Been trading HFM for about 4 months now and I’m noticing something that’s been bugging me. During normal market hours, the spreads seem reasonable enough, but when major economic data drops or there’s Fed announcements, things get wild. I watched EUR/USD jump from 1.2 pips to almost 4 pips in seconds during yesterday’s inflation report.
I started looking into this more carefully because I realized I might be bleeding money without actually realizing it. The thing is, I signed up with GlobeGain to get some cashback, which helps offset some of the cost, but I’m wondering if I’m still getting hit harder than I should be.
What I’m trying to figure out is whether the spread widening during these events is just how it works everywhere, or if HFM is particularly aggressive about it. And more importantly, when the spreads do spike like that, is the rebate even making a meaningful dent in what I’m actually paying per trade?
Does anyone here track their actual costs including rebates during volatile periods? I want to know if I should be planning my trading around news events differently, or if I’m just being paranoid about this.
News spikes hit all brokers. Rebate helps but limit orders work better.
HFM spreads aren’t worse than others during volatility honestly.
What you’re seeing is normal market behavior, not HFM being predatory. Spreads widen during news because there’s less liquidity and higher uncertainty. That’s everywhere.
Here’s what actually helps: stop trading during the first 30 seconds after major data releases. The spread spike is temporary. Wait for volatility to settle, then enter with a limit order. Your true cost drops significantly when you avoid that chaos.
For your rebate question, calculate the math. If you’re trading EUR/USD with a 1.5 pip average spread and your rebate is 0.3 pips, you’re earning back 20% of your spread cost. That’s real money over 100+ trades a month. During news, even if spreads hit 4 pips, your rebate still applies - it just looks small because the spread itself is artificially wide.
All brokers widen spreads during news. HFM isn’t different here really.
Rebate helps but you need to avoid trading at the spike moment.
Have you checked what your rebate rate actually is on HFM? Some account types get better rates than others. I realized I was on a standard account when a silver account would have bumped my rebate from 0.25 to 0.4 pips. That tiny difference ended up being almost 60% more cashback per year.
As for the spread spikes, that’s market reality. But one thing that helped was switching to a different time zone to trade quieter sessions. My spreads during Asian hours were tighter, rebate applied the same way, and fewer news surprises. Might not work for your schedule but worth considering.