A tight spread makes opportunities look bigger than they are

[Shadow Trader]

When the spread on EURUSD drops to a tenth of a pip, the cost of trading seems to disappear. Every small wiggle looks like a trade worth taking. The brain reads the low cost as permission.

What changes is the number of trades, not the quality. More entries get taken, setups get looser, and the total cost, though small per trade, adds up through volume alone.

The expected profit per trade still depends on the edge. A tight spread helps, but it doesn't create one.

Keeping a trades-per-hour limit is a quiet way to counter it. If the count jumps whenever the spread tightens, the cost is acting as a lure instead of a filter.

There's a flip side. A wide spread makes people more selective, which is why some of the best sessions happen when conditions are a bit uncomfortable.

Comparing trade counts on tight-spread days against wide-spread days shows how much the spread drives behaviour. The difference is often bigger than expected.

Does a tighter spread lead to better trading or just more trading?