Spreads, commissions and overnight fees

Every market has two prices. The bid is what you can sell at, and the ask is what you can buy at. The gap between them is the spread.

You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so a trade that opens and closes at an unchanged market loses the spread once. That's why a new trade starts slightly in the red.

On Runtiler your price is the real market's spread plus a small markup, added half to the bid and half to the ask. The real spread moves with the market: it's tight in busy hours and wider in quiet hours and around big news.

A commission is a fee charged on each side of a trade: once when it opens and once when it closes. On Runtiler it applies to Raw accounts only and is a percentage of the trade's value. It comes off your balance at each fill. Closing part of a position pays commission on the part you close.

The overnight fee is the cost of holding a position from one day to the next. On Runtiler it's charged for each 00:00 UTC a position is open, as a percentage of its value at that moment. It's the same on Standard and Raw.

• A position opened and closed between two midnights pays none.
• A Friday-to-Monday hold crosses three midnights, so it pays three nights.
• Crypto trades every day, so it pays every night, weekends included.
• There's no triple charge on any weekday. Each midnight is one night.
• A market that is closed at midnight still charges, on its last price.

A Standard account pays a slightly wider spread and no commission. A Raw account pays a tighter spread, usually the real market's own, plus a commission. Here's what each costs today, per $100,000 of trade value. The round trip is one open and one close; both types also pay the real market's spread.

In percent: Standard adds 0.01% to 0.04% to the spread depending on the market. Raw's commission is 0.035% each side on crypto, 0.0035% ($3.50 per $100,000) on metals, oil and forex, and 0.02% on stocks. On the indices, Raw has no commission and the same markup as Standard. The exact numbers for each market are in Spreads and commissions and Overnight fees.

Say you buy 0.5 lot of gold at $4,000, worth $200,000, and hold it for three nights.

On a $50,000 account, that's about 0.2% of the balance either way. Notice that the three nights cost far more than opening and closing.

The account type matters most when you trade often. The overnight fee matters most when you hold.

Frequent short trades

Say you make 10 round trips a day in 0.5 lot of gold ($200,000 each), always closed before midnight, for 20 trading days.

• Standard: $20 a trip, $200 a day, $4,000 over the 20 days.
• Raw: $14 a trip, $140 a day, $2,800 over the 20 days.

The $1,200 difference is 2.4% of a $50,000 account, a big share of a typical 8% target. Here Raw is clearly the better fit.

Now the same habit in Bitcoin: 10 round trips a day in 0.2 BTC at $100,000 ($20,000 each).

• Standard: $4 a trip, $40 a day, $800 over 20 days.
• Raw: $14 a trip, $140 a day, $2,800 over 20 days.

On crypto the answer flips: Standard costs far less.

Fewer, longer trades

Say you make four gold trades a month at 0.5 lot, each held for five nights.

• Opening and closing: $80 on Standard, $56 on Raw. A $24 difference.
• Overnight: 5 nights at $30, $150 a trade, $600 a month on either type.

For a trader who holds, the account type changes little. The overnight fee is the cost to plan for, and the way to lower it is to hold for fewer nights or with less size.

The short version

• You trade often in metals, oil or forex: Raw is cheaper today.
• You trade often in crypto or stocks: Standard is cheaper today.
• You trade the indices: the two cost the same.
• You hold for days: the overnight fee matters more than the account type.

• Trade when the market is busy. The real spread is usually tightest when the main trading centres for that market are open.
• Mind midnight. If you'd close a trade at 23:50 UTC and reopen it at 00:10, holding through costs a night's fee; closing and reopening costs a round trip. Know which is cheaper on your market.
• Count costs in your plan. A strategy that only just reaches the target before costs won't reach it after them.
• Fewer, better trades usually cost less than many small ones.

The account type, Standard or Raw, is one of a challenge's rules, set when it's made. It's shown before you buy and doesn't change after. If you know which markets you'll trade, check the account type against the table above before you choose a challenge. Standard and Raw accounts has the rule itself.