A trader cost clock: building a table of cost by hour
Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2026 8:04 am
A trader cost clock: building a table of cost by hour
Most scalpers know their average cost per trade. Few know their cost by hour. Building that table is tedious and changes everything.
The idea: for each hour of the day, record the average spread, the average slippage, the commission, and the rejection rate. Combine them into a single cost figure in pips. Then overlay the strategy's average gross profit per trade for the same hours.
What comes out is a map. Some hours show big gross profit but also big cost, leaving little net. Some hours show moderate profit and low cost, leaving more net than expected. Often the best net hours are not the most active ones.
A few steps to get started:
1. Export trade history for at least two months
2. Pull the spread at each entry time, from tick data if available
3. Group by hour and compute the averages
4. Chart net result per hour
The chart tends to produce one useful rule: stop trading the hours with negative net, even if they feel exciting.
Which hours came out as the most expensive once every cost was counted?
Most scalpers know their average cost per trade. Few know their cost by hour. Building that table is tedious and changes everything.
The idea: for each hour of the day, record the average spread, the average slippage, the commission, and the rejection rate. Combine them into a single cost figure in pips. Then overlay the strategy's average gross profit per trade for the same hours.
What comes out is a map. Some hours show big gross profit but also big cost, leaving little net. Some hours show moderate profit and low cost, leaving more net than expected. Often the best net hours are not the most active ones.
A few steps to get started:
1. Export trade history for at least two months
2. Pull the spread at each entry time, from tick data if available
3. Group by hour and compute the averages
4. Chart net result per hour
The chart tends to produce one useful rule: stop trading the hours with negative net, even if they feel exciting.
Which hours came out as the most expensive once every cost was counted?