EducationFoundations~16 min readUpdated 26 September 2026
The short answer
The spread is the gap between the bid and ask price — it is the built-in cost on every trade, paid on entry. On EURUSD it runs from 0.0–0.3 pips on a raw account to 1.0–1.6 pips on a standard account. Commission is the explicit per-lot fee charged on raw-spread accounts, typically $4.50 to $7 per standard lot round-turn. Swap is the overnight financing charge applied when you hold past the daily rollover, calculated from the interest rate differential. A "zero commission" account is not free — the cost is just moved into a wider spread.
Why cost matters more than most traders think
Two traders take the same 100 trades in a month with the same strategy. Trader A pays $5 per standard lot in all-in cost. Trader B pays $14. Over 100 trades, that is a $900 difference — on a $10,000 account, nine percent of the account gone before a single directional call is judged.
Cost is not a rounding error. It is a permanent tax on every position, and it compounds against you the same way a losing streak does. This lesson is about knowing exactly what you pay, and why.
T
Written by the Trade To The Top team|Reviewed 26 September 2026
Spread, commission, and swap figures verified against IC Markets, Pepperstone, FP Markets, Fusion Markets, and Tickmill published pricing as of August 2026.
Every trade has three costs baked into it, whether you see them or not. One is paid on entry. One is charged per lot on raw accounts. One is paid every night you hold. Ignoring them is the same as ignoring the stop distance — it is a number you are choosing not to see, and it shows up in the P&L regardless.
Key takeaways
The spread is the difference between bid and ask. You pay it on entry. EURUSD: 0.0–0.3 pips (raw) to 1.0–1.6 pips (standard).
Commission on raw-spread accounts runs $4.50 to $7 round-turn per standard lot. Standard accounts bundle the cost into the spread instead.
Swap is the overnight financing charge. It can be a debit or a credit, and it scales with position size.
Wednesday is triple swap day for forex — three days of swap charged at once to account for the weekend value date.
"Zero commission" is not free. A raw account at 0.1 pips + $7 commission is often cheaper than a standard account at 1.2 pips + $0.
All-in cost on EURUSD ranges from roughly $4.50 to $14 per standard lot, depending on account type and broker.
Swap-free accounts are interest-free, not cost-free. Brokers replace the swap with admin fees or wider spreads after a grace period.
Spread widens around news. A 0.1-pip spread can hit 5–20 pips during an FOMC release or NFP print.
Every currency pair has two prices. The bid is the price at which you can sell. The ask is the price at which you can buy. The difference between them is the spread, and it is the first cost of every trade.
On EURUSD, if the bid is 1.08498 and the ask is 1.08500, the spread is 0.2 pips. The moment you buy at the ask, you are already 0.2 pips away from break-even. To close for a profit, you need the bid to rise above your entry price — which means the market has to move at least the spread in your favour just to get back to flat.
The spread — EURUSD
Bid 1.08498 · Ask 1.08500 · Spread 0.2 pips
The spread is the only cost you pay on entry on a standard account. On a raw account, you pay this spread plus a separate commission.
The spread on major pairs is not fixed. It widens during news events, overnight, and on Fridays. This is the single most under-appreciated fact about trading costs: the same trade at the same entry has a different cost at 3 PM London vs. 3 AM Tokyo. The market is thinner overnight. Fewer participants means wider spreads.
EURUSD average spread by session (standard account)
London/NY overlap
0.8 pips
London session
1.0 pips
New York session
1.1 pips
Asian session
1.5 pips
Rollover (22:00 GMT)
2.0+ pips
Typical ranges for a standard account. Raw accounts compress these by 80–90% but follow the same session pattern.
The spread is a tax that changes with the time of day. Trade when it is low.
Common mistake
Looking only at the "spread from" number on the broker's homepage. "From 0.0 pips" does not mean the spread stays at zero. It means the best-case reading at some moment in the trading day. The number that matters is the average spread on the pair you actually trade, at the time you actually trade it. A 0.0-pip headline means nothing if the average at your trading hour is 1.6 pips.
THE SPREAD · DRAWN TO SCALE
EURUSD 4H · the chart plots the bid · the ask sits one pip above it
Every buy opens at the ask and closes at the bid. You start one pip behind before the trade does anything.
Commission — the explicit cost
Commission is the second cost. It is an explicit fee charged per lot, separate from the spread, and it only exists on raw-spread or ECN accounts. Standard accounts bundle the cost into a wider spread and advertise "zero commission."
