When you start currency trading, you are told by every forex broker that there are no commissions involved in forex trading. New traders take their brokers words as true and most think that the cost of trading is minimal.
Forex brokers also called FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants) make profits through the bid-ask spread they offer to their clients for each currency pair. This bid-ask spread is the trading cost for you and the profit for your FCM.
Lets take a practical example. Bid/ask spreads are usually overlooked by the individual traders as the price they have to pay for trading. So lets calculate what your cost of trading can be in a year.
Suppose, you are day trading the currency markets, 5 times every day. Take away the weekends, when you cant trade, there are 250 trading days for you.
As a day trader, you will open and close your position before the end of each trading day. That means each position is traded 2 times by you.
Suppose; your start with an account size of $50,000. You are using a leverage of 4 only, you are cautious. So this $50,000 deposit will control (50,000) (4) = $200,000 for you.
Annual Turnover = (5) (250) (2) (200,000) = $500 Million. You can see the annual turnover of your trading is huge! Now lets calculate how much your broker will make and what your trading cost is based on your spread cost. Spread Cost= (Annual Turnover) (spread)/2.
Suppose the spread offered by the broker is 3 pips. 3 Pips Spread Cost= (500M) (0.0003)/2= $75,000.
Suppose the bid/offer spread charged by the broker is only 2 pips. 2 Pips Spread Cost= (500M) (0.0002)/2= $50,000.
You can see yourself, the cost of trading with a 3 pips spread versus a 2 pips is $25,000. This is 50% of your account equity. You see, a 1 pip difference can result in $25,000 more as trading cost for you.
You will need to make a profit of $75,000 simply to break even with a 3 pips spread. Trading costs are one of the primary reasons most active traders fail in the long run.
Forex brokers also called FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants) make profits through the bid-ask spread they offer to their clients for each currency pair. This bid-ask spread is the trading cost for you and the profit for your FCM.
Lets take a practical example. Bid/ask spreads are usually overlooked by the individual traders as the price they have to pay for trading. So lets calculate what your cost of trading can be in a year.
Suppose, you are day trading the currency markets, 5 times every day. Take away the weekends, when you cant trade, there are 250 trading days for you.
As a day trader, you will open and close your position before the end of each trading day. That means each position is traded 2 times by you.
Suppose; your start with an account size of $50,000. You are using a leverage of 4 only, you are cautious. So this $50,000 deposit will control (50,000) (4) = $200,000 for you.
Annual Turnover = (5) (250) (2) (200,000) = $500 Million. You can see the annual turnover of your trading is huge! Now lets calculate how much your broker will make and what your trading cost is based on your spread cost. Spread Cost= (Annual Turnover) (spread)/2.
Suppose the spread offered by the broker is 3 pips. 3 Pips Spread Cost= (500M) (0.0003)/2= $75,000.
Suppose the bid/offer spread charged by the broker is only 2 pips. 2 Pips Spread Cost= (500M) (0.0002)/2= $50,000.
You can see yourself, the cost of trading with a 3 pips spread versus a 2 pips is $25,000. This is 50% of your account equity. You see, a 1 pip difference can result in $25,000 more as trading cost for you.
You will need to make a profit of $75,000 simply to break even with a 3 pips spread. Trading costs are one of the primary reasons most active traders fail in the long run.
About the Author:
Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Know These Forex Broker Games. Learn Forex Trading.
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