I’ve been trading with HFM for about 4 months now and I’m trying to get a real picture of what my spreads are actually costing me. I know they advertise competitive spreads, but when I look at my statement, I can’t figure out if I’m getting a fair deal compared to other brokers.
The confusing part is that spreads change depending on market conditions, news events, and the instrument I’m trading. EUR/USD might be 0.9 pips one day and 2.5 pips during a central bank announcement. I’ve started tracking my trades, but without a clear benchmark, I don’t know if this is normal or if I should be looking elsewhere.
I also started using GlobeGain rebates a couple weeks ago, and I’m starting to see how they offset some of the spread cost. But I’m wondering - is there a practical way to calculate my true effective spread after rebates? And how do other traders here actually compare HFM’s costs to what they’d pay at other brokers?
What’s your honest experience with HFM’s spreads? Are they reasonable for the account type you’re using?
Calculate your effective spread like this: total spread cost divided by total lots traded equals your average spread per lot. Then subtract your GlobeGain rebate percentage.
For example, if you paid 500 pips in spreads on 100 lots, that’s 5 pips average per lot. If GlobeGain returns 0.5 pips, your real cost is 4.5 pips per lot.
HFM’s spreads are competitive but not exceptional. During news, they widen more than some ECN brokers. The key is whether your trading strategy profits exceed your total costs. If you’re scalping, every tenth of a pip matters. If you’re swing trading, HFM works fine.
Track spreads in a spreadsheet regularly not just once.
I’ve been tracking my HFM spreads for a few months too, and it really does make a difference when you can see the pattern.
Most days EUR/USD stays around 0.9 to 1.2 pips for me. During news releases, yeah, they do spike to 2-3 pips, but that doesn’t happen every day.
The rebates help a lot. I’m getting back roughly 0.3-0.4 pips on average, which definitely adds up over a month of trading. Not life-changing, but it’s money back in my pocket.
Been with HFM for a while now. Their spreads are fine but not the tightest you’ll find.
What matters more is consistency. I prefer knowing a spread will be around 1 pip most of the time rather than hoping for 0.8 but getting 1.5 half the time. HFM is pretty stable on that front.
GlobeGain rebates do help offset the cost. I’ve been calculating my true cost per trade since I signed up, and the rebate basically covers about 15-20% of my monthly spread costs. That’s worth having the account.
HFM spreads seem fine to me. Not the cheapest but not expensive. With rebates they look better.