Commission is quoted per standard lot, per side or round-turn. A "$3.50 per side" commission means $7 total on a round-trip trade (open and close). The industry standard for raw-spread accounts sits between $4.50 and $7 round-turn per standard lot.
Broker / Account
EURUSD avg spread
Commission (round-turn)
All-in cost per lot
Fusion Markets Zero
~0.0 pips
$4.50
~$4.50
Tickmill Pro
~0.1 pips
$4.00
~$5.00
Vantage Raw
~0.1 pips
$6.00
~$7.00
IC Markets Raw
~0.1 pips
$7.00
~$8.00
Pepperstone Razor
~0.1 pips
$7.00
~$8.00
OANDA Standard
~0.9 pips
$0.00
~$9.00
IC Markets Standard
~1.0 pips
$0.00
~$10.00
Look at the difference between the raw-spread bracket and the standard bracket. Fusion Markets charges $4.50 commission but only 0.0 pips of spread — total ~$4.50. A standard account at IC Markets charges zero commission but 1.0 pips of spread — total ~$10. The "free" account costs more than twice as much per trade.
"Zero commission" does not mean zero cost. It means the cost has a different name.
Common mistake
Choosing a standard account because the commission line says $0.00. The commission was moved into the spread. On EURUSD, a 1.0-pip spread costs $10 per standard lot — more than the $7 round-turn commission on a raw account with a 0.1-pip spread. The account type with the visible fee is usually the cheaper one.
Swap — the overnight charge
Swap is the third cost. It applies only if you hold a position past the daily rollover, usually 22:00 GMT (17:00 New York). It reflects the interest rate differential between the two currencies in the pair, plus the broker's own funding markup on top.
When you go long EURUSD, you are effectively borrowing USD to buy EUR. You pay interest on the USD you borrowed and receive interest on the EUR you hold. The net difference is the swap. When the rate on the currency you are lending exceeds the rate on the currency you are borrowing, swap can be a credit. Most of the time, the broker's funding markup pushes it toward a debit on both sides of the pair.
Swap — the three rules
It is calculated in points. The swap rate shown in MT5 is in points per lot per night. The formula is: Swap charge = Swap rate in points × Point value per lot × Lots × Nights held.
Wednesday is triple swap day for forex. Spot FX settles T+2. A position held over Wednesday rollover settles on Friday. The next rollover (Thursday) would settle on Monday — but the spot market does not settle on weekends, so three days of financing are charged at once. This applies at the Wednesday 22:00 GMT rollover for most brokers, though some shift it to Friday for Asian clients. The total weekly swap is the same.
Swap-free accounts are interest-free, not cost-free. Islamic or swap-free accounts remove the overnight interest charge, but most brokers apply an alternative administration fee after a grace period — typically five days. BlackBull Markets charges an admin fee starting on the 5th rollover. Pepperstone charges $100 per standard lot after five days on FX and precious metals. The spread may also be wider on swap-free accounts.
Five nights on a 1-lot EURUSD long costs $17.50 in swap alone. On a 0.10-lot position, the same five nights cost $1.75. Swap scales with position size, exactly like spread and commission — which is why the lot size from Lesson 2 is the number that controls all three costs at once.
Worked example 02 — finding swap in MT5
Platform
MetaTrader 5
Steps
Ctrl+M → right-click symbol → Specification
Look for
Swap long / Swap short
Swap rates in MT5 are shown in points by default. Check the "Swap type" field to confirm. If it shows "Points," use the formula above. If it shows "Money in margin currency" or "Money in deposit currency," the value is already in dollars — multiply by lots and nights directly.
ALWAYS CHECK THE LIVE RATE
Symbol Specification — EURUSD
Contract size
100,000
Digits
5
Tick size
0.00001
Tick value
1.00
Swap long (points)
−2.50
Swap short (points)
−0.80
Swap type
Points
Minimal volume
0.01
Volume step
0.01
In MT5: Ctrl+M, right-click the symbol, choose Specification. The highlighted rows show the live swap rates and the calculation method. Rates change daily with money market conditions.
The all-in cost of a trade
Spread, commission, and swap are not separate line items. They are the same cost expressed three ways, and the only number that matters is the total. This is what "all-in cost" means.
Here is the all-in cost of a 1-lot EURUSD round-turn trade on a raw account, held overnight for one night. The bars below are proportional to the total — each one shows what percent of the $10.50 it represents.
10.5% of the risk budgetconsumed before the trade even moves
The same trade at smaller sizes
1.00
lot
$10.50
all-in
0.10
lot
$1.05
all-in
0.01
lot
$0.11
all-in
Ten dollars and fifty cents on a single trade sounds small. But at 20 trades a month, that is $210 — more than two full risk units (at 1% on a $10,000 account). The cost is not an edge case. It is the baseline.
THE SILENT DRAG · 100 TRADES AT TWO COST LEVELS
$10,000 account · same strategy · same win rate · same entries
RAW ACCOUNT — GREEN LINE
$5 all-in cost per lot · ends at $10,800
STANDARD ACCOUNT — RED LINE
$14 all-in cost per lot · ends at $9,900
Same strategy. Same win rate. Same 100 entries. The only difference is the cost per trade. The green line paid $5 per trade ($500 total). The red line paid $14 per trade ($1,400 total). The $900 gap came from nothing but the fee structure — not from a single better call.
EURUSD 4H · one rollover charged at each marked bar
The trade was in profit the whole time. Financing is charged at 22:00 regardless of whether you are winning.
When this fails
Five assumptions break down in practice:
When this fails
Swaps change over time. The swap rate is not fixed. It moves with central bank policy and the broker's funding conditions. A pair that pays a positive carry today can pay a negative carry tomorrow. Always check the live swap rate in MT5 before holding overnight — do not assume last week's rate applies.
Spread is not constant. News events, session opens, and low-liquidity periods widen the spread. A pair that averages 0.1 pips can print 5–20 pips during an FOMC release or NFP print. If you trade news, the "average spread" number is not the number you pay. Spreads can also widen 5–10 minutes before the release and 5–20 minutes after, depending on the market's reaction.
Commission is not always round-turn. Some brokers quote commission per side (e.g. $3.50 per side = $7 round-turn). Others quote round-turn directly. Always confirm which number you are reading before calculating all-in cost. Pepperstone, for example, quotes $3.50 per lot per side on Razor accounts, which equals $7 round-turn.
Swap-free accounts have hidden costs. The swap is removed, but an administration fee replaces it after a grace period. BlackBull Markets charges from the 5th rollover. Pepperstone charges $100 per standard lot after five days. Traze charges a fixed daily fee from the sixth night. The spread on swap-free accounts is often wider too. "Interest-free" does not mean "cost-free."
Triple swap day varies by broker. Most forex brokers apply triple swap on Wednesday. Some, particularly those serving Asian clients, shift it to Friday. The total weekly swap is the same — but if you are comparing overnight costs across brokers, make sure you are comparing the same day.
If you remember nothing else: the spread is paid on entry, the commission is paid per lot, and the swap is paid every night. All three scale with lot size. The position sizing from Lesson 2 controls all three at once.
Commission — explicit fee on raw accounts. $4.50 to $7 per standard lot round-turn.
Swap — overnight financing. Wednesday is triple swap for forex.
"Zero commission" is not free. The cost is in the spread.
All-in cost on EURUSD — roughly $4.50 to $14 per standard lot.
All three scale with lot size. The position sizing from Lesson 2 controls all three at once.
Swap-free is interest-free, not cost-free. Admin fees replace the swap after a grace period.
Spread widens around news. A 0.1-pip spread can hit 5–20 pips during FOMC or NFP.
See the full cost. Our lot size calculator shows the estimated all-in cost per trade — spread, commission, and swap — so you can see the real number before you click buy.
5 questions · immediate feedback · retake any time
Question 01 of 05
What is the spread?
Correct: B. The spread is the gap between the bid (sell) and ask (buy) price. It is the built-in cost on every trade, paid on entry.
Question 02 of 05
On a raw-spread account, how is the cost structured?
Correct: C. Raw or ECN accounts pair a tight, market-based spread with a separate per-lot commission, typically $4.50 to $7 round-turn.
Question 03 of 05
When is swap charged?
Correct: B. Swap is applied at 22:00 GMT (or the broker's rollover time) on any position held overnight. It is a financing charge, not an entry cost.
Question 04 of 05
Why is Wednesday triple swap day for forex?
Correct: C. Spot FX settles T+2. A Wednesday trade settles Friday, which then rolls over the weekend. Three days of financing are charged to account for the gap.
Question 05 of 05
A standard account advertises "zero commission." What is the actual cost?
Correct: A. "Zero commission" means the cost is inside the spread. A 1.2-pip EURUSD spread costs $12 per standard lot — more than a $7 raw-account commission.