Spread Markup

A spread markup is the amount a broker adds to the raw bid and ask prices received from its liquidity providers before showing quotes to clients. It is an implicit cost: nothing appears as a separate line on the statement, yet every trade pays it through a slightly worse entry and exit price. Accounts marketed as commission-free are generally funded this way, with the markup replacing an explicit fee. The size of the markup can differ by instrument, account type, and time of day, and it sits on top of the underlying market spread, which itself widens in thin liquidity or around news releases. Comparing brokers therefore means comparing markup plus commission together, never the quoted spread on its own. How to see it: if the raw market is 1.08420 / 1.08430 — a one-pip spread — and the platform shows 1.08415 / 1.08435, the broker has added half a pip on each side, a one-pip markup. Nothing on the statement names it. To estimate your own, compare the platform’s quote against an independent reference feed on the same pair at the same second, several times across a session. A markup that widens around news or at the rollover hour is telling you when the account is most expensive to trade.