The Types of Trading Costs with Examples

Types of Trading Costs: Commissions

Commissions are a common trading cost that most traders deal with. Basically, it is the fee your broker charges you for placing trades.

Commission costs have become cheaper and cheaper over the years. In the US and Canada, some brokers offer no-commission trading. You can expect to pay between about $1 and $15 per trade with stock brokers that do charge commissions.

Futures, forex, and options brokers typically charge commissions by the lot or contract. Commissions on these products typically range from $0.60 to $7 per contract or lot.

For example, the commission on an options contract is $0.60 with TradeStation and a futures contract is $1.50. Forex brokers charge anywhere from $1 to $7 per standard lot. That’s a huge difference in cost, so it pays to shop around.

Cryptocurrencies typically have a commission cost near 0.1% of the transaction value. Brokers/exchanges charging more are high-fee while brokers charging less are low-fee. Commissions are typically charged on entries and exits.

Fixed commission costs are comparatively much more expensive on a small trading account than on a large one. For example, a person with a $100 account paying a $5 commission just lost 5% of their account. The investment/trade now needs to return 5% just to get the trade to break even.

When someone with a $10,000 account pays a $5 commission, the cost is negligible, only 0.05%. But if you have a small account, trade sparingly if paying fixed commission costs that are more than 0.5% of your account in percentage terms.

Keep commission low by using a low-cost broker like Charles Schwab or E*TRADE.

Types of Trading Costs: Spreads

The spread is another cost that all traders face at certain times. Some brokers who don’t charge commissions compensate for this by increasing the spread for traders.

The spread is the difference between the bid and ask prices. The bid is the highest price someone has posted a visible order to buy at. The offer, or ask, is the lowest price someone has posted a visible order to sell at.

If you want to buy an asset right now, you need to buy at the ask price, because that is where someone is willing to sell. You can post an order at a lower price, but you may not get it filled if no one is currently willing to sell at that price.

If you want to sell right now, you need to sell at the bid price. You can sell at a higher price, but it is unknown if the order will fill as no one is buying at a higher price currently. The spread in most actively traded stocks is $0.01. The bid may be 50.12 and the offer is 50.13.

If you bought at 50.13, and then changed your mind and sold at 50.12, you would lose $0.01 per share without the price moving. That makes the spread a cost. Some forex and CFD brokers increase the spread, which is how they make money. They may still charge a commission or they may not.

For example, a stock CFD provider may increase the spread to $0.1 on the stock above (instead of $0.01). While the actual stock on the stock exchange is showing a bid and offer of 50.12 by 50.13, the CFD broker may show a price of 50.07 by 50.17. Now, if you buy at the offer, the price has to move $0.1 just for the position to get back to breakeven.

The spread is a cost you incur on your trade. Ideally, you want to trade with the lowest spread possible, and the lowest commissions possible, or the best combination of the two. This goes for stocks, futures, crypto, or any other market.

Types of Trading Fees: Data Feeds

Data feed fees are what exchanges charge for accessing live prices. Data fees are often charged on futures, stocks, and options, but not on forex or cryptocurrencies.

This fee isn’t always visible, as some brokers don’t charge you the fee directly; they just include it in the commissions/spreads they charge. Fixed fee brokers often don’t charge a data feed fee, but some may. Low-cost variable fee brokers (meaning that you pay more or less depending on the value of the trade) often pass this fee along to you each month.

For example, accessing New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) live stock price data is typically $16 per month for a non-professional trader, and $70 per month for an investment professional (in the business of trading/investments). Your broker may pass this fee on to you, or it may not.

When you set up a trading account, you will often be asked which assets you wish to trade. You will only pay data fees on markets on you access. And again, only some brokers charge such fees.

With many different exchanges, each charging a different monthly fee, it is best to check with the broker if there will be monthly fees, and how much, based on the markets you want to trade.

Trading Fees: Charting, Research, and Platform Costs

There are optional fees for charting, platform, and research tools, but quite often these can be avoided if desired.

Your broker will provide you with a trading platform, charts, and some research tools in exchange for you paying them commissions or spreads.

While the broker may seem great in terms of its costs, you may not like its platform, research tools, or charts. In this case, you can opt to pay for additional research tools, or a different charting or trading platform. This is optional, but many traders do end up purchasing additional tools.

For me, personally, I like TradingView charts, as they are much more accurate than the charts provided by my brokers. This costs me extra money each year, but for me, it is worth it. I also pay for scanning software so I can find stocks that meet very specific parameters.

Additional software can easily run you hundreds per month, so plan accordingly. However, avoid paying too much when you start out. Get additional tools only when necessary, and only if you believe they will help your profits grow.

Trading Fees: Withdrawals and Inactivity Fees

Withdrawal and inactivity fees are often buried in the fine print on a broker’s website. They are another cost of trading because they cut into your capital or your profits.

Withdrawal fees are either a fixed cost for withdrawing funds, or a percentage of the transaction. If you wire funds out of your account, expect to pay $25 to $45, while electronic transfers are often cheaper.

Using a payment service may end up costing you up to 4% of the amount you are transferring. Some brokers don’t charge anything for withdrawals. This is definitely a fee you want to investigate before opening an account.

Inactivity fees are usually deducted from the account following a period of several months where no trades have been placed. Inactivity fees are usually either a flat fee such as $25 per month, or a fixed percentage of the account, such as 1% per month. These fees vary by broker.

Types of Trading Costs: Management fees

A management fee typically applies to investments. If you give funds to someone else to manage, they will typically charge a management fee.

One of the most common types of management fees is when you buy an exchange traded fund (ETF). The ETF is tracking some other asset or benchmark, and owners of the ETF pay a fee each year. ETFs fees range from 0.01% to as high as 1% depending on how complex the fund is to manage.

Mutual funds typically have higher fees than ETFs, and could cost 1% or more per year to be invested in them. Some brokers offer their own managed products. Essentially, they trade or invest for you. Since they are doing the work, expect to pay a fee.

If you want someone else managing your money, go with low-cost index ETFs. These ETFs track major indices like the S&P 500 and have a long history of averaging about 10% per year, which beats the returns of most professional money-managers who are charging higher fees.