Subscription fees versus exchange fees on a trading bot
A bot advertised at $24 a month can cost more than that once the exchange charges a fee on every fill. This guide runs forty fills of about $500 each and puts the subscription and the exchange fee in separate columns.
Forty fills, two bills
A bot at $24 a month, the Gridwell price, plus an exchange that charges 0.10 percent, on forty fills of $500, adds $20 of exchange fees. The month is $44 before the spread. Driftlane's shape is different: no $24, and 0.08 percent of the fill plus a fixed exchange charge that hurts the $400 order more than the $2,000 order. Neither number is "the fee" alone.
The column that gets omitted
Marketing pages add the subscription and stop. The review standard is a row with both. If the software cannot see the exchange fee, the review has to say the cell is blank and show a worked month beside it, the way this guide does. A reader who copies only the $24 into a budget will be wrong by the exchange's invoice, which arrives separately and does not mention the bot.
A small-order month
Twenty fills of $100 with a $0.90 minimum exchange charge cost $18 plus any percent. The subscription, if there is one, sits on top. This is the month a "cheap bot" stops being cheap. Write the fill size you actually expect, not the fill size in the demo, which is always large enough to make the fixed charge look tiny.
Two invoices
$24 plus forty times $500 times 0.10 percent is $24 plus $20. Forty times $400 with a $0.90 minimum is $36 plus the percent. The demo uses a large fill so the minimum looks small. Use the fill you will actually send. The spread is extra and this page will not invent it. A budget that copies only the subscription is wrong by the exchange's separate invoice.
Driftlane and Gridwell are the two shapes. Neither is "the cheap one" until the month is written out.
Three months, side by side
Month A is Gridwell's shape: $24 subscription, forty fills of $500, exchange 0.10 percent, exchange dollars $20, all-in $44 before the spread. Month B is Driftlane's small-fill shape: no $24, forty fills of $400, 0.08 percent is $12.80, fixed exchange charge $0.90 times forty is $36, all-in $48.80. Month C is the flattering demo: ten fills of $2,000 at Driftlane's 0.08 percent is $16, plus a small fixed charge, and it looks cheap because the demo refused to show Month B. The review standard is to write the month you will trade. A budget that copies only the subscription is wrong by the exchange's separate invoice, which will not mention the bot.
The spread is extra and this page will not invent it. On a thin market the spread can exceed both fees. Say so, and do not type a zero to make the table look finished. Mintcanopy does not call either bot the cheap one until the month is the reader's month.
The invoice that does not mention the bot
The exchange bills the fills. The bot bills the subscription, or the percent of notional. The exchange invoice will not say Gridwell on it. A budget that copies $24 and waits for one bill will be short by about $20 in month A, and a budget that copies 0.08 percent and ignores the $0.90 charge will be wrong on every $400 fill. Month C, the ten large fills, is the demo. Do not budget month C unless you will trade month C. Mintcanopy leaves the spread off both invoices and says so. Inventing a zero spread is how a thin market gets called cheap.
Budget the month you will trade
Month A: Gridwell at $24, forty fills of $500, exchange at 0.10 percent, about $20, all-in about $44 before the spread. Month B: Driftlane, forty fills of $400, 0.08 percent is $12.80, forty times $0.90 is $36, all-in $48.80, no $24. Month C: ten fills of $2,000, the demo, which makes the fixed charge look small. The exchange invoice will not mention the bot. Mintcanopy will not call either product cheap until the month matches the fills you will actually send. The spread is extra. Do not type zero to finish the table.
Put the demo in its own column
Month A is about $44, Gridwell's $24 plus about $20. Month B is $48.80, Driftlane on forty fills of $400. Month C is the large-fill demo that makes $0.90 look trivial. Budget A or B, whichever matches the order you will send, and keep C labeled as the demo. The exchange bill will not say the bot's name. Mintcanopy leaves the spread out and will not accept a zero typed in to neaten the sum.
The bill with the bot's name missing
You will get a charge from the exchange for the fills and, separately, a charge from Gridwell for $24 or from Driftlane for the percent. The exchange line items will not mention the bot, which is how a budget that copied only the subscription stays wrong by about $