Forex
In one sentence
An account type that passes through near-interbank spreads and charges a separate per-lot commission, instead of widening the spread to include the broker margin.
Standard accounts hide their cost inside the spread; raw or ECN accounts show it as a line item. Neither is automatically cheaper - the comparison is spread plus commission against spread alone, at the hours you trade.
The useful property of a raw account is transparency: you can see whether a widening spread came from the market or from the broker.
The mistake it causes: choosing "0.0 pip" accounts without adding the round-turn commission, then wondering where the edge went.
| Account | Spread | Commission | All-in per standard lot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 1.6 to 2.0 pips | None | about $20 |
| Raw / ECN | 0.0 to 0.3 pips | $7 round turn | about $11 |
Neither is automatically cheaper, and the account advertising "zero commission" is frequently the expensive one. The only way to see through it is to add both components at the volume you actually trade.
On a raw account the broker's margin is a line item rather than something buried in the price. That means when the spread widens, you can tell whether it came from the market or from the broker. On a standard account you cannot, which is the quiet reason experienced traders prefer raw even when the all-in cost is similar.
"$3.50 per side" and "$7 round turn" are the same. "$7 per side" is double. Brokers quote whichever sounds smaller, and across a year of active trading the difference is material. See commission.
The labels are used loosely and are not regulated terms. A genuine ECN routes orders to a network of liquidity providers; many accounts labelled ECN do something closer to straight-through processing, and some do neither. The honest signals are the published commission, the measured spread, and which entity holds your account, not the acronym.
This term is explained in context in the primer - and the costs are measured in our forex broker reviews .
More in Forex: Pip, Lot, Currency pair, Trading session.
Education only, not financial advice. Trading is high risk and most retail accounts lose money.
