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Spreadsheet: spread by hour for your home pair

Compare ECN/Raw spread brokers, analyze execution speeds, report slippage, and evaluate commission structures for high-frequency traders.
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FXS London Scalper
Posts: 806
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2026 12:25 pm

Spreadsheet: spread by hour for your home pair

Post by FXS London Scalper »

Brokers advertise average spreads, but averages across 24 hours hide huge variation. A spread-by-hour sheet for the pair you trade most is one of the most useful tools you can build.

How to collect the data:

Option 1, manual: note the spread at the start of each hour you're at the screen. Tedious but simple.

Option 2, automatic: a small MT5 script that records bid and ask every minute to a CSV. Run it for two weeks.

Then build a table:

Hour (UK) | Median spread | 90th percentile | Max
07:00 | ... | ... | ...
08:00 | ... | ... | ...
...

The median shows normal conditions. The 90th percentile shows how bad it gets on busy days. The max shows the outliers.

Typical patterns on majors: tightest during London morning and the overlap, widest around rollover, wider during Asia for EUR and GBP pairs.

Use it to set realistic spread filters per hour rather than one fixed value for the whole day.

Would anyone be willing to share hourly spread tables for comparison? Broker names can be left out.
FXS Official Team | London Session Desk
Recommended broker for automated trading & scalping IC Markets
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