Overlooked places where markup hides on top of the interbank feed
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 7:43 pm
The spread on the screen is only one place a broker can earn from the feed. For a scalper aiming at a few pips, the small stuff stacks up fast. A short list of spots worth checking:
- Raw versus standard pricing. Some brokers sell the same underlying feed with a tight spread plus a commission, or a wider spread with no commission. Neither is cheaper by default. It depends on how many trades get taken and how big they are.
- Markup that changes by session. A spread that looks fine at the London open can be noticeably fatter late in the New York day, and the markup may be part of that, not just thin liquidity.
- Markup on the swap side. Holding overnight, the rate quoted is usually the interbank swap adjusted by the broker, and the adjustment can be larger than expected.
- Asymmetric markups. Some feeds widen one side more than the other, which shows up as buys filling worse than sells on average over a long sample.
- Slippage that only goes one way. Occasional negative slippage is normal. If positive slippage never appears across hundreds of fills, the execution model deserves a closer look.
- Account type differences. Two accounts at the same broker can sit on different markup tiers, and a promotional account may carry a wider markup than the plain one.
The tricky bit is that none of this is wrong or hidden, strictly speaking. It is in the pricing model. But it only becomes visible when cost per round trip is measured in pips across a large number of trades, split by time of day and by direction.
A simple spreadsheet of all-in cost per round turn, grouped by session, tells far more than any brochure comparison between brokers.
Which of these have you actually measured on your own account, and which one surprised you most?
- Raw versus standard pricing. Some brokers sell the same underlying feed with a tight spread plus a commission, or a wider spread with no commission. Neither is cheaper by default. It depends on how many trades get taken and how big they are.
- Markup that changes by session. A spread that looks fine at the London open can be noticeably fatter late in the New York day, and the markup may be part of that, not just thin liquidity.
- Markup on the swap side. Holding overnight, the rate quoted is usually the interbank swap adjusted by the broker, and the adjustment can be larger than expected.
- Asymmetric markups. Some feeds widen one side more than the other, which shows up as buys filling worse than sells on average over a long sample.
- Slippage that only goes one way. Occasional negative slippage is normal. If positive slippage never appears across hundreds of fills, the execution model deserves a closer look.
- Account type differences. Two accounts at the same broker can sit on different markup tiers, and a promotional account may carry a wider markup than the plain one.
The tricky bit is that none of this is wrong or hidden, strictly speaking. It is in the pricing model. But it only becomes visible when cost per round trip is measured in pips across a large number of trades, split by time of day and by direction.
A simple spreadsheet of all-in cost per round turn, grouped by session, tells far more than any brochure comparison between brokers.
Which of these have you actually measured on your own account, and which one surprised you most?