How often is the advertised spread available?
Some brokers promise minimum spreads, without explaining when or for how long these rates are offered. I have never got such spreads when I traded. I understand that if I want to trade during the meeting of the European Central Bank, I should not be naive that the spread will be the advertised one. I know that spreads depend on market conditions. There may be large gaps during macroeconomic news and in periods of volatility. I was wondering if it’s possible to trade without a spread. I have found accounts without additional brokerage fees. On this type of accounts there are only interbank spreads, for example, 0.1 - 0.2 pips per euro. In this case, the broker charges a fixed commission for each traded contract. Why ? I guess, because no one offers free access to the market. To choose the best broker, I suggest you do a thorough research and compare the offers of different brokers, depending on the instruments you want to trade. Some brokers require a minimum account opening balance or a minimum trading size before giving me access to the smallest spreads. I think the spreads should be the same, regardless of whether the order size is $ 5 or $ 5 million. Unfortunatelly, the only way to truly test the broker is to try a live acount since demo may differ in terms of spreads.
The spread changes according to the risk which the broker judges the market presents them at any given moment. It can change at any second and to any amount. I have seen spreads 10 x what they are usually.
Remember the broker’s chart only shows one side of the spread, usually the bid quote: the ask quote will be higher.
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They offer the advertised spread when the market is busy and balanced ie lots of trades in both directions. I’ve seen EURUSD with zero spread lots of times.
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