I’ve noticed something that’s been bothering me about my current broker. During major economic announcements, my spreads blow up. I’m talking EUR/USD jumping from 0.8 pips to 3 or 4 pips in seconds. It’s brutally expensive if you’re in the trade when it happens.
I started wondering if this is normal or if some brokers actually handle volatility better. I know spreads widen during news—that’s expected. But do they widen the same way across all brokers, or do some of them manage liquidity better and keep spreads tighter during those events?
I’m trying to figure out if switching to a different broker would actually improve my execution quality during news, or if I’m just chasing a problem that doesn’t have a real solution. Some people swear their broker handles volatility way better than others, but I can’t tell if that’s real or just market luck.
Has anyone actually measured this? Like, do you track the spreads you get on specific news events across different brokers? What’s your experience been with execution during economic data releases?
Spreads widen during news, but quality brokers minimize the spike and recover faster. Here’s how to test this.
Log into your broker’s platform 30 minutes before a major announcement (NFP, rate decision, GDP). Record spread behavior: opening spread, maximum spread during the first 10 seconds, how long it takes to normalize. Do this on the same currency pair across brokers.
ECN brokers usually perform better here because they pass the liquidity issue to you directly instead of hiding it. Variable spreads also matter—some brokers freeze their feeds or spike artificially. That’s a warning sign.
I tested three brokers during the last Fed announcement. Broker A went from 0.9 to 2.1 pips and recovered in 8 seconds. Broker B went to 4.2 pips and stayed wide for 20 seconds. That’s a huge difference in cost. Broker B isn’t necessarily bad, just not suitable for news trading. Pick based on whether you actually trade through news events.
I track this seriously because news trading was killing my account before I figured this out.
I compared my current broker against two alternatives during the last three major announcements. My broker’s spreads widen but stay predictable. One of the others I tested had spreads that spiked unpredictably—sometimes 1.5 pips, sometimes 5 pips for the same event. That inconsistency is worse than just wider spreads.
The best brokers I’ve used also have a thing where they show you the bid-ask spread visibly. If you can’t see the actual spread, they might be hiding slippage. That matters during volatility.
If you trade through news events regularly, this is worth the effort to test. If you avoid news entirely, it probably doesn’t matter as much. Measure it yourself for two weeks and you’ll know if switching makes sense.
I noticed this too. My first broker was awful during news—spreads doubled or tripled. Switched to another and the difference was noticeable. Spreads still widened but recovered faster.
I think it depends on their liquidity providers and how they manage orders during volatile times. Not all brokers can handle it the same way.
Might be worth testing a new broker’s demo during the next major announcement to see how they behave. That’s usually free and shows you exactly what you’d get.
Some brokers handle news better than others. Test during a real announcement rather than guessing.
Test with demo before choosing based on this.
Most freeze spreads instead of widening them.