I’ve noticed that whenever a major economic announcement drops, my trading costs spike. The spreads widen, execution gets messy, and my usual edge seems to disappear.
Last month during the Fed rate decision, I watched HFM’s EUR/USD spread jump from 0.7 pips to nearly 3 pips in seconds. That single spike probably cost me around $30 across three trades. It was brutal.
I know volatile news events are part of trading, but I’m wondering if the problem is actually fixable. Are some brokers just better at keeping spreads stable during news? Or is this something you just have to expect and factor into your risk management?
And here’s the real question: if I’m using GlobeGain rebates, does that cashback actually make a dent when spreads are blown out like that? Or am I just trying to make myself feel better about a losing trade?
How do you guys handle news trading or do you just sit out until things calm down?
Spread widening during news is unavoidable. No rebate will completely offset it because the actual trading cost just got more expensive.
Here’s what actually works: most traders should avoid trading the first 2-3 minutes after major announcements. Wait for the initial shock to settle. The volatility is real, but so is the slippage. You’ll rarely find clean fills during that window.
If you must trade news, scale your position size down. A $30 spike on three trades means your risk was too high for that level of volatility. Trade half your normal size during news periods.
Rebates help, but they work on your normal trading cost baseline, not on disaster scenarios. A 0.4 pip rebate doesn’t save you when spreads are 3 pips wide. The math just doesn’t work.
Better strategy: let the news traders take the heat for five minutes, then trade the follow-through when spreads normalize. Catch the second wave of the move, not the first chaotic spike.
I learned this the hard way. I used to try to scalp news events thinking my edge would work. It didn’t.
The spread spike is real, execution gets delayed, and rebates won’t save you because the baseline cost of the trade is genuinely higher. You’re not getting robbed, the market is just more expensive at that moment.
What changed for me was accepting that news events aren’t my trading opportunity. I wait 5-10 minutes after announcements before I even consider entering. By then the spreads are back to normal and I can use my actual strategy.
A 0.4 pip rebate on a 3 pip spread is only 13% of the cost. That’s not helpful. It’s better to just avoid the scenario entirely.
The traders who make money on news are either scalping with huge accounts or using specialized algorithms. As a normal trader, your rebates and your strategy both work better when volatility is normal.
I just don’t trade during news releases anymore. It’s not worth the stress even if rebates are working.
When spreads widen that much, the rebate is a band-aid on a bigger problem. The real cost of the trade went up, and that’s on the market, not on your broker.
I just wait until things settle down and trade normally. Makes everything simpler.
Avoid news events first minutes spreads too wide anyway.
Yeah spreads blow out during news. Most people just wait it out and trade after. Rebates don’t really help when spreads are that messy.