Cost to Break Even

Cost to break even is the distance price must travel from the fill before a position is worth exactly nothing — the point at which spread, commission and any accrued swap have been recovered and profit starts. On a standard lot of EUR/USD at a 0.2-pip spread with seven dollars of round-turn commission, that is roughly 0.9 pips before the trade is level. It is the number that decides whether a strategy is viable at the size and frequency you intend to run it. A twenty-pip target carries the cost comfortably; a three-pip scalp spends a third of its objective before price has moved at all. Held past the rollover, swap keeps adding to the distance every night, so a slow trade in a negative-carry pair quietly raises its own break-even while you wait for it.