Why the advertised spread is the wrong number
Every broker in this table advertises spreads from 0.0 pips. None of them will trade you a round turn for nothing. The 0.0 figure describes the raw price feed on the broker's most expensive-to-access account, before a commission that is charged separately, and it describes the best moment of the trading day rather than the average one. Comparing brokers on that number ranks them by marketing discipline, not by cost.
The number that matters is the round turn: raw spread plus commission both ways, on the account you can actually open, at the time you actually trade. RoboForex publishes $2 per lot per side against a 0.0-pip floor, which is $4 per round-turn lot plus whatever the spread has widened to. A marked-up standard account quoting 1.3 pips on EUR/USD costs roughly $13 per lot with no commission at all. Below about a third of a lot, the marked-up account is cheaper; above it, the raw account is. That crossover, not the headline, is what should decide the choice.
How to compare two brokers on cost
- Add commission to spread and quote one figure per round-turn lot.
- Check the minimum deposit on the cheap account, not on the broker's cheapest account overall.
- Ask what the spread averages, not what it starts at — few brokers publish this; OANDA does.
- Count the non-trading fees: inactivity, conversion on a non-USD deposit, withdrawal minimums.
The entry point is part of the price
A broker whose raw account requires $10,000 is not cheap for a $2,000 balance, regardless of what the spread column says. This is where the ordering here diverges most sharply from the usual cost comparison. M4Markets reaches a raw account from a $5 deposit, FXOpen and FXTM from $1, and Exness, ThinkMarkets, FreshForex and Axi impose no fixed minimum at all. Those figures do more to determine the real cost for a small account than a tenth of a pip on the feed.
Account tiering is also where the cheapest headline usually lives. Brokers routinely publish a commission that falls at higher volume tiers — FXTM states this explicitly — so the advertised rate is the one paid by clients trading the most, and a new account starts above it. When a broker gives a single commission figure with no tier attached, that is a genuine simplification worth valuing.
Cheap pricing and light regulation often travel together
Four brokers in this table are regulated only in Saint Vincent, Belize or Seychelles. Lower supervisory cost is part of what funds the tighter pricing. That is a trade you can reasonably make with a small balance and should think harder about with a large one — see the fund safety ranking for the other side of it.
The costs that do not appear in a spread comparison
Three charges routinely exceed the spread on a modest account. Inactivity fees are the largest: a dormant account can be drained by a monthly charge that continues until the balance reaches zero, and the threshold for dormancy is often three months. Currency conversion is the second — funding a USD-denominated account from a euro or sterling bank account pays a conversion margin on the way in and again on the way out. The third is the withdrawal minimum, which turns a small residual balance into money that cannot economically be retrieved.
Overnight swaps belong on the same list for anyone holding positions past the daily cut-off. The swap is quoted as a rate but contains the broker's markup over the interbank funding differential, and that markup is rarely disclosed. On a carry position held for weeks, it dwarfs the entry cost entirely.
Common questions about trading costs
Is a raw-spread account always cheaper?
No. Below roughly a third of a lot per trade, a marked-up spread with no commission usually costs less, because the commission is charged per lot regardless of how small the position is. Work out your average trade size before choosing.
Why does the same pair cost different amounts on two accounts at one broker?
Because the accounts price differently: one carries the cost in the quote, the other quotes the raw feed and bills separately. Neither is a discount; they are two ways of charging, and which is cheaper depends on your size.
Do brokers widen spreads deliberately?
Spreads widen at low liquidity — the daily rollover, weekends, major releases — and that is a market fact rather than a broker decision. What differs between brokers is how far and how long, which is why brokers that publish historical spread data are worth more than brokers that publish a floor.
What is a fair commission on a raw account?
Published rates cluster between $3 and $7 per round-turn lot. Below $4 is competitive; above $7 the raw account is usually worse than the same broker's marked-up alternative.