Understanding Forex Spreads and Their Impact on Copy Trading

What Are Spreads?

The spread is the difference between the buy (ask) and sell (bid) price of a currency pair. It's essentially the cost of entering a trade, and it directly affects your copy trading profits.

How Spreads Affect Copy Trading

When a leader opens a trade, they experience their broker's spread. When the same trade is copied to your account, you experience your broker's spread. If your broker has wider spreads, your entry price will be slightly worse than the leader's.

Example

Leader buys EURUSD at 1.0850 (2 pip spread). Your broker copies at 1.0852 (4 pip spread). You're already 2 pips behind before the trade moves. Over hundreds of trades, this adds up.

Choosing a Low-Spread Broker

Check our broker comparison to find accounts with competitive spreads. ECN and Raw Spread accounts typically offer the tightest spreads but charge a commission per lot.

Spread Tips for Copy Traders

• Match your broker to the leader's broker when possible - same spreads, same entry
• Avoid cent accounts for gold trading - they often have much wider spreads
• Trade during London/New York sessions when spreads are tightest

Visit the leaderboard to see which leaders consistently overcome spread costs with profitable strategies.