Commission
Commission is a fee the broker charges for executing a trade, billed as a separate amount rather than built into the bid and ask prices.
The broker decides whether an account carries commission, how much it charges and how it is calculated: per lot, per deal, on USD volume, as a percentage or in points. Because the fee attaches to the deal and not to its result, a loss-making trade pays it in full.
This page covers the mechanic; it is not trading advice.
Per side or per round turn: reading the quote
A completed trade opens a position and then closes the same volume: the opening is one side, the closing is the other, and the two together are a round turn. Quoted per side, a rate is paid on both sides of a completed trade; quoted per round turn, it covers both. Each side can be filled in one deal or in several, and a rate charged per deal applies to every one of them. At an assumed $3.50 per side on 1 standard Lot size of EUR/USD, a Contract size of 100,000 euros, the round-turn figure is $7.00.
In MetaTrader 5 the symbol specification window lists the commission the broker applies to an instrument, whether it falls on entry deals, exit deals or both, and whether it is charged per lot or per deal. cTrader calculates commission on the volume of each deal, and closing a position there generates a deal of its own.
Misreading the unit distorts a cost comparison by far more than a rounding difference. A round-turn rate read as per side doubles the estimated commission; a per-side rate read as round turn halves it. The calculation below shows the first mistake reversing a comparison between two accounts.
All-in cost on one EUR/USD lot, raw spread against standard
The spreads and commission below are assumptions chosen to show the arithmetic, not market rates. At an example EUR/USD mid of 1.1253, a raw-spread account quotes a 0.2-pip Spread (1.12529 / 1.12531) plus $3.50 per side; a standard account quotes 1.2 pips (1.12524 / 1.12536) with no commission. One standard lot moves $10 per Pip, and with the spread unchanged a round turn pays one full spread, half at entry and half at exit.
Worked example
All-in cost per round turn = (Spread in pips × Pip value) + (Commission per side × 2)- Raw-spread account (0.2 pip × $10) + ($3.50 × 2)
- $2.00 + $7.00
- Standard account (1.2 pips × $10) + $0
- $12.00 + $0.00
All-in cost per lot, raw-spread against standard
$9.00 against $12.00
The raw-spread account costs $3.00 less, and its break-even point sits 0.9 pip away: a long opened at 1.12531 needs the bid at 1.12538 to recover the $7.00 commission, a mid of 1.12539 against 1.12530 at entry. Taking a $7.00 round-turn rate as $7.00 per side gives $2.00 + $14.00 = $16.00, so the raw-spread account appears $4.00 dearer instead of $3.00 cheaper.
When the raw-spread account stops being cheaper
The raw-spread account is cheaper only while the spread gap exceeds the round-turn commission expressed in pips. On EUR/USD that threshold is $7.00 ÷ $10 = 0.7 pip, against a gap of 1.0 pip here. A standard account at 0.9 pip would cost $9.00, level with the raw-spread account.
The same commission on USD/JPY
A dollar commission converts into a different number of pips on a pair not quoted in US dollars. At an example USD/JPY price of 158.02, one standard lot moves 100,000 × 0.01 ÷ 158.02 = $6.3283 per pip, so $7.00 is 1.11 pips. Holding the same assumed spreads, the raw-spread account costs (0.2 × $6.3283) + $7.00 = $8.27 and the standard account 1.2 × $6.3283 = $7.59: the $7.00 commission outweighs the 1.0-pip spread gap, worth $6.33, by $0.67 at full precision. Real spreads differ between pairs; the example holds them equal to isolate the commission.
Slippage on either fill and Swap on a position held overnight sit outside these figures.
Related terms
Related articles
Common questions
Is commission the same as spread?
No. The spread is the gap between bid and ask, paid through the fill prices. Commission is a separate fee charged on the deal. On one standard lot of EUR/USD at an example 1.1253, an assumed 0.2-pip spread costs $2.00 per round turn and an assumed $3.50-per-side commission $7.00, so a comparison on spread alone misses $7.00 of the $9.00.
How is a per-side commission converted to a round-turn figure?
Multiply it by 2, because a completed trade has two sides: opening the position and closing the same volume. An assumed $3.50 per side on one standard lot of EUR/USD at an example 1.1253 is $7.00 per round turn. The doubling holds for a rate per lot. A rate per deal is charged on every deal it applies to, so splitting a charged side into several deals multiplies it.
Is commission charged on a loss-making trade?
Yes. Commission attaches to the deal, not its result. On one standard lot of EUR/USD at an example 1.1253, an assumed $3.50 per side adds $7.00 to a loss-making round turn exactly as to a profitable one. MetaTrader 5 supports charging it on execution or at the end of the trading day or month, as the broker sets.
Why can the commission on one lot change with the price?
A broker can calculate commission on USD volume rather than per lot; cTrader's help names USD volume, lots and basis points as methods, and its Algo reference adds quote currency per lot. At an example EUR/USD price of 1.1253, one lot of 100,000 euros is $112,530 of USD volume, so an assumed $30 per $1 million per side is $3.3759 on the opening deal and $6.75 per round turn if the position closes at 1.1253; at any other exit price the closing deal's commission differs. One USD/JPY lot is $100,000 of USD volume at any price, so the same rate stays at $3.00 per side.