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Introduction

A trade pays three things, and the ticket writes each one before you confirm:
  1. the spread, half when you open and half when you close,
  2. a commission per side, as a percentage of the notional,
  3. an overnight swap for every night the position stays open.
A short position in a share pays a fourth, a borrow charge each night. Xblu charges nothing else: no fee to place or cancel a waiting order, no fee on a deposit (a bridged crypto route’s own costs are stated on the deposit page), and no fee on a withdrawal. Fees are booked on the account’s balance; the margin held against a position does not change when a fee is charged. The figures on this page are the terms in force for every instrument today. The desk can date other terms for an instrument, a client group or an account, and the ticket always writes the ones that apply to the order on screen. If this page and the ticket disagree, the ticket is right.

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Spread

Crypto is priced from several venues at once, and the reference price is the median of the books that agree; shares, currency pairs, gold and the instruments priced from a perpetual can rest on one venue. The spread you are quoted is the venues’ own spread plus Xblu’s markup, a share of that spread, and the markup is capped at 0.2% of the price. Your fill is the reference price plus half the spread, against you: a buy fills above it, a sell below it, and the position closes the same way round. So the spread is paid in two halves, one at the open and one at the close. The spread is live: it widens with the venues’ books, during news, around a market’s close and outside a share’s regular hours. The instrument’s hours panel and the ticket show the spread quoted now. An order that would fill farther from the shown price than it allows is refused rather than filled worse. A large order can move its own fill: an order bigger than what the best price can fill walks the venues’ book, and the open pays an impact in proportion to it. A close pays none.

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Commission

The commission is a percentage of the notional of the trade (lots times contract size times price, or the amount times the leverage on a market traded by amount), charged per side: once at the open on the notional at the open price, and once at the close on the notional at the close price. A partial close pays it on the part closed. The commission is counted in the account’s currency. An order on a market quoted in a currency other than the account’s is refused today.

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Borrow charge on a short share

A short position in a share pays a borrow charge, the cost of borrowing the shares that a short carries elsewhere: each night, the notional times the borrow rate in force for that share, over 365. The rate is the share’s own or the house’s default, and a share with no borrow rate in force cannot be sold short. The charge is booked on the balance like the swap.

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Overnight swap

A position held through 21:00 UTC pays a night of financing, long or short, every night of the week, weekends included. The rate is 20% a year on the notional at the open price, settled one night at a time and not compounded. The year base is 360 days for positions whose profit currency is USD, EUR, CHF or JPY, and 365 otherwise. One night on 10,000 USD of notional: 10,000 x 20% / 360 = 5.56 USD. A position opened and closed between two 21:00 UTC marks pays no swap. Each night’s charge is listed on the position, and the ticket states the terms before you open (“You pay 20% a year”). The desk can set an instrument’s swap in points or in money per lot instead, or make an account swap free; the ticket shows which applies.

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Lifecycle of a trade

Say an account in USD buys 0.05 lot of BTC/USD (0.05 BTC) at 1:10, filled at 100,000, so a notional of 5,000 USD and a margin of 500 USD. The ticket shows a 7.50 USD fee (0.15% of 5,000), the margin, the spread and the liquidation price. The prices below are the fill prices, spread included.
  1. Open. The commission of 7.50 USD is booked on the balance. The margin of 500 USD is held.
  2. Three nights held. Each night at 21:00 UTC: 5,000 x 20% / 360 = 2.78 USD, so 8.34 USD in all, booked on the balance.
  3. Close at 102,000, up 2%. The gross result is 100 USD. The closing commission is 0.15% of the notional at the close, 5,100 USD, so 7.65 USD.
  4. Net result: 100 - 7.50 - 8.34 - 7.65 = 76.51 USD. The margin of 500 USD is released.
The same trade closed the same day would have paid no swap, and a close at 98,000 would have cost 100 USD of price loss plus the same commissions.

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Liquidation thresholds

A position margined on its own is liquidated when its price loss reaches a share of its margin. The share depends on the leverage: 84% up to 1:25, falling in a straight line to 70% at 1:60, and 70% above. What is left of the margin after the loss goes back to the balance. The liquidation price the app shows allows for the closing commission and for the nights already charged, swap and borrow charge alike, so the position closes at the price shown, and that price moves a little closer every night the position is held. See Liquidation, margin calls and stop-outs.