I Lost More to Commissions Than Bad Trades Last Month
I wish I was kidding. I sat down last month to review my trading journal and ran the numbers. My net P&L from actual trades was down about $380. My total commissions? $614. I paid more in fees to my broker than I lost in the market. The market didn’t beat me. The vig did.
That was my wake-up call, and it should be yours too if you’re not tracking this stuff.
The Math Nobody Wants to Do
Let’s break it down because the per-trade cost looks tiny until you multiply it. Most brokers charge somewhere around $1.25 to $2.50 per side per contract for standard futures like ES or NQ. Per side means you pay when you get in AND when you get out. So a round trip on one ES contract runs you $2.50 to $5.00.
Doesn’t sound bad, right? Now let’s say you’re a scalper taking 8-12 trades a day. At 10 trades per day, 2 contracts each, $4.00 round trip per contract, that’s:
10 trades x 2 contracts x $4.00 = $80/day in commissions.
That’s $400/week. That’s $1,600/month. You need to make $1,600 just to break even before you see a dime of profit. I wasn’t doing that math when I started. I was just clicking buttons and wondering why my account was slowly bleeding.
Micros Sound Cheap Until They Aren’t
Here’s where it gets sneaky. Micro contracts (MES, MNQ) usually cost around $0.50 to $1.25 per side. Sounds like nothing. But think about what you’re actually trading.
One MES point is worth $5. If your broker charges $0.62 per side ($1.24 round trip), you need MES to move 0.25 points just to cover the commission. That’s not much. But compare that to full ES: one point is $50, and your $4.00 round trip is covered in 0.08 points. Barely a tick.
The commission-to-value ratio on micros is way worse. I see new traders taking 20 MNQ trades a day on a $3,000 account, paying $25-30 in commissions daily, and wondering why they can’t get ahead. You’re literally paying 1% of your account in fees every single day. That’s insane. No edge survives that.
The Hidden Costs They Don’t Put on the Website
Commissions aren’t the only thing eating your money:
- Exchange fees. CME charges their own fee on top of your broker’s commission. Usually $1.18-$1.28 per side for ES. Some brokers bundle this in, some don’t. Read the fine print.
- Data fees. Real-time CME data costs $10-15/month for most retail traders. Not huge, but it adds up.
- Platform fees. Some platforms charge $50-150/month. Others are “free” but have wider spreads or slower execution. You’re paying one way or another.
- Routing fees. Some brokers charge extra for certain order types or routing. I got hit with a $0.10 per contract “technology fee” once that wasn’t listed anywhere obvious.
What I Actually Changed
After my $614 commission month, I made three changes that cut my costs roughly in half:
First, I stopped overtrading. I was taking trades out of boredom. I went from 10-12 trades a day to 3-5. My win rate actually went up because I was being pickier, and my commission bill dropped from $80/day to about $30.
Second, I negotiated my rates. Most people don’t know you can just… ask. I emailed my broker, told them my monthly volume, and they dropped my per-side from $2.10 to $1.50. Took one email. If you’re doing 200+ round trips a month, you have leverage. Use it.
Third, I moved some of my trading from micros to minis. Once my account could handle it, I started trading 1 ES instead of 5-8 MES. Same exposure, way less commission. Five MES contracts at $1.24 round trip each = $6.20. One ES at $4.00 round trip = $4.00. Same position, $2.20 saved. Do that 200 times a month and you’ve saved $440.
Run Your Own Numbers
Grab your last month’s statement. Add up every commission, every fee, every charge. Compare that to your gross P&L. If commissions are more than 15-20% of your gross gains, you’ve got a problem. If they’re more than your gross gains… well, welcome to the club. At least now you know where the money’s going.
Trading is hard enough without giving away hundreds of dollars a month to costs you’re not even tracking. I learned that the expensive way. You don’t have to.