Vantage Raw ECN Account: $3 per Side Commission and Real Costs

The Raw ECN account shows you the spreads Vantage receives from its pricing providers, with no markup, and adds a commission. Spreads start from 0.0 pips. Commission starts from $3 per standard lot per side, which is $6 for a round turn. You can open it with 50 units of your account currency.

Vantage calls it its most popular account. Margin call is at 50% and stop out at 20%, the same as Standard STP. Raw ECN runs on MT4, MT5 and the Vantage App, and it is also offered as a demo and in a swap-free version.

Commission by trade size

Commission is charged as you trade: half when the position opens and half when it closes. A new trade therefore starts a few cents or dollars in the red, before the market has moved. On one lot of EUR/USD, $6 equals 0.6 pips.

Commission by account currency

Vantage calculates commission in the base currency of your account, using a published table. The figures are set per currency, so they aren't exact conversions of the dollar rate.

Precious metals have their own rate on Raw ECN: 6.0 USD per lot, round turn. Share CFDs are charged differently again, as a percentage or a fixed fee per trade depending on the exchange. Check the commission page for the product before you trade it.

Raw ECN against Standard STP

Standard STP has no commission and a spread from 1.0 pip. Raw ECN gives you the raw spread plus $6. The break-even point is simple: Raw ECN is cheaper whenever the raw spread is below about 0.4 pips, because 0.4 plus the 0.6-pip commission equals the 1.0-pip Standard spread.

In quiet, liquid hours the raw spread on major pairs sits near the bottom of that table. Around news and at the daily rollover, spreads on both accounts widen, and the comparison stops being tidy. Active traders still come out ahead on Raw ECN over a month.

When Pro ECN makes sense

Pro ECN cuts commission to $1.50 per side, or $3 round turn. You need USD 10,000 in the account and must email support to request the upgrade after closing open trades. Vantage aims it at professional traders, money managers and algorithmic traders.

The saving is half your commission bill, whatever the volume. Whether that justifies parking $10,000 with an offshore broker is a separate question. Size your deposit by what you need for margin and risk, not by a commission tier.

Who should use Raw ECN

• Scalpers and day traders with small targets, where every tenth of a pip counts.
• EA users. Vantage permits expert advisors, apart from exploitative strategies barred by the client agreement.
• Traders of major pairs and gold in liquid hours.
• Anyone trading more than a few standard lots a month.

It suits a few people less. A beginner on 0.01 lots saves about 3 cents a trade against Standard STP, so simplicity may matter more. Traders who struggle to count commission into their results can find the spread-only account easier to read.

Execution and servers

Vantage uses market execution on all accounts. Orders are filled at the current price, which can differ slightly from the one on your screen as prices change. Its trading servers sit in London and New York, with further data centres in Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei connected over an Equinix fibre network.

Low-latency infrastructure helps, though no setup removes slippage in a fast market. If you run automated strategies, a VPS near the trade server reduces delay. The Vantage platforms guide explains the VPS refund offer.

Open a Raw ECN account

1. Register and verify your identity.
2. In the client portal, select Accounts, then Open account.
3. Choose Raw ECN, your platform and a base currency.
4. Deposit at least 50 units.
5. Log in to MT4 or MT5 with the details sent by email.

Remember that the type, currency and platform are fixed once created. Our Vantage account types guide compares all the options, and the fees guide covers swaps and withdrawal charges.

How to read your costs on the statement

MetaTrader shows commission in its own column in the account history. Add that column for the month and you have your commission bill. Spread doesn't appear as a line; it is built into your entry and exit prices. To estimate it, note the spread shown in the market watch window when you trade, or multiply your lots by a typical raw spread for the pair.

Swap has its own column too. Positions held through the daily rollover are charged or credited a swap, and on a trade held for weeks that figure can pass the commission. Raw ECN and Standard STP pay the same swaps, so the account choice doesn't change this part.

A quick monthly check keeps you honest. Divide total costs by the number of trades to get your average cost per trade, then compare it with your average winning trade. If costs eat more than a tenth of the average win, the targets are too small or the trades too frequent.

Limits worth knowing

Minimum and maximum volumes are set per product, and you find them by right-clicking a symbol in MT4 or MT5 and choosing Specification. Leverage runs from 1:100 to 1:2000 on the account, with fixed leverage on some instruments, and Vantage can lower it automatically for risk or market reasons. The deposit bonus, where offered, can be used on ECN accounts, though its credit is not withdrawable.

One last check before you commit: look at the spread on your main pair at the hour you normally trade. A raw account is only as good as its pricing when you are at the screen, and ten minutes on a demo will show you.

Frequently asked

Related reading

• Vantage account types
• Vantage fees
• Vantage platforms
• Vantage leverage
• Our full Vantage review