“Spreads from 0.0 pips” once stood out as one of the strongest pricing claims a forex broker could make. Increasingly, however, zero is becoming the starting point of the conversation rather than proof that one broker is substantially cheaper than another.
A BestBrokers.com analysis of live EUR/USD pricing shows why. Its testing of six brokers through cTrader recorded average spreads ranging from only 0.03 pips at Fusion Markets to 0.48 pips at FxPro. IC Markets averaged 0.06 pips, while BlackBull Markets and Pepperstone both recorded 0.10 pips. FP Markets came in at 0.19 pips.
Across the six brokers, the simple average was 0.16 pips. Fusion Markets' result was more than 80% below that benchmark, while FxPro's 0.48-pip average was three times the group average and 16 times the spread recorded at Fusion.
Yet even these apparently large percentage differences become remarkably small when translated into money.
On a standard EUR/USD position of 100,000 units, one pip is worth approximately $10. The difference between a 0.06-pip spread and a 0.10-pip spread therefore represents only around $0.40 in spread cost for one side of a standard-lot transaction. That degree of compression is changing how broker pricing needs to be compared.
Several major brokers now openly market raw-account spreads starting at 0.0 pips. Fusion Markets advertises zero-pip raw spreads alongside a $2.25 commission per $100,000 of notional volume per side. FP Markets similarly advertises Raw accounts from 0.0 pips, with commissions charged separately. Pepperstone says its Razor pricing can also start from zero on margin FX.
When multiple competitors can legitimately reach the same advertised minimum, the minimum itself reveals less about what traders normally pay. This is where average pricing becomes more useful.
BestBrokers tracks the market through its aggregated live spreads trading brokers report, collecting bid, ask and spread observations through the cTrader API roughly every five minutes. The observations are then used to calculate daily average, minimum and maximum spreads.
The distinction between minimum and average pricing is particularly important with floating spreads. A broker may quote EUR/USD at 0.0 pips during highly liquid periods without maintaining that level continuously. FP Markets, for example, says spreads can fall to zero during periods of high liquidity while separately publishing typical or average figures.
The wider competitive implication is that the familiar “from 0.0 pips” headline is gradually becoming commoditised.
When several brokers reach zero at their best moments, competition shifts toward how frequently tight prices are available, how stable spreads remain across the trading day, what commission is charged alongside them and how orders are executed.
The forex spread war has therefore reached an unusual stage. Brokers can no longer go meaningfully below zero. What they can compete on is how close to zero they stay.
