Broker fees comparison

What the number means

A broker's cost is one number: what a completed trade takes out of your account across spread, commission and financing. Marketing splits those three apart because each can be quoted flatteringly on its own - zero commission beside a wide spread, a tight spread beside heavy swaps.

The comparison only means something over your actual holding period. An intraday trader can ignore swap entirely; for a swing trader holding a week, financing routinely outweighs both other costs combined. Same brokers, different verdicts.

Worked example

One lot of EURUSD held three nights. Broker A: 0.9 pip spread, $7 commission, −$6 swap. Broker B: 1.4 pip spread, no commission, −$5.20 swap.

• A: $9 + $7 + $18 = $34.00
• B: $14 + $0 + $15.60 = $29.60

The broker with the noticeably tighter spread costs $4.40 more on this trade - the headline number and the honest number disagree. The unit test suite pins these exact figures.

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<iframe src="https://ticksprout.com/tools/fees-comparison?pair=EURUSD&lots=1&nights=3&currency=USD&rate=1&spreadA=0.9&commA=7&swapA=-6&spreadB=1.4&commB=0&swapB=-5.2&embed=1" width="100%" height="900" style="border:0" title="Broker fees comparison" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<a href="https://ticksprout.com/tools/fees-comparison">Broker fees comparison by Tick Sprout</a>

Related tools

• Spread cost calculator

  What a spread costs across a month and a year at your trade frequency and size.

  EUR/USD 0.8 pips, 1 lot, 20 trades → $160/month

• Swap cost calculator

  What overnight financing adds up to across a holding period, triple-swap nights included.

  −$7/night, 10 nights (1 triple) → −$84

• Break-even calculator

  The pips a trade must gain just to exit flat, once spread, commission and swap are paid.

  EUR/USD 1 lot, 0.8 spread, $7 comm, 5 nights → 2.5 pips