forex-scalping.com

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:

1. Stop slippage is usually the biggest variable, not spread. The damage happens on exits during fast moves.
2. Data days carry a disproportionate share of slippage, so sort by the news column.
3. 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?