Home Calculators Trading cost
Trading cost calculator
Spread, commission and swap are quoted in three different units, which is why so many traders carry a confident wrong number for their own costs. This puts all three into your account currency — and then into R, where it can be compared with an edge.
The formula
Spread cost = spread × pip value × lots
Commission = rate per lot per side × lots × 2
Swap = per-lot-per-night × lots × nights billed
Total = spread + commission − swap
Break-even move = total ÷ (pip value × lots)
Cost in R = total ÷ your planned risk
- pip value — tick size × contract size, converted into your account currency. The pip value calculator shows that step in full.
- × 2 — commission is charged on entry and again on exit. This is the factor that goes missing.
- nights billed — nights held, plus two more if the position was open across the triple-swap day.
- − swap — swap is signed. A positive carry genuinely reduces the total, and on a long enough hold it can make it negative.
The last line is the one worth keeping. Money is not comparable between accounts and pips are not comparable between instruments; R is comparable across both.
Worked: the same idea, charged six ways
| Account and hold | Spread | Commission | Swap | Total | Break-even | In R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw/ECN, closed same day | 2.00 USD | 7.00 USD | 0.00 USD | 9.00 USD | 0.90 pips | 0.018R |
| Standard account, closed same day | 12.00 USD | 0.00 USD | 0.00 USD | 12.00 USD | 1.20 pips | 0.024R |
| Raw/ECN, held 3 nights | 2.00 USD | 7.00 USD | −21.60 USD | 30.60 USD | 3.06 pips | 0.061R |
| Raw/ECN, 3 nights across the triple-swap day | 2.00 USD | 7.00 USD | −36.00 USD | 45.00 USD | 4.50 pips | 0.09R |
| Gold, 0.10 lot, closed same day | 3.00 USD | 0.70 USD | 0.00 USD | 3.70 USD | 37.00 points | 0.019R |
| NAS100, 1 lot, held 1 night | 1.50 USD | 0.00 USD | −2.40 USD | 3.90 USD | 3.90 points | 0.013R |
Compare the first two rows. The raw account charges $2.00 of spread and $7.00 of commission; the standard account charges $12.00 of spread and no commission. The zero-commission account is not the cheap one — the commission was folded into the quote, and on this trade it costs three dollars more. Which is better depends on your size and your stop, never on which line of the statement the charge appears on.
Then compare rows three and four. Identical trade, identical three nights, and one of them cost 14.40 USDmore because it was open across the triple-swap day. Nothing about the idea changed.
What the number is actually for: costs are a fraction of your stop, not of your account
Here is the same raw-spread round turn — 0.2 pips of spread and $3.50 a side on one lot of EUR/USD, a fixed 9.00 USD every time — measured against six stop distances. The cost is a constant. What changes is what it is a fraction of.
| Stop distance | 1R is worth | Cost in R | Break-even win rate at 2R | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 pips | 30.00 USD | 0.30R | 43.3% | Costs are larger than most measured edges. |
| 5 pips | 50.00 USD | 0.18R | 39.3% | A real tax on the strategy; it has to be earned back. |
| 10 pips | 100.00 USD | 0.09R | 36.3% | Noticeable over a year, survivable. |
| 20 pips | 200.00 USD | 0.045R | 34.8% | Noticeable over a year, survivable. |
| 50 pips | 500.00 USD | 0.018R | 33.9% | Close to irrelevant. |
| 100 pips | 1,000.00 USD | 0.009R | 33.6% | Close to irrelevant. |
The three-pip row is where scalping strategies live, and it is worth reading slowly. The round turn costs 0.30R. A 2R plan that would break even at 33.3% now needs 43.3% — a shift of more than 10 percentage points, which is larger than the entire edge most systems have. The strategy is not losing because the entries are bad. It is losing because the stop is too close for the way the account is charged.
The same arithmetic run the other way is the argument for wider targets: at a 100-pip stop the identical cost is 0.009R and moves the break-even line by a fraction of a point. Cheap execution and wide targets are the same defence against costs, approached from two directions — which is the point the break-even win rate calculator makes from the other side.
Every figure here assumes you are filled at the quoted spread. You are not, always. Spreads widen around the news events and the session opens that short-term strategies deliberately trade, and the difference between the quote and the fill is slippage, which this calculator does not model because it cannot be known in advance. Your statement can measure it. Every number on this page is therefore the best case.
Where to read your real numbers
Spread and swap live in the contract specification — in MetaTrader, right-click the symbol in Market Watch and choose Specification. Commission is rarely there; it is on the broker's account-types page, and it is quoted per lot per side about as often as it is quoted per round turn, so check which. If a page says "$7 commission" without saying per what, assume nothing and look for the worked example.
The better source is your own statement, because it records what you were actually charged rather than what the schedule says. The commission and swap columns are on every MT4 and MT5 export, and the spread is visible in the gap between your entry price and the quote you clicked.
Questions
Why is commission doubled?
Because it is charged when you open and again when you close. Brokers quote it per lot per side, which is accurate and also the single most common way a cost gets understated by exactly half. A $3.50 per-lot-per-side commission is $7.00 on a one-lot round turn, and that is the number that comes out of your account.
My broker quotes swap in points, not money. What do I enter?
Multiply the points by the value of one point, which the pip value line above gives you — but check the digits first. On a five-digit feed a "point" is the last decimal place, which is a TENTH of a pip, so a swap of −72 points on EUR/USD is −7.2 pips and about −$7.20 a lot, not −$72. Reading a points table as if it were pips overstates the carry tenfold, and reading it the other way understates it. This field asks for money precisely so that the ambiguity is resolved by you, looking at your own platform, rather than guessed by us.
What is the triple-swap day?
Spot FX settles two business days forward, so the position you hold over one particular weekday is booked for Saturday and Sunday as well as that night. Most brokers charge three nights of swap on Wednesday for that reason; a few use Friday, and the instrument matters — many index and metal CFDs roll on Friday instead. Three nights of carry arriving in one go is a routine surprise on a swing position, and it is the reason a trade that looked flat on Thursday morning is not.
Should I just trade a zero-commission account then?
Not on that basis alone — a zero-commission account is not cheaper, it is quoted differently. The commission has been folded into a wider spread, and whether that is better for you depends on your size and your stop, not on which line of the statement it appears on. Run both through this calculator with your real numbers. The two scenarios at the top of the worked table are exactly that comparison, and on that trade the raw account is cheaper by a dollar.
Does the cost come out of my risk or on top of it?
On top, in almost every case. Your stop is placed at a price, and the spread is paid to get into the position before the stop is anywhere near — so a trade stopped out loses the planned risk plus the round-turn cost. That is why expressing the cost in R is the useful form: a 0.1R cost means a losing trade is really −1.1R and a winning 2R trade is really +1.9R.
What you were actually charged, from your own statement
Every figure on this page is an estimate from a schedule. Your statement holds the real one — total commission, total swap, and what both come to as a share of your gross profit. TapeSheet adds them up and shows the net beside the gross, because a strategy that is profitable before costs and not after is the most common way an edge disappears. Free, no signup, and the file never leaves your device.
Analyze my statementAll calculators ·Lot size chart ·Pip value ·Position size ·Break-even win rate ·Spread ·Commission ·Swap ·Net profit ·Free trading journal