Gold cost discussions usually rely on broker marketing. A trade-by-trade cost log for one week gives you real numbers instead, and it's not much work.
Columns per trade:
- Spread at entry, in dollars (14 cents shows as 1.4 "pips" on most platforms).
- Commission converted to dollars per ounce at your size.
- Slippage on entry: fill minus requested price.
- Slippage on exit, separately for stops and targets.
- Whether US data was within 10 minutes.
A worked example of how to read the result. Say the averages come out at 14 cents spread, 7 cents commission, 2 cents entry slippage and 9 cents stop slippage spread over all trades: roughly 25 cents per trade, maybe a bit more. With a $2.00 stop, that's around 12.5% of risk gone on every trade before the outcome. With a $4.00 stop, half that.
Things the log tends to reveal:
- Stop slippage is usually the biggest variable, not spread. The damage happens on exits during fast moves.
- Data days carry a disproportionate share of slippage, so sort by the news column.
- Calm hours can be perfectly acceptable for scalping.
If several people post a week in the same format, we can compare brokers on numbers rather than guesses. Anyone willing to start?
