What Is Spread and Why It Matters

What Is Spread and Why It Matters

The hidden cost embedded in every single trade you place

Bid, Ask, and the Gap Between Them

Every currency pair has two prices: the bid, which is what you receive when selling, and the ask, which is what you pay when buying. The difference between them is the spread — effectively the cost of entering a trade, paid to the broker or liquidity provider before your position has moved at all.
On a major pair like EUR/USD during liquid hours, spreads might be as tight as 0.1–0.5 pips with a good broker. On exotic pairs or during low-liquidity periods, spreads can widen to several pips or more.

Why Spread Affects Strategy Choice

For scalping strategies that target just a handful of pips per trade, spread represents a much larger percentage of the potential profit than it does for swing trades targeting 50+ pips. This is why scalpers are especially sensitive to broker selection, trading session timing, and avoiding low-liquidity periods where spreads widen.

The Asur Labs Approach: SDYKA scalping signals are timed around high-liquidity sessions specifically to minimize the spread's impact on tight-target trades.