Trading & Markets
Commission
The per-contract fee charged on every execution, combining broker, exchange, and clearing costs. Small per trade, decisive over hundreds of trades.
In plain English
Futures commissions are quoted per side or per round turn and bundle exchange fees, clearing, and platform routing. Micros cost less per contract but more per unit of exposure, which taxes high-frequency micro scalping.
Prop accounts price commissions into the experience: firms publish per-product rates, and active evaluation traders can spend a meaningful fraction of their profit target on fees. A scalper making 4 ticks average on MES pays a far larger percentage of each win to costs than the same trader on ES.
- At $1.40 per side on MES, a 30 round-turn day costs $84.
- On a $250 profit day that is a third of the edge.