Round Turn
Also known as: round trip, round-turn trade, per round turn, completed trade
What is it?
A round turn is one complete trade counted as a single unit, the entry and its matching exit taken together. It is the unit brokers use when they quote commission and the unit you should use when you measure what trading costs you. The distinction earns its own page because the same fee is routinely quoted two different ways. "3.50 dollars per side" and "7.00 dollars per round turn" describe an identical charge on one standard lot, but a broker advertising the first number appears half as expensive as one advertising the second.
Same fee, two ways of quoting it
Quoted per side
- Charged once when you open, and again when you close
- $3.50 per standard lot, each way
- Common on retail forex and CFD accounts
- Looks cheaper in a broker comparison table
$3.50 x 2 = $7.00 for one completed trade
Quoted per round turn
- The entry and exit priced together as one unit
- $7.00 per standard lot, all in
- Standard on futures and exchange-traded products
- Matches how a completed trade is actually counted
$7.00 for one completed trade - the same money
Ten lots opened and closed is ten round turns, or twenty sides, and until you normalise to one of those units no broker comparison means anything. The spread behaves differently from commission here, which is a second source of confusion. You cross the spread once per round turn, because you buy at the ask and later sell at the bid, while commission is charged twice, once at each end.
A cost model that doubles the spread, or that charges commission only once, will misprice every strategy it is applied to.
Why it matters: Commission quoted per side is exactly half the same commission quoted per round turn, so comparing brokers without normalising the unit halves or doubles your cost estimate.
Round-turn commission = per-side commission x 2
Getting the unit wrong changes nothing about your execution, but it silently halves or doubles every cost projection the strategy is judged on.
Real-world example
A trader compared a broker charging 3.00 dollars per side against a futures broker charging 5.00 dollars per round turn and concluded the first was cheaper, when its real charge was 6.00 dollars per completed trade.
How SignalBots handles it
SignalBots publishes how many signals a channel produces per day, so you can multiply that by your own broker's round-turn cost and see what running a strategy costs before you connect it. See /risk-warning.
Pro tip
Whenever a broker quotes commission, ask whether it is per side or per round turn, then record only the round-turn figure. It is the one unit that matches a completed trade.
Common pitfalls
Building a backtest's cost assumption from a per-side commission figure, which understates true trading costs by exactly fifty percent for every trade in the test.
Frequently asked questions
Is a round turn the same as a round trip?
Yes, the two terms are used interchangeably. Both describe one entry plus its matching exit, counted together as a single completed trade rather than as two separate transactions.
Why do brokers quote per side at all?
Because the number is smaller and reads better in a comparison table. It is also technically accurate, since the fee genuinely is charged once at entry and again at exit.
Is the spread paid once or twice per round turn?
Once. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so you cross the spread a single time across the whole trade, unlike commission which is charged separately at each end.
How is a partially closed position counted?
Most brokers charge on the volume actually traded, so closing half a position incurs half the exit commission. Check whether your broker applies a minimum ticket charge that rounds small closes upward.
Do binary options have round turns?
No. A binary option settles at expiry rather than being closed by an opposite trade, so its cost sits inside the payout percentage rather than in a two-sided commission.
Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Historical and backtested results do not guarantee future performance. Read the full risk warning.
