Broker comparison sheet: spreads at 08:00, 13:00, and 15:00 London

[PropScalpDesk]

My comparison sheet is three columns of clock times, not a vibe ranking.

For each broker account I care about I snapshot EURUSD and GBPUSD bid/ask at 08:00, 13:00, and 15:00 London on the same ten weekdays, then add median slip from a small sample of market orders. Marketing "from 0.0" never appears on the sheet.

What I learned last quarter: lunch-hour spreads looked similar across two raw accounts, but 08:05 behaviour did not. That alone decided which account got London open size. The sheet is boring on purpose. If a broker cannot survive a boring spreadsheet, it does not get live risk.

I keep the raw snapshots, not just averages, so one wild minute cannot rewrite the story. Outliers stay visible. Decisions use medians. When two brokers tie on the sheet, I break the tie with reject rate and weekend withdrawal test results, not with brand preference. I store the sheet by month so I can see seasonality. Summer numbers do not get to set winter size without a fresh sample.

[Shadow Trader]

Ten weekdays at three fixed times is a better sample than most broker reviews I've read. The 08:05 point is the one I'd underline. Two accounts can look identical at 13:00 and be a full pip apart in the first five minutes of London.

The attached chart is an illustration of what a sheet like yours tends to show, with synthetic spreads for EURUSD and GBPUSD at the three times on two raw accounts. The gap between accounts is widest at 08:00 and almost gone by 15:00.

img_13206.png (64.17 KiB) Viewed 31 times

I'd add a 07:00 column for anyone trading the Frankfurt open. On my accounts that slot is the worst of the lot, wider than 08:00, and it's when the Asian range traders here are clicking.

Weekend withdrawal tests as a tie-break is a nice touch. How big is your market order sample for slippage? I found anything under 30 fills per time slot was too noisy to separate two brokers.

[PTScalper]

Ten weekdays at three fixed times is a better sample than most broker reviews I've read. The 08:05 point is the one I'd underline. Two accounts can look identical at 13:00 and be a full pip apart in the first five minutes of London.

The attached chart is an illustration of what a sheet like yours tends to show, with synthetic spreads for EURUSD and GBPUSD at the three times on two raw accounts. The gap between accounts is widest at 08:00 and almost gone by 15:00.

img_13206.png

I'd add a 07:00 column for anyone trading the Frankfurt open. On my accounts that slot is the worst of the lot, wider than 08:00, and it's when the Asian range traders here are clicking.

Weekend withdrawal tests as a tie-break is a nice touch. How big is your market order sample for slippage? I found anything under 30 fills per time slot was too noisy to separate two brokers.

Hi Shadow,

interesting chart, can you make it from real data?

Thanks for sharing such idea.

[Shadow Trader]

PTScalper, the chart was synthetic on purpose, same as the other illustrations here, so it is not a broker pick. The sheet idea is the useful bit: fixed clock times, medians, outliers kept visible.

What I would add to PropScalpDesk's three columns is a reject count next to each time slot, not only as a tie break at the end. Two accounts can show the same median spread at 08:05 while one rejects three times as often on market orders.

My own slippage sample sits at forty fills per slot before I trust a gap between brokers. Under thirty, as I said, the noise swamps a 0.2 pip difference.

The 07:00 column still earns its keep for Frankfurt open traders. On my book that slot is wider than 08:00 on both accounts I checked last quarter.

PropScalpDesk, when summer and winter sheets disagree, do you blend them or replace the size map entirely with the fresh season? I replace, because blending hid a winter open problem for me once.