Raw Spread vs Standard Account: Which Costs Less?
A raw spread account gives you the market’s tight spread and charges a separate commission per lot. A standard account has no separate line item: the broker’s fee sits inside a wider spread. Neither is cheaper in general. The right one depends on how often you trade, how large your positions are and how much you value a simple cost you can read off the screen.
Below, we show the math on a single trade, explain who each structure suits, and list the costs that neither label tells you about.
TL;DR
- Raw spread: a tight, market-based spread plus a commission per lot. It usually suits scalpers and high-volume traders, as Benzinga’s account comparison also notes.
- Standard: the fee is built into a wider spread, with no commission to track. It suits beginners and traders who hold positions longer.
- The deciding number: add the spread and the commission, convert both to pips, and compare the all-in cost of one round trip.
- Headline spreads are not the whole bill. Overnight funding and execution quality also decide what you keep.
- At Mitra Markets: the Edge account charges $7 per lot in commission, and the Standard account carries a 1.0 pip markup.
Table of Contents
- How each account charges you
- A worked example: the cost of one lot
- Who should pick which
- What neither label tells you
- Our view on raw spread vs standard
- How to test the two accounts yourself
- Where Mitra Markets fits
- FAQ
- Sources
How each account charges you
Every forex trade has a cost at entry: the gap between the price you can buy at and the price you can sell at. That gap is the spread. Brokers earn money in two basic ways, and the account types are just the two ways of presenting it.
Raw spread accounts
A raw spread account passes you spreads close to the underlying wholesale market. Benzinga describes them as very close to 0.0 pips. The broker then adds a visible commission, usually quoted per lot traded. Some brokers call this account “ECN”, “zero spread” or “raw”. The labels vary, and the pricing logic is the same: low spread, plus a fee.
Standard accounts
A standard account folds the broker’s charge into the spread itself. Traders Union summarizes it this way: higher spreads, no extra commission, because the broker’s costs are built into the spread. You see one number and pay that number.
Side by side
| Raw spread | Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Tight, close to market | Wider, includes broker markup |
| Commission | Yes, per lot | Usually none |
| Cost visibility | Two numbers to add up | One number |
| Typical user | Scalpers, high-volume, algorithmic traders | Beginners, swing and position traders |
| Cost scales with | Lots traded | Lots traded, and spread widening |
A worked example: the cost of one lot
Pips and lots make this concrete. On EUR/USD, one standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, and one pip is worth about $10. Pip values differ on other pairs, so recalculate for what you trade.
Say the raw market spread on EUR/USD is 0.1 pip. This is an illustrative number, not a quote from any broker.
Raw spread account, using Mitra’s Edge commission of $7 per lot:
- Spread: 0.1 pip × $10 = $1
- Commission: $7
- All-in cost: about $8 per lot
Standard account, using Mitra’s 1.0 pip markup on the same underlying spread:
- Spread: 0.1 pip + 1.0 pip markup = 1.1 pips × $10 = $11
- Commission: none
- All-in cost: about $11 per lot
The break-even logic is simple. A $7 commission on a $10-per-pip pair equals 0.7 pip. If the raw account’s commission converts to fewer pips than the standard account’s markup, the raw account is cheaper on every lot. Here that is 0.7 pip against 1.0 pip.
Two cautions keep you honest. First, confirm whether a commission is quoted per side or per round trip, because it changes the arithmetic. Check the fee terms on the accounts page before you model your costs. Second, a broker’s standard account may be quoted differently from a raw one in other ways, such as available leverage or order handling, so compare the full terms and not just one row.
Why trade frequency changes everything
Commission is charged per lot, so it scales with volume. A markup scales with volume too, but it hides inside the spread, so you feel it less per trade and more when you add up a month of fills.
Imagine a scalper who trades 40 lots a month. Using the figures above, the gap is roughly $3 per lot, or $120 a month. A swing trader who places four lots a month sees a gap of about $12. The pricing model matters most to the person who clicks the most.
There is also a psychological side. When a commission appears as its own line, some traders find it easier to see exactly what each trade costs, and that can discipline over-trading. Others prefer not to have it. Neither is wrong.
Who should pick which
Choose raw spread if you
- scalp or trade short timeframes, where a fraction of a pip changes the odds of a trade
- run an expert advisor or algorithm that opens many positions
- trade larger lot sizes, so a markup in the spread becomes a large dollar amount
- are comfortable calculating cost in pips and dollars before you enter
Choose standard if you
- are new, and want one simple cost to understand
- trade a few times a week or less, and hold for days
- trade very small sizes, where a flat per-lot commission matters less in absolute terms
- value a cost that does not require you to run a calculation
Benzinga’s comparison reaches the same split: active scalpers and high-frequency traders tend to prefer the lower all-in cost of raw spread, while beginners and swing traders often favor the predictability of standard.
What neither label tells you
The account type decides how the entry cost is shown. It does not decide your total cost of trading, and it does not decide your results.
Overnight funding
If you hold CFD positions past the daily rollover, you pay or receive financing. The UK Financial Conduct Authority’s review of CFD providers, published in November 2025, found that many firms’ fair value assessments gave limited consideration to costs other than the spread. A broker with a very tight raw spread can still be expensive for a trader who holds positions for weeks. This is a UK regulator’s finding, but the cost mechanics apply to CFD traders everywhere. If you are a swing trader, compare financing rates as carefully as spreads.
Execution quality
A spread is only the quoted price. What matters is the price you actually get. The FCA’s 2014 action against FXCM UK, which it fined £4 million, concerned profits withheld from clients arising from the way slippage was handled. The lesson is not about one firm. It is that you should compare how a broker’s fills behave, including slippage in both directions, and not only its advertised spread. Keep a log of your fills against the prices on your screen for a few weeks.
You are trading against a dealer’s feed
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission points out that when you trade through a platform, app or dealer website, you connect to the dealer, which controls the prices and spreads you see. If you are in the United States, check that any firm you use is properly registered, and read the CFTC’s guidance before funding an account. Mitra Markets serves traders worldwide, and availability and rules depend on where you live.
Strategy still beats structure
Saving $3 a lot does not rescue a trade with no edge. Retail CFD and forex trading carries a high risk of loss, and regulators in several countries require firms to say so. Pick the cheaper structure for your style, then spend your effort on position sizing and risk limits. If you are unsure whether leveraged products suit your finances, speak to a licensed financial adviser in your country before you fund an account.
Our view on raw spread vs standard
We built Mitra Markets around one belief: retail traders should not be handed slower, murkier conditions than professionals get. That shapes how we think about this choice.
First, a cost you can see is a cost you can manage. That is why our pricing is published in plain numbers: $7 per lot of commission on the Edge account, and a 1.0 pip markup on the Standard account. You can put both into a spreadsheet before you deposit a cent.
Second, the spread is only half of the quality question. Our MitraNet™ technology is designed for execution under 30 milliseconds with direct access to Tier-1 liquidity. For a scalper, a tight quote that is gone before the order arrives is worth little. That is why we tell traders to measure fills, not just quotes, whichever account they choose.
Third, there is no shame in Standard. Many traders, especially those starting out, are better off with one number and no arithmetic. We would rather you start on the account you understand than on the one that looks cheapest in a comparison table.
Fourth, we have no minimum deposit requirement and offer instant deposits, so you can test either structure with a small live balance and watch your own numbers before committing more.
— Partners
How to test the two accounts yourself
A broker’s own example is not your result. Run this simple test.
- Record your last 30 days of trades. Note the instrument, lot size and holding time.
- Compute the monthly cost under both models. For each trade, use the spread and the commission or markup in pips, convert to dollars, then sum them.
- Add financing. If you hold overnight, include swap charges. They can outweigh the spread difference.
- Open the account that wins on paper, with a small balance. Trade your normal strategy at normal size.
- Compare actual fills to the screen price. Log slippage and requotes for two to four weeks.
- Switch if the numbers say so. An account type is not a lifetime decision.
The trade-off is rarely close for extremes: a high-frequency scalper will usually find raw spread cheaper, and an occasional trader will rarely feel the difference. The middle is where the test earns its keep.
Where Mitra Markets fits
Our trading accounts cover both structures. The Edge account suits traders who want market-based pricing with a $7 per lot commission. The Standard account suits those who prefer a single cost, with a 1.0 pip markup. You trade forex, commodities, indices and crypto CFDs from the markets we offer, on MetaTrader 5 with advanced charting and algorithmic trading support. There is no minimum deposit, and you can fund and withdraw instantly. Our Mitra Ascent rewards program gives something back on trading volume, which matters to active traders.
If you want to see how the platform handles execution, start with our platforms page, then choose the account that matches your numbers.
FAQ
Is a raw spread account better than a standard account?
Not automatically. A raw spread account tends to cost less per lot for frequent or large trades, because the commission is smaller than the markup it replaces. A standard account is easier to understand and can be perfectly adequate if you trade rarely.
Why does the standard account have no commission?
Because the broker’s fee is included in the spread. You pay it on every trade through a wider quote, rather than as a separate charge. At Mitra Markets, the Standard account carries a 1.0 pip markup.
Which account suits scalping?
Scalpers usually prefer raw spread, because small differences in entry cost are a large share of a short trade’s expected profit. Fast, consistent execution matters just as much, so measure your fills as well as the quoted spread.
What is a good spread for forex?
There is no single number, because it varies by pair, time of day and market conditions. Major pairs are typically tightest during busy sessions, and spreads can widen around news. Judge a spread as part of your all-in cost, including commission and overnight financing, and not on its own.
Sources
- Raw Spread vs. Standard Account for Forex Traders, Benzinga
- Raw Spread vs Standard Account, Traders Union
- Multi-firm review of contracts for difference providers’ provision of price and value, FCA
- The FCA fines FXCM UK £4 million for making ‘unfair profits’, FCA
- Forex Frauds, CFTC