I’ve been looking at HFM for a few months now and I keep seeing their spreads listed, but when I look at actual broker comparisons, the cost picture gets murky fast. I know GlobeGain offers rebates, but I’m struggling to figure out how to calculate my true cost per trade.
Like, if HFM shows a 0.8 pip spread on EUR/USD and I get a rebate back through GlobeGain, how do I actually track that rebate and compare it fairly against what other brokers charge? Are people just adding up the spread and then subtracting the monthly rebate? Or is there a better way to see if HFM is actually cheaper once you factor in the cashback?
I want to move past just looking at advertised spreads and actually understand my net cost. Has anyone found a reliable method to do this comparison?
Track each trade and rebate separately. Spread minus rebate equals real cost.
Most traders don’t bother. Just pick decent broker and move on.
The simplest approach is to log your trades in a spreadsheet. Record the spread you paid, the rebate amount from GlobeGain, and calculate the net cost per lot. After 50 to 100 trades, you’ll see your actual average cost.
Don’t just look at advertised spreads. What matters is what you actually paid. HFM’s 0.8 pip spread on EUR/USD is real, but your rebate timing matters. If you get rebates monthly and trade daily, your effective cost changes throughout the month.
Compare HFM’s net cost to one or two other brokers the same way. Real data beats marketing claims every time.
I track mine in a simple Google Sheet. Every trade gets logged with the spread, then I add the rebate when it hits my account.
After a month or so, you can see the pattern. HFM’s spreads are decent, and the GlobeGain rebates do add up, but it takes actual numbers to see if it’s really better for your style of trading.
The comparison gets easier once you stop relying on advertised rates and just look at what you actually paid.
Spreadsheet is the way. Track spread per trade, add rebate when you get it, divide total by number of lots.
Most people don’t track this. They should though because it actually matters for costs.
I’ve been doing this for years now and it’s worth the effort. What I found is that HFM’s spreads stay relatively consistent, which makes the math easier. The rebates come through monthly, so I track them separately from the spread cost.
Once I started doing this, I realized I was paying less than I thought because the rebates were offsetting more than I expected. The key is being consistent with how you record it. Don’t mix trade data with rebate data, keep them separate, then combine them at the end of the month.
This approach also helped me compare HFM fairly against other brokers I was considering. Numbers don’t lie if you track them properly.