Answer

The answer: the framework is shared, the inputs are translated

For forex, gold (XAUUSD), index CFDs, commodity CFDs and crypto CFDs, the trading-cost calculation uses the same framework: total cost = spread + commission + holding cost + currency conversion. What differs is the inputs you add together. The value of one pip, point or tick, the contract size, the commission basis, the funding mechanism and the dividend adjustment all vary by instrument and provider, so you need a step that translates the official symbol specification into calculation inputs. Put the other way round: once that translation is correct, every instrument can be lined up as one account-currency all-in cost and compared fairly.

This article focuses on the instrument-specific inputs and cost components. If you want the big picture of total cost and break-even first, start from the pillar guide, Trading Cost Calculation Guide: Spread, Commission, Swap and Break-Even, and this piece will slot into place. Every figure below is a fictional educational example, not a live market, a specific provider’s contract terms or real execution data. Verify the real numbers against your own account and the official materials.

Framework

What stays the same and what changes by instrument

Start by separating the fixed part from the variable part. The fixed part is the structure of the sum. On any instrument, one round turn can incur up to four kinds of burden.

• Spread: the gap between bid and ask, quoted in a price unit (pips, points or ticks) and turned into money by multiplying by the 1-unit value. Converting the unit is covered from the basics in How Much Does the Forex Spread Cost? Convert Pips to Money.
• Commission: the charging basis, per side or round trip, per lot, fixed or notional percentage, differs by instrument. The way to avoid double-counting per side and round trip is in Trading Commission Calculator: One-Way, Round-Trip, Per-Lot and Fixed Fees.
• Holding cost: swap, funding, dividend adjustment, rollover and so on. Reflecting holding days and the triple-day is covered in Swap and Overnight Financing Cost Calculation.
• Currency conversion: the conversion and markup when the P&L currency differs from the account currency. This component bites most on gold, indices and crypto.

What changes is the inputs that turn these into money. Forex prices in pips, gold in USD-denominated points, an index in index points and crypto in USD-denominated points, so the price unit itself is different, and the 1-unit value (how much one unit of movement is worth in the account currency) changes with contract size. Holding cost also varies: forex uses swap, a cash-linked index CFD uses funding plus dividend adjustment, a futures-linked index CFD uses rollover, and a crypto CFD uses funding, each with a different name and timing. “The framework is shared; the inputs are translated per instrument” is the spine of this article.

Units

Price units and the 1-unit value: do not read decimals as money

The first stumble is confusing the number of decimal places with monetary value. Forex’s “0.6”, an index’s “0.5” and gold’s “30” are all just numbers, but the value of one unit of movement in the account currency is completely different in each case. So instead of comparing the units themselves, always convert to a 1-unit value (one pip, point or tick expressed in account currency) first. There are three steps. First, read the pip, point or tick size from the symbol specification. Second, multiply by the contract size to get the money per unit of movement in the P&L currency. Third, convert to the account currency if needed. As a background assumption, the fictional yen values below use a USD/JPY reference of 150 where a USD-denominated instrument has to be expressed in yen.

The contract size and point value for gold, indices and crypto also matter on the position-sizing side. Gold’s contract size is covered in XAUUSD contract size and position sizing, and point value and quantity for indices and crypto in point value and position size for index and crypto CFDs. Here we stay on the cost side and use the 1-unit value as a fixed fictional figure for “how much one unit of movement is worth in account currency”.

Matrix

Asset-class cost-component matrix

Here is a matrix of the price unit and main cost components by instrument. It is a fictional, generalized summary for teaching, not a fixed specification table or ranking of real providers. Always confirm the actual unit, charging basis and holding cost in the official specification.

There are two things to read from this matrix. First, even when the price unit differs, converting to a 1-unit value puts every instrument on the same footing. Second, the “type” of holding cost is entirely different between instruments, and treating swap, funding and rollover as the same thing produces wrong numbers. The next section gives the general equation that gathers these into one account-currency all-in cost.

Formula

The account-currency all-in equation, with units

This is the normalization equation you can reuse across instruments. Express every component in the account currency first, then add them up. The symbolic form, the substitution and the result are shown on separate lines.

The units of each term: spread is in the price unit (pips, points or ticks); the 1-unit value is “how much one unit of movement is worth in account currency”; commission is the round-trip total in account currency; daily holding is the per-day holding cost in account currency; days is the holding period; and the conversion rate is the conversion markup (for example 0.5% = 0.005). If the P&L currency is the same as the account currency, set the conversion rate to 0. Break-even units (the number of units this instrument must move to break even) is the all-in cost divided by the 1-unit value.

Substitute the fictional FX example: USD/JPY, spread 0.6 pips, 1-unit value ¥1,000/pip, commission ¥0, daily holding ¥30/day, days 3, JPY account so conversion rate 0.

For the gold example the P&L is USD-denominated, so multiply by the 0.5% conversion markup last. Spread 30 points, 1-unit value ¥150/point, commission ¥0, daily holding ¥250/day, days 3.

The key points are to apply conversion as a separate, final stage, and to read break-even units in that instrument’s own units. You cannot compare 0.69 pips and 35.2 points directly because the units differ, but you can compare ¥690 and ¥5,276 as account-currency all-in costs. Reading these as a cost ratio or friction score connects to Break-Even Pips and Price: Calculate Cost Ratio and Trading Friction.

Worked example

Comparing four instruments’ three-day all-in cost in one currency

Using the same framework, we normalize four fictional instruments (FX, gold, index, crypto) into the account currency (JPY) and compare the all-in cost of holding each for three days. Quantity is 1 lot in every case, and all contract specifications are fictional assumptions. The conversion rate is 0.5% for gold, index and crypto (whose P&L is in USD or a foreign quote currency) and 0% for the JPY-denominated FX pair.

The assumptions behind each breakdown are as follows. FX: spread 0.6 pips × 1,000 = ¥600, holding ¥30/day × 3. Gold: spread 30 points × 150 = ¥4,500, holding ¥250/day × 3, conversion 0.5%. Index: spread 0.5 points × 1,500 = ¥750, commission ¥400, funding ¥120/day × 3, conversion 0.5%. Crypto: spread 40 points × 150 = ¥6,000, funding ¥900/day × 3, conversion 0.5%. Even at the same “three days held”, the cost structure is completely different between crypto, where holding cost dominates, and gold, where the spread dominates.

Holding types

Do not collapse dividend adjustment, rollover and funding into “swap”

Holding costs with different names are calculated differently. Rather than lumping everything as “swap”, identify the type per instrument. The classification below organizes the four representative cases.

Dividend adjustment can be a cost or a credit

An index CFD’s dividend adjustment works like this: when the constituents go ex-dividend, the index (and therefore the CFD price) drops by that amount, so the difference is adjusted onto open positions. Generally, longs receive and shorts pay, but the sign, timing and tax treatment vary by provider. In the fictional example, when a ¥600 dividend adjustment arises on an index position at the ex-date, a long is −¥600 (a credit that lowers cost) and a short is +¥600 (a charge, i.e. a cost), so the direction flips. It is safer to record the dividend adjustment with its sign rather than assuming it is a cost. The idea of keeping a signed ledger over time is covered in Trading Cost Audit and Ledger: Track Funding, Rollover, Dividends and FX Conversion.

Rollover bites at the moment of contract change

A futures-linked CFD has an expiry, and at the point the contract month rolls over, the price difference and roll spread from the old month to the new one can become an effective cost. Unlike a cash-linked CFD that accrues funding daily, rollover bites at the single moment of the roll. If a position spans an expiry, verify whether a roll happens, when, and how the price is adjusted in the official schedule. The daily calculation of funding and how it differs from swap is covered in more depth in Swap and Overnight Financing Cost Calculation.

Conversion

Treat currency conversion as a separate stage

On instruments whose P&L currency differs from the account currency, the markup added to the conversion rate is a separate cost. When you receive the USD-denominated P&L of gold or crypto, or the foreign-quoted P&L of an index, into a JPY account, the provider uses a conversion rate and may add a small spread (markup) to it. Keeping this out of the spread and commission and treating it as a separate, final stage avoids both double-counting and omission.

In the fictional example, when the pre-conversion all-in cost of gold is ¥5,250 and the conversion markup is 0.5%, the conversion cost is 5,250 × 0.005 = ¥26.25, about ¥26. Make the direction and units explicit too. Here we assume that “USD-denominated P&L is converted into yen, and a 0.5% markup applies to the yen-converted amount”. Whether a markup actually applies, which rate is used (mid, cover-trade rate and so on), and whether conversion at deposit/withdrawal differs from conversion while holding must be verified in the official materials.

Mini calculator

Mini calculator: normalize all-in cost across instruments

Enter the quoted spread (units), 1-unit value (account currency), commission (round trip, account currency), daily holding (account currency/day), days and conversion (%) into four rows (FX, gold, index, crypto), and it estimates each instrument’s all-in cost (account currency) and break-even units for teaching purposes. There are no real-instrument presets, live rates or rankings. Inputs are calculated in the browser only and are never sent or stored anywhere. Check how the equation behaves in the static example (Table 3) first, then swap in your own numbers in the tool below.

Checklist

Do not trust a preset: a six-step specification checklist

An instrument preset is a convenient starting point, but using it as-is leads to wrong inputs. Reconcile from the official symbol specification to your calculation inputs in the following six steps.

• 1. Symbol specification: open the official spec page for the symbol you trade. Do not mix up a similarly named symbol (cash-linked versus futures-linked, mini versus standard).
• 2. Contract size: confirm how many units one lot is (how many ounces, how much notional). This is the base for the 1-unit value.
• 3. Tick/point size and value: confirm the minimum price increment and the money in P&L currency per one increment. Do not confuse decimal places with monetary value.
• 4. Commission: confirm per side or round trip, per lot, fixed or notional percentage, and any minimum fee, and do not double-count.
• 5. Holding rule: confirm which of swap, funding, dividend adjustment or rollover arises, when, how often and with which sign, including any triple-day and roll date.
• 6. Conversion: confirm whether the P&L currency differs from the account currency, and the conversion markup and rate used. Add it last as a separate stage.

Working through these six steps for one instrument at a time before you enter the equation or the mini calculator avoids preset-driven errors. You can browse the other articles from the English article library. When you want to save several instruments or conditions and reconcile them continuously, that is the point to consider the Pro and Premium features.

Pitfalls

Common mistakes

• Comparing instruments by decimal places: reading gold’s “30” and FX’s “0.6” as raw numbers and jumping to the conclusion that gold is expensive. Convert to a 1-unit value and you can compare fairly on all-in cost.
• Treating every holding cost as swap: forcing an index dividend adjustment or rollover, or crypto funding, into the same daily-swap equation. Each type arises differently.
• Assuming dividend adjustment is a cost: deducting it as an expense even though a long can receive it. Record it with its sign.
• Forgetting currency conversion: receiving USD-denominated P&L into a JPY account without adding the conversion markup. Add it as a separate final stage.
• Trusting a preset as-is: a contract size or tick value that differs from your account. Reconcile with the six-step checklist.
• Comparing break-even units across instruments: lining up 0.69 pips and 35.2 points to argue which is better. The units differ, so compare on account-currency all-in cost.

All of these are avoided by one principle: convert units to a 1-unit value, handle holding cost by type, add currency conversion as a separate stage, and compare in the account currency. How trading style (scalping, day trading, swing) affects turnover, holding days and therefore cost is a useful companion read in Scalping vs Day Trading vs Swing Trading: Compare Cost Drag and Required Move.

Related

Related reading and read next

References

Sources and further reading

• SG Group Trade Cost Calculator (use it free) — check one-way/round-trip cost, break-even and all-in cost.
• SG Group Trade Cost Calculator plans — the features and scope of Free, Pro and Premium.
• XAUUSD contract size and position sizing — how to think about gold’s contract size and point value.
• Point value and position size for index and crypto CFDs — point value and quantity for indices and crypto.
• Verify the exact definitions of contract size, tick/point size, commission, swap/funding, dividend adjustment, rollover and execution policy in the primary materials of each exchange, regulator or provider. Do not rely on an aggregator alone.