Newbie question - Is this spread right?

Beginner Questions
1

Hi

I’ve just started with learning about forex so I’ve opened a demo account using MT4 on Alpari and at the time of writing this on the EUR/USD paid I can Sell for 1.28867 and Buy for 1.28882 so thats a difference of 15 pips isnt it? I thought the spread was meant to be about 3 pips. Am I wrong about something? Please shed some light on this. I’ve put my leverage down to 50:1 and my size to 0.10 I dont know if this is affecting it at all

Thanks

Joeby

2

Count pips as the first four digits after the decimal, the fifth digit is a fraction of a pip. So,

1.2888.2 -
1.2886.7 =
1.5 pips

Cheers,
Adam

3

It’s a very low spread, 1.5 pips. In a live account it may might be required to invest a certain amount to receive such spreads. This is a good MT4 indicator that allows you to monitor the spread to ensure your broker is not playing games with your account, Spread MT4 Indicator

4

As DayTrader said, the fifth decimal place is indeed a fraction of a pip known as a pipette.

The School of Pipsology will keep you right:

5

EUR/USD typical spread from broker to broker is around the 1.4pip mark, as low as 1.0 pip with some market makers, and as low as 0.0 pips at times of extreme liquidity on ECN accounts, although this usually cant be maintained for any length of time.

6

there was a time where there was only 4 digits after the dot(.) the fifth one messes up the computation :smiley: thats 1.5 :smiley:

7

thanks guys, it all makes sense now. maybe i was a bit blinded because i automatically thought i was being ripped off! cheers for the help