Same broker, same account, same pair (EURUSD), same style. Yet my average cost per trade in Asia is about 40% higher than in London. I dug into why.
Factors I found in my logs:
Wider raw spread. Fewer LPs quoting aggressively during Asia hours. Average 0.35 versus 0.15 pips in London.
More time near rollover. Some of my Asia trades were close to the daily rollover where spreads are at their worst.
Commission unchanged. The fixed commission is a bigger share of a smaller target, since Asia targets are smaller.
Slippage on stops. Thinner books mean worse stop fills, even on small moves.
So it's not just the spread. Smaller ranges plus a fixed commission make the whole cost stack relatively heavier.
What I changed:
Asia trades only from 01:30 London time onward, well after rollover.
Minimum target of 4 pips, otherwise no trade.
Limit entries instead of market where possible.
Asia is still more expensive, but the gap shrank. Does anyone trade EURUSD mainly in Asia? I'd like to know how you keep the costs under control, or whether you switch to yen or AUD pairs instead.
One pair goes quiet, so attention moves to another. Then another. By the end of the hour, five charts have been scanned and three trades have been placed, none on a setup that was properly prepared.
Each pair has its own spread, its own tick rhythm, its own sensitivities. A feel for one doesn't transfer. The first few trades on an unfamiliar pair are typically the worst, because the sense of normal movement hasn't been built.
The habit is driven by the fear of missing out. Somewhere on the screen, something is moving, and not trading it feels wasteful.
Keeping a short list of pairs, chosen for the session, and staying with them reduces the scatter. If one goes quiet, the quiet is information.
A test: tag each trade with whether the pair was on the day's planned list or an impulse switch. Compare results after a month.
How many pairs make up a session's watchlist, and does a pair outside it ever work out?
