Why Raw-Spread Accounts Will Define Retail Trading in 2026

The retail trading landscape has changed dramatically over the past three years. What was once a niche offering reserved for institutional desks and high-volume scalpers, raw-spread pricing has now become the benchmark that active traders measure every broker against.

At NXG Markets, our order-flow data shows that clients on raw-spread accounts execute roughly 42% more trades per month than those on standard commission-free accounts. The reason is simple: tighter spreads reduce the cost of entering and exiting positions, which in turn lowers the break-even threshold on every single trade.

Liquidity has deepened considerably. With more Tier-1 banks and non-bank liquidity providers streaming prices directly into aggregation engines, the average spread on EUR/USD during London and New York overlap has fallen below 0.1 pips on our servers. That compression is not a marketing gimmick, it is a structural change in how liquidity is sourced and delivered.

Transparency is the second driver. Traders today are far more educated about the true cost of trading. They understand the difference between a marked-up spread and a raw spread plus commission, and they run the math. A commission of 3.50 USD per lot on a 0.0 pip spread is almost always cheaper than a 1.2 pip all-in spread once volume scales.

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Technology has closed the gap too. Modern execution infrastructure means that raw-spread accounts no longer suffer the requotes and slippage that plagued early ECN offerings. Smart order routing, co-located servers and sub-millisecond matching have made institutional-grade execution available to anyone with a funded account.

Risk management also improves on raw-spread structures. Because the cost is explicit and predictable, traders can model their expected costs precisely and size positions accordingly. This predictability is especially valuable for algorithmic and high-frequency strategies where even fractional pip differences compound into meaningful figures.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, we expect the trend to accelerate. Regulatory pressure toward best-execution disclosure, combined with fierce competition among brokers, will push raw-spread pricing from a premium tier to the industry standard. Brokers who cling to opaque markups will find it increasingly difficult to retain sophisticated clients.

Our recommendation for traders evaluating accounts is straightforward: look past the headline spread and calculate your all-in cost per lot at your typical trading volume. Factor in commission, swap and any hidden markups. When you do the full analysis, raw-spread accounts win for the vast majority of active traders.

NXG Markets remains committed to delivering institutional-grade pricing to retail clients. We believe the future of trading is transparent, low-cost and technology-driven, and we are building our entire offering around that conviction.