I’ve been trying to figure out which broker gives me better value, but I keep getting confused about what I’m really paying. Everyone talks about spreads, but when I add in commissions, swaps, and then subtract the GlobeGain rebates, the math gets messy.
Let me break down what I’m trying to understand. On AvaTrade, I see spreads around 1.5 pips for EUR/USD. On eToro, it looks cheaper at maybe 1 pip. But eToro also has a percentage-based fee that AvaTrade doesn’t mention upfront. Then when I factor in the rebates from GlobeGain, which one actually costs me less per trade?
I’ve read that some traders just focus on the spread and ignore everything else, but that seems like it misses half the picture. I want to know how experienced traders here actually think about this. Do you work backwards from total trading costs? Do you test both brokers with small positions first? Or is there a formula that just makes sense once you see it?
What’s your actual process for comparing net costs between two brokers?
Calculate total cost per lot: spread plus commission minus rebate. That’s your true cost.
For EUR/USD, AvaTrade at 1.5 pips with a 0.5 pip rebate costs you 1 pip per round trip. eToro at 1 pip with no rebate listed costs you the full pip, but eToro charges a percentage fee on larger positions that often balances the tight spreads.
The real difference comes from execution quality. A broker that slips you 1 pip on entry costs more than any spread difference. Test both with 0.1 lot positions for a week. Track your actual entry and exit prices against the market price at that exact moment. That data tells you more than any advertised spread ever will.
I spent months comparing AvaTrade and eToro last year. The rebate math looked good on paper, but what actually mattered was slippage during my trade entry.
Here’s what I found: AvaTrade’s spreads stayed consistent, but eToro’s tightened during off-peak hours and widened during news. My net cost on eToro during quiet times was better, but during volatile moves, I lost more to slippage than the spread difference cost me.
I ended up splitting trades between both. Use eToro for my regular swing trades (better spreads when markets are calm) and AvaTrade for news events (more predictable, even if spreads widen). The GlobeGain rebates on both combined cover about 20% of my monthly costs now.
The calculation itself is pretty simple once you sit down and write it out.
Take your typical lot size and count how many round-trip trades you do in a week. Multiply that by:
(broker spread + any commission) - your rebate per trade
Do that math for both brokers, then multiply by 4 weeks. That gives you a real monthly cost comparison.
What I found helpful was tracking this for a month on both platforms with the same strategy. The numbers on paper can look different from what you actually pay when you’re in live trades.
Spread plus fee minus rebate equals real cost.
Test both brokers for a month with small positions. Track what you actually pay, not what the website says.