Costs, Spreads & FeesRaw PricingInterbank Spread
Raw Spread
The underlying market spread passed to the client without broker markup, normally paired with a commission.
What Raw Spread means
A raw spread account passes through the best bid and offer the broker receives from its liquidity providers with no markup added, and charges an explicit commission instead. On the most liquid majors this can mean spreads of a few tenths of a pip, and at times of peak liquidity the aggregated feed can briefly show zero or even a crossed quote before the aggregator resolves it. The broker's revenue moves from the price to a transparent per-lot fee.
The structure separates two things that a marked-up spread bundles together, which makes cost comparison easier: total cost equals the raw spread plus commission, and only that total is meaningful. Commission is typically quoted per side per standard lot or as a round turn figure, and traders should confirm which convention a broker is using before comparing offers. Because the commission is fixed while the spread floats, raw accounts tend to be cheaper for high-turnover strategies and roughly neutral for occasional traders.
Raw pricing is not a guarantee of any particular execution model. Passing through a raw spread says nothing on its own about whether an order is hedged externally or internalised, and a raw account can still show widening, slippage and partial fills, since those come from the underlying market rather than from the pricing structure. It also does not remove swap, conversion charges or any non-trading fees.
Worked example
A raw account shows EUR/USD at 0.1 pips and charges USD 3.50 per side per standard lot; on one lot the cost is about USD 1 of spread plus USD 7 round turn commission, roughly 0.8 pips all in.
Related terms
- SpreadThe difference between the bid and the ask price, and the most common way a forex broker is paid.
- CommissionAn explicit per-trade or per-lot fee charged by the broker in addition to, or instead of, a marked-up spread.
- MarkupThe amount a broker adds to a wholesale price or rate before showing it to the client, forming part of its revenue.
- ECN (Electronic Communication Network)An electronic venue that anonymously matches buy and sell orders from many participants in a shared order book.
- Total Cost of TradingThe complete cost of a trade or account, combining spread, commission, swap, slippage and non-trading fees.
Frequently asked questions
What does Raw Spread mean in forex trading?
The underlying market spread passed to the client without broker markup, normally paired with a commission.
How does Raw Spread work in practice?
The structure separates two things that a marked-up spread bundles together, which makes cost comparison easier: total cost equals the raw spread plus commission, and only that total is meaningful. Commission is typically quoted per side per standard lot or as a round turn figure, and traders should confirm which convention a broker is using before comparing offers. Because the commission is fixed while the spread floats, raw accounts tend to be cheaper for high-turnover strategies and roughly neutral for occasional traders.
What is an example of Raw Spread?
A raw account shows EUR/USD at 0.1 pips and charges USD 3.50 per side per standard lot; on one lot the cost is about USD 1 of spread plus USD 7 round turn commission, roughly 0.8 pips all in.
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