What's the average pippage?

[xorrex]

I know forex trades don't have commissions, but they do have the build in spread, and sometimes other slippage.

Should I plan on giving up 5 points both ways, on the buy and the sell? So my cost per trade is going to be about 10 pips?

Or does the spread work in your favor half time - making the cost only 5 pips total per trade?

I read somewhere that the actual fills somtimes work in your favor.

thx!

[doragio]

Most brokers have spreads between 4-7 pips depending on the broker, currency and account size, though 5 pips about average.

You only pay the spread once; open opening the contract you're automatically down the spread and you don't have to pay another spread once you close it. There are some brokers that do charge 10 pips, which is ridiculous considering you could get it far cheaper.

However, I noticed that in addition to spreads, slippage is often more important cause there are some instances where my stops didn't trigger with some brokers.