a 3 pip target with commission attached

[Shadow Trader]

Example numbers, made up but typical-looking. A raw-spread account charges about $7 per lot round turn. On a standard EUR/USD lot a pip is worth roughly $10, so that commission is about 0.7 pips.

Now compare two targets. A scalper aiming for 3 pips hands over 0.7 of them before the spread even gets a look in. That is about 23% of the gross target gone, on every single trade, win or lose. Another trader aims for 20 pips and the same fee is 3.5%.

The commission is flat. The target is not. So as targets shrink, the fixed fee eats a bigger and bigger slice.

Add a 0.3 pip spread to the 3 pip scalper and total friction is 1 pip, a third of the target. The setup now needs to be clearly better than a coin flip just to pay the venue.

That is why plenty of tight-target scalpers look fine on a demo with no costs and then fall apart live. Many brokers also scale the commission by lot size, so it never disappears at 0.01 either.

What is the smallest target you have found that still survived your real costs, and how did you measure it?