The spread in forex refers to the fee that brokerage companies charge for facilitating transactions in the international financial markets. The difference between the purchasing and selling prices is represented by a transaction charge called the forex spread. When exchanging currencies, at a bank, for example, the selling price is greater than the buying price, leaving a gap known as the spread.
The highest price a trader will pay for an item is known as the bid price, whereas the greatest amount a seller will accept as payment for an item is the ask price. There are several other market definitions for spreads. For instance, differences between two periods might be referred to as a spread in the futures market.
Spreads are crucial to the foreign exchange market and are the main source of income for most courtiers forex. All forex and CFD brokers don’t charge a commission. Instead, they use the spread to generate revenue. As a result, the spread is an important factor to consider while looking for an online broker.

Types of Spreads
Fixed spreads
Regardless of how volatile the market is overall, this spread is fixed by the broker and remains unchanged. They are preferred by traders who use automated systems and scalping strategies, despite being less common among brokers.
Fixed spread forex trading provides stability in times of extreme volatility and little liquidity. Knowing the predetermined spread size helps traders make informed trading decisions using automated systems.
Floating Spreads
Due to their ability to adapt to changing market circumstances, floating spreads are the most popular type. They change within a range. In times of major volatility, they typically remain within 4-5 points but can expand to 50-60 points.
Trading with floating spreads offers several advantages. Variable spreads are low during busy trading periods and only increase after major market fluctuations. They also provide a potentially seamless transaction execution, with the only potential risk being slippage. Even in big currency pairs, there may be periods of quiet market conditions when there is no spread.

What factors affect the forex spread?
Market volatility can affect the forex spread, which can lead to fluctuations. For instance, significant economic data can influence the spread by causing a currency pair to gain or weaken. Currency pairs may become less liquid in a turbulent market, which will cause the spread to increase.
Wider spreads can be possible, so keep a close eye on forex economic calendars and stay ahead of market news. You can accurately anticipate if a currency pair’s volatility will rise and, therefore, whether you will experience a wider spread by remaining updated about the events that could make them less liquid. Unexpected economic data or breaking news, however, might be hard to anticipate.
There are probably smaller spreads during the main currency trading sessions in London, New York, and Sydney. The spread can be much less when there is an overlap, such as between the start of the New York session and the end of the London session. The gap is also affected by the overall supply and demand of currencies; for example, the value of the euro will rise if demand is strong.
Forex spread trading strategies
Traders forex can use an event-driven approach based on macroeconomic data to trade the narrowest spreads and profit from advantageous circumstances. For instance, traders might anticipate changes in the forex market and identify good entry and exit opportunities when starting a position by following the most recent trading news and economic updates. This is known as event-driven trading.
Using a trading indicator can help boost a forex spread strategy. To illustrate the spread’s relationship to the bid and ask prices, the forex spread indicator is frequently shown as a curve on a graph. This makes it easier to visualise the spread in a currency pair over time, with the spreads being narrower for the more liquid pairings and broader for the more exotic ones.
Additionally, there will be a smaller spread for popular currency pairs that contain the USD and are traded in large quantities. Even though some pairs have greater liquidity, spreads might still increase if the economy is volatile.

Forex scalping
Trading Forex may be quite interesting for investors. The importance of the forex spread and how to take advantage of low spreads must be understood for any forex scalping method to be successful, though.
Scalping in the forex market involves performing several small transactions over a few time frames, often between one and fifteen minutes, to profit from slight price swings in the market. A trader would aim for a 5-pip profit on a 1-minute transaction and a 10-pip profit on a 5-minute scalp.
Due to the small size of these transactions, it is crucial to select currency pairs with minimal spreads; otherwise, there won’t be any capital left when the trade closes. This is a fairly common trading method for many traders since the emphasis is on such little trades, which generates several possibilities during a single day.
Low-spread scalping strategies
Forex scalping strategies provide traders with a variety of options to profit from lower spreads. A forex currency pair may make a strong 25-pip move in either direction for a minute, then pull back 10 pip the next, fluctuate at this level for another five minutes, and then make another big 25-pip move over the following ten minutes.
A scalper is looking for this little movement, which typically takes place in the forex market over a few minutes. Scalping does offer a few advantages:
- Potential to generate more significant revenue than you can by executing positional transactions.
- There is no need to wait for an important trend to emerge.
- A lot of trading possibilities.
- There is no obligation to analyse the entire market.
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Ces informations ne doivent pas être considérées comme un conseil ou une recommandation d'investissement, mais uniquement comme une communication marketing.