CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Excess volatility increases risk further. Be cautious. Past performance is not an indication of future results.
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Cost first

Start here by pricing the trade, not by predicting it · Taiwan

A trade has a price tag before the market moves a single step. Four stages work that tag out, each finished by a check you can run on a demo screen tonight.

This page is a working order, not an explanation. Four stages, done in sequence, end with a figure written on paper: what one intended trade would cost to open, at the size intended, at the hour it would be opened. Each stage has a check that says it is finished, and none of them requires an opinion about where the price is going. Beginners who stall usually stalled at stage two, because a number of pips feels like an answer until it is multiplied by something.

Four stages, and the check that closes each

Work in this order. A stage without its check is still running.

  1. Find both quotes, not the one on the chart

    The line drawn across the screen is a convenience. The platform quotes two live figures, the higher one for buying and the lower one for selling, and an order is filled at one of them. Check: both figures read aloud and their difference written down in pips.

  2. Turn the gap into money

    Pips are not money until size is attached. On most US-dollar pairs one pip is worth about $10 on a standard lot of 100,000 units, and about $0.10 on a 0.01 lot. Multiply the gap by the pip value of the size you intend. Check: the cost of opening stated as an amount, not as a number of pips.

  3. Note the hour the figure was taken

    That gap is a live number, not a price list. It can tighten while a market is busy and widen while it is thin, around scheduled news, and at the daily rollover. The same instrument read twice in one day can carry two different tags. Check: the same instrument written down at two hours far apart, and the two figures compared.

  4. Price the nights, or decide there are none

    A position carried past the daily rollover can be charged a swap, and the charge repeats for every night it survives. A trade meant to close the same day has none of that; a trade left running has it every night. Check: the swap figure for the instrument located in the platform before an order exists — or a written line saying the position closes today.

What one finished line looks like

The four stages produce a single line of writing. Nothing in it is a forecast; every item is a figure that existed before the order did.

The heading of the line
Instrument, size, and the clock time the reading was taken. Without the time the line cannot be repeated tomorrow and compared.
The middle of the line
Both quotes as they stood, their difference in pips, and that difference multiplied into an amount at the chosen size.
The tail of the line
Either the word «intraday», meaning no night is planned, or the overnight figure multiplied by the number of nights the plan needs.
The last item, in brackets
Whether a commission line appeared on the ticket, and whether it is charged per side — because that one is paid twice on a round trip.

A page of such lines, written over a week, is worth more than any table copied from elsewhere: it describes the instrument as it actually quoted, at the hours you actually trade.

What a price tag does not buy

Costing a trade is arithmetic, and arithmetic has edges:

  • A known cost is not a known outcome. The tag says what the trade starts behind by. Nothing says where the price goes next, and anyone selling that answer is selling certainty that does not exist.
  • A cheap trade can still be a bad one. Size and the distance to your exit decide what being wrong costs — see risk basics.
  • The quoted figure is a starting point. Spreads move with the market; a figure copied from a table this morning is not the one on the ticket tonight.
  • Money you need for living does not belong here. Not rent, not savings you rely on, never borrowed money — see beginner mistakes.

This site is an independent guide, not a broker: it opens no accounts, holds no money and takes no documents.

An evening that costs nothing

A demo account carries virtual funds — $10,000 to start with — and quotes the same live figures as a funded one. Put one instrument up and keep a plain notebook, one line per reading: the time, the instrument, both quotes, the gap in pips, and the gap turned into money at the size you would have used.

Take the second reading hours later, on the same instrument. The two lines rarely match, and the distance between them is the lesson: the cost of a trade is a moving figure that is read, not remembered. Where the numbers come from is covered in what a broker does.

Questions asked with the ticket open

The trade went red the instant it opened. What broke?

Nothing. It opened at one quote and is valued at the other, so it starts the spread behind. The price has to cover that gap before the position is level.

Which of the two quoted numbers is mine?

The one under the direction taken. Buying fills at the higher figure and closes at the lower; selling first does the reverse.

The gap is wider tonight than it was this morning. Did something change?

The market did. A quoted spread is a live number that reflects how busy an instrument is at that moment, so it moves through the day.

Is a spread quoted in pips the whole cost?

Not on every account. Some place part of the charge in a separate commission instead, and a commission charged per side is paid twice on one round trip.

The position was left open overnight and the balance changed on its own. Why?

A swap can be applied when a position is carried past the daily rollover. The platform shows the figure for the instrument beforehand, and it repeats each night the position stays open.

How is a gap in pips turned into an amount?

By multiplying it by the pip value at the size traded — around $10 per pip on a standard lot of most US-dollar pairs, around $0.10 on a 0.01 lot. The arithmetic sits on the practice calculator.

Can any of this be worked out without depositing?

All of it. A demo quotes the same live figures with virtual money, so both quotes, the gap and the swap line can be read before anything is funded. See the demo guide.

Where do the words in these four stages come from?

Pip, lot, spread and swap are defined plainly in trading words; the contract they apply to sits in what a CFD is.

Where to go next

Account types

The same charge written two ways: inside the spread, or beside it.

Compare the forms

Your first trade

What happens between the click and the price you are filled at.

See the sequence

Practice calculator

Turn a gap in pips into a figure in money before an order exists.

Work it out

The four checks need a live ticket.

A demo account quotes real figures against virtual money: an email and a password to open it, no documents, no time limit, nothing deposited. The button opens the exness.com sign-up through a partner link.

Open a free demo at Exness