Spreads, by venue and by pair

Every track prices the spread. Crypto's varies on more axes at once than any before it - and unlike them, the widest axis is a choice the trader makes when they pick where and what to trade.

The three axes

• By venue: fragmentation means the same coin's spread differs across exchanges - reputable high-volume venues quote tight, thin venues quote wide, and the gap can be several-fold on the identical asset.
• By pair: a coin against a major stablecoin is usually the deepest, tightest book; the same coin against fiat or a minor stablecoin is wider - the denomination choice from module 2, now a cost.
• By time: module 2's weekend and off-hours thinning widens every spread on schedule - the same trade costs more at 3am Sunday than at the regional overlaps.

The arithmetic

Spread cost is spread times position, both legs - the platform's standing arithmetic; a 0.2% spread on a £20,000 position is £40 the round trip, before fees. What crypto adds is that the same trade has a range of spread costs depending on venue, pair and hour - so the honest budget is not a number but a chosen point on three axes, and the choice can move the cost several-fold with no change to the idea.

The controllable cost

The reading from module 2 becomes a cost decision: trade the deep venues and deep pairs in the liquid hours, and the spread is near its floor; trade a thin venue, an exotic pair, or a weekend, and it is a multiple of that. Combined with the maker-taker choice, the spread makes crypto execution unusually controllable - most of the round-trip cost is decisions the trader makes before the trade, not a fixed toll the market imposes. Module 3's remaining lessons add the cost that is not controllable and often larger than all of this: funding.