Practical guides
Crypto trading costs: calculate your spot break-even move
Calculate how fees, spread and slippage affect a crypto spot round trip. Follow a transparent $1,000 example and check the assumptions behind break-even.
A price increase is not the same as a net gain. This worked example shows how to calculate the reference-price move needed to recover an initial cash outlay after buying and selling, with every cost assumption visible.
Calculate the move needed to cover trading costs
An illustrative spot trade: the buy fee is added to the purchase cost in cash, and the sell fee is deducted from sale proceeds. Change the assumptions to see how they affect the result.
1. Define the cash round trip
Let C be your initial cash budget and P the reference price when you buy. This example models an unleveraged spot purchase followed by a sale of the acquired quantity. It assumes the purchase fee is added to the executed purchase value in the same cash currency, while the sale fee is deducted from sale proceeds. Those conventions matter: an exchange that deducts a fee from the asset received requires an adjusted calculation. Check the currency and amount of each fee in your own fills. The model excludes borrowing, funding, network transfers, taxes and any subscription cost; it does not estimate the likelihood of a price move.
2. Separate fees from execution impact
Write b and s for the purchase and sale fee rates, expressed as percentages. Write i and j for the adverse execution impact on the purchase and sale respectively, also in percent. Each impact combines that side's spread contribution and any additional slippage relative to its reference price. Do not insert the full bid–ask spread on both sides. If the reference is the midpoint, allocate the distance from that midpoint to each execution side; add only slippage not already represented. If you use actual average fill prices, costs already embedded in those prices must not be added again. Use realistic inputs for your own order size and venue.
3. Derive the break-even formula
The effective purchase price is P × (1 + i/100), so the acquired quantity is q = C / [P × (1 + i/100) × (1 + b/100)]. If the reference price subsequently rises by m percent, net sale proceeds are q × P × (1 + m/100) × (1 − j/100) × (1 − s/100). Setting those proceeds equal to the original C gives: m = [(1 + i/100) × (1 + b/100) / ((1 − j/100) × (1 − s/100)) − 1] × 100. This is the required move between the reference prices, not the percentage difference between the two actual fills. Rates entered into the formula are percentage values, so a fee of 0.1% is entered as 0.1.
4. Work through a hypothetical $1,000 example
Assume C = $1,000, P = $100, b = s = 0.1% and i = j = 0.05%. These are illustrative inputs, not a statement of any exchange's current fees. The executed purchase price is $100.05, and the total cash required per unit after the purchase fee is $100.15005. Your quantity is therefore 1,000 / 100.15005, approximately 9.98501748 units. Applying the formula gives a break-even reference move of approximately 0.3004505%, or a reference sale price near $100.3004505. After the assumed adverse sale impact and sale fee, the proceeds return to $1,000 before rounding. Breaking even means recovering the starting cash, not making a profit.
5. Stress-test the assumptions
With the same hypothetical inputs and an unchanged reference price, the round trip returns approximately $997.004495: about $2.995505 is lost to the modelled costs. Adding 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.05 + 0.05 gives a useful rough estimate of 0.30%, but the exact break-even threshold differs because purchase and sale factors compound. Try a wider spread, a larger sale impact or a different maker/taker fee. A limit price alone does not establish maker treatment, and waiting for a passive fill can leave an order unfilled. The calculator is most useful when it reveals how sensitive an idea is to changes in execution, rather than producing a reassuring single number.
6. Bring the calculation into your analysis
Before considering a spot setup, compare the cost threshold with the move being discussed on that setup's own time horizon. Do not treat a 4h/1d scenario as confirmation that a short tactical move will cover its costs. In HOSTuvo, review price structure, PRE-MOVE and the relevant execution reasoning as separate pieces of evidence. Use the public calculator to write down your own assumptions, then compare them with actual fills if you later trade. Rounding, minimum order sizes and fees paid in another asset can change realised results. A favourable calculation is only a feasibility check: it supplies neither a trading signal nor a promise that the expected move will occur.
Sources and definitions
Sources explain the terminology and calculation inputs. Numerical examples are hypothetical and do not represent current exchange fees or market prices.
Prepared and checked with AI tools. The sources and calculation assumptions are provided here for verification.