I’m testing short-term trades around CPI and NFP on Exness and trying to figure out if the strategy still makes sense once spreads widen and fills slip.
If you kept logs on the last few releases, can you share:
Did rebates make a meaningful difference to your final PnL, or did slippage overwhelm it?
Rebates help but news slippage eats profit.
For news trading, journal exact timestamps and compare your fill price to the price at click. Record spread every second for the first minute. My last CPI on EURUSD peaked near 4.5 pips, average near 2.2 in minute one. Slippage was about 0.9 pip per side on market orders. Rebate covered roughly 0.2 to 0.3 pip in value per lot, which did not offset the slippage. Limit orders helped but fill rate dropped. If your edge is under 3 pips, the widened spread and slippage can wipe it out.
I reduced my size during the first minute and focused on the pullback instead of the first spike.
Rebate helps a bit, but the main win was better entries after the initial burst.
During CPI I saw EURUSD spreads hit 4 pips. My rebate was small compared to slippage. I skip the first minute now.
I logged three NFPs with small positions. Max spread sat between 3.5 and 5.2 pips in the first 30 seconds. Average slippage around 0.6 to 1.1 pips per order on market entries.
Rebates shaved a fraction of a pip per lot, helpful but not enough to fix a bad fill. What worked better was entering on the second wave after the initial burst and using smaller size. That reduced slippage and made the rebate a nice extra instead of a bandage.