I’ve been nervous about trading during major news releases. Everyone talks about how spreads blow out when banks are making their moves, and I keep thinking about how much that’s going to cost me.
Then it hit me - I have GlobeGain rebates working in my favor. So if the spread widens from 0.8 pips to maybe 3-4 pips during a news event, the rebate is still being calculated, right? That means the rebate is at least softening the blow even if I’m paying more.
But I’m not sure how much the rebate actually helps when things get volatile. Like, does a 0.5 pip rebate even make a dent when I’m eating 3 pips of spread? Or does the rebate calculation change during high volatility?
For anyone trading during news events on HFM - are you finding that rebates make it less painful cost-wise, or are spreads just too wide for the cashback to matter?
Rebates help but avoid news spikes entirely.
Wide spreads kill profits regardless of rebates.
Your rebate is calculated on your lot size regardless of spread width. So during news when the spread hits 3-4 pips, your rebate still applies at the same rate.
The problem is this: a 0.5 pip rebate on a 0.8 pip base spread saves you 60%. A 0.5 pip rebate on a 3.5 pip wide spread saves you only 14%. The rebate helps but doesn’t solve the slippage issue.
If you must trade news, use smaller position sizes. Your rebate percentage stays the same but your total cost exposure gets lower. Better to make 1% on a smaller trade than lose 5% on a large one trying to chase a news move.
I tested trading a few news events and honestly the rebate is nice but it doesn’t change the fact that spreads are punishing during volatility.
What I do now is just avoid major news. My rebate works better when I’m trading in normal conditions anyway. No point fighting for a few pips when the cost is already stacked against me.
Rebates help a bit during news but spreads get crazy anyway.
I tested this directly during the last few Fed announcements. Spreads went from 1.2 pips on EUR/USD to almost 4 pips in seconds. My rebate still calculated normally, so it lowered my effective cost.
But here’s the reality - the rebate offset maybe 15-20% of the extra spread cost. It helped, but not enough to make the trade actually profitable for me. The volatility did more damage than the rebate could fix.
Now I size down during news if I do trade it. The rebate works better on normal spreads. During crisis spreads, it’s just damage control.