Platform spread vs broker website spread: why the mismatch?
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2026 5:39 am
Unpopular reminder: the spread quoted on a broker's website is usually an average, a minimum, or a marketing figure. The spread on the platform is live.
Averages can be calculated over odd windows, excluding rollover, excluding news, or only counting the best hours. Minimums are, well, minimums. A broker advertising "from 0.0 pips" is telling the truth, but only for a handful of ticks a day.
So when the live spread on the terminal looks double the advertised number, something might be off, or it might just be the difference between a headline and a snapshot.
A fair way to settle it is logging the spread every minute for two weeks and calculating median and 90th percentile by hour. That table is the real price list, and it can be compared against the website claim and against competitors.
Tiny detail that trips plenty of people up: some platforms show the spread in points, others in pips. A reading of 12 on a five-digit feed is 1.2 pips, not 12.
Has anyone ever done that comparison, and how far apart were the advertised and measured numbers?
Averages can be calculated over odd windows, excluding rollover, excluding news, or only counting the best hours. Minimums are, well, minimums. A broker advertising "from 0.0 pips" is telling the truth, but only for a handful of ticks a day.
So when the live spread on the terminal looks double the advertised number, something might be off, or it might just be the difference between a headline and a snapshot.
A fair way to settle it is logging the spread every minute for two weeks and calculating median and 90th percentile by hour. That table is the real price list, and it can be compared against the website claim and against competitors.
Tiny detail that trips plenty of people up: some platforms show the spread in points, others in pips. A reading of 12 on a five-digit feed is 1.2 pips, not 12.
Has anyone ever done that comparison, and how far apart were the advertised and measured numbers?