I’m trying to make a solid decision about brokers and I’m realizing the comparison is trickier than I thought. On the surface, HFM looks like it has decent spreads, but when I dig into the numbers, I’m not sure if those spreads are actually better than what competitors offer, especially when GlobeGain rebates get factored in.
Let me break down what I’m looking at. HFM’s EUR/USD spread is usually around 0.9-1.0 pips. I get rebates through GlobeGain that reduce that to roughly 0.4-0.5 pips net. But I also looked at another broker with 1.2 pip spreads and no rebate integration.
On paper, HFM wins. But I want to know if I’m missing something. Are there hidden factors that make one actually better than the other? What should I actually be testing before I commit to one broker long term?
How have you compared HFM to other brokers when rebates were involved? What actually made you decide which one to stick with?
I ran this comparison about a year ago with three different brokers.
Here’s what actually matters: track your real trades for 2-3 weeks on each broker. Not theoretical spreads, actual execution prices. I found that HFM’s spreads were honest, but another broker had faster execution which saved me slippage most of the time.
When I calculated total cost per trade (spread + commission - rebate + slippage), HFM with GlobeGain came out ahead by about 10%. Not massive, but enough to justify staying.
The rebates definitely tilted the decision in HFM’s favor. Without them, the other broker would’ve been cheaper. So yes, GlobeGain rebates can be the deciding factor, but only if execution quality is similar.
This is the right question to ask.
Don’t trust advertised spreads. Test with real positions. Open small accounts at both brokers, trade the same strategy for 30 days, then compare your actual fill prices and final costs.
When comparing with rebates:
- Calculate your average spread on each broker
- Subtract the GlobeGain rebate from HFM
- Add any commissions from either broker
- Note the slippage (difference between quoted and filled price)
- Total cost per lot = final number
HFM usually comes out ahead if rebates are applied consistently. But if the other broker’s execution is cleaner, it might offset the spread advantage.
The tricky part is that spreads vary so much depending on market conditions. When I compared HFM to another broker a while back, I realized just looking at the advertised spreads wasn’t telling me the full story.
What helped me was opening a demo account at both and trading my actual strategy for a couple of weeks. That showed me real execution costs, including those moments when spreads widened unexpectedly.
Once I factored in GlobeGain rebates on the HFM side, HFM came out slightly ahead overall. But it was close enough that if the other broker had better customer support or platform features, I could’ve gone either way.
Best way is to just test both with small trades for a few weeks. Rebates help HFM but real execution matters more than the numbers say.
Test both for two weeks. Real fills matter more than quoted spreads actually.