Comparing XAGUSD trading conditions across raw accounts: the fields that matter

[FXS London Scalper]

Silver gets treated like gold's little brother, and that is where the surprises start. The contract specs differ much more between brokers on XAGUSD than on EURUSD.

When lining up two or three raw accounts for silver, these are the columns that tend to decide it:

1. Contract size. 5,000 oz is common, but 1,000 oz and 50 oz exist too. A 0.10 lot is a completely different position depending on which one you have.
2. Tick size and digits. Some feeds quote to 3 decimals, some to 2. Your spread readout in "points" can look ten times larger or smaller with nothing having changed.
3. Commission basis. Metals are often charged per lot notional rather than a flat fee, so the cost scales with price.
4. Trading hours. The daily break on metals is not always the same length, and a few brokers open silver later after the break than gold.
5. Swap. Irrelevant if you are flat at rollover, but worth knowing for the one trade that runs over.

A practical test is to log spread at three fixed times (London open, 13:30 UK, 16:00 UK) for five days on each account. Twenty-ish readings per account will tell you more than any spec sheet.

What spec difference caught you out the first time you traded silver?

[Shadow Trader]

Many retail brokers don't send every order to the market. Some route flow from losing accounts internally, taking the other side of the trade, and pass the profitable ones to an outside liquidity provider. The practice is often called A-book and B-book routing.

It makes commercial sense for the broker. The majority of retail accounts lose, so keeping their flow is profitable. A consistently winning account is a cost, so it gets hedged out, or simply restricted.

From the trader's side, the changes can be subtle. Spreads start to widen a little. Fills slow down. Requotes appear that weren't there in the first month. Slippage turns one-sided.

None of this is proof. Markets change, and so do connections. But a sudden shift in execution quality after a run of profits, with no change in strategy or conditions, deserves a look.

A decent test is opening a small second account, running the same strategy at the same time, and comparing fills. If the established account gets worse treatment than the new one, the pattern speaks for itself.

Has execution ever got noticeably worse after a profitable stretch?