an intraday trailing floor can be far harder to pass than one with a wider spread and an end-of-day floor.
- What should I actually compare?
- Spread plus commission on the instruments you trade, at the hours you trade. A comparison of headline EUR/USD spreads is close to meaningless if you trade indices at the open.
Related
Trading costs are one of five numbers that decide what an attempt really costs. The cost calculator covers the other four.