When you open a currency trading account, you are told by your forex broker that there are no commissions involved in forex trading. New traders take their brokers word as true. Most think that the cost of trading is minimal.
Forex brokers are also called FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants) sometimes. They make profits through the bid/offer spread they charge their clients for each currency pair. This bid/offer spread is your trading cost and profit for your broker.
Lets do a simple calculation. Spreads are usually overlooked by the individual traders as the price they pay for trading. So lets calculate your cost of trading.
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 each trading position before the end of each trading day. That means each position is being traded 2 times, once when you open the trade and once when you close the trade.
Suppose; your account size is $ 50,000. You are using a leverage of only 4. So this $50,000 will control (50,000) (4) = $200,000.
Your Annual Turnover should be; (5) (250) (2)(200,000)= $500 Million. Isnt it huge! Now lets calculate how much FCM will make and what your spread cost is. 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 now, the cost of trading with a 3 pips spread versus a 2 pips is $25,000. Huge for you, this is 50% of your account equity. You see now that a 1 pip difference can result in $25,000 more as trading cost for you.
You will have to make a profit of $75,000 simply to break even. Trading costs are one of the reasons most active traders fail in the long run.
Forex brokers are also called FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants) sometimes. They make profits through the bid/offer spread they charge their clients for each currency pair. This bid/offer spread is your trading cost and profit for your broker.
Lets do a simple calculation. Spreads are usually overlooked by the individual traders as the price they pay for trading. So lets calculate your cost of trading.
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 each trading position before the end of each trading day. That means each position is being traded 2 times, once when you open the trade and once when you close the trade.
Suppose; your account size is $ 50,000. You are using a leverage of only 4. So this $50,000 will control (50,000) (4) = $200,000.
Your Annual Turnover should be; (5) (250) (2)(200,000)= $500 Million. Isnt it huge! Now lets calculate how much FCM will make and what your spread cost is. 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 now, the cost of trading with a 3 pips spread versus a 2 pips is $25,000. Huge for you, this is 50% of your account equity. You see now that a 1 pip difference can result in $25,000 more as trading cost for you.
You will have to make a profit of $75,000 simply to break even. Trading costs are one of the 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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