I’m trying to understand exactly how much of my trading capital is getting eaten up by HFM fees each month, and I’m finding it harder than it should be.
I can see the spreads listed on their site, and I know about commissions if I use an ECN account, but I’m missing something about the complete picture. When people talk about using GlobeGain rebates to “reduce effective costs,” I’m not sure how that actually translates into my real situation.
Let’s say I’m doing 50 trades a month with an average position size. How do I calculate what percentage of my trading volume is actually being consumed by fees? And then once I apply a rebate from GlobeGain, how much does that percentage actually improve?
I feel like I should have a clearer way to track this instead of just guessing. Does anyone keep a spreadsheet or have a method to actually quantify what your fees are costing you as a percentage of your trading activity?
Total fees divided by total traded value equals your percentage.
Export your statement. Sum all fees. Do the math.
Simple calculation: add up all your spreads and commissions for a month, divide by total notional volume traded.
Example: 50 trades at 1 lot each on EUR/USD = 50 lots. Average spread is 1.2 pips, so 50 pips total in spread cost. That’s $500 on standard lots. Plus any commissions.
If your profit was $2,000, fees consumed 25% of gross gains.
With GlobeGain rebates at 0.3 pips per 1 lot, you’re getting $150 back. Now your effective fee cost is $350, which is 17.5% of your gross gains.
The real measure isn’t percentage of volume. It’s percentage of your profit. If fees are taking more than 20% of your monthly gains, you need a cheaper broker or better execution.
I track this monthly in a simple spreadsheet. I record every trade with the entry price, exit price, and what I paid in spreads and commissions.
At the end of the month, I add up the total fees and compare it to my net profit. For me, it usually comes out to around 15-20% of my gross trading gains before rebates.
Once I applied for GlobeGain, the rebate knocked it down to about 10%. That’s a real difference when you’re trying to build capital.
Just check your statement at the end of the month. See total fees charged and total trades made.
I spent months not tracking this properly, and it made my profit calculations worthless.
What I do now: every month I export my statement from HFM. I create a simple table with trade count, total volume, sum of spreads, sum of commissions, and total fees. Then I calculate fees as a percentage of total notional volume.
For my account, it usually comes to about 0.08-0.12% of volume in fees. Doesn’t sound like much, but on $50,000 monthly volume, that’s $40-60 in costs.
With GlobeGain rebates, I’m getting about 30-35% of that back depending on the month. So instead of $50 in costs, I’m paying $32.
Doesn’t move the needle alone, but combined with tight risk management, it adds up. The key is actually measuring it instead of assuming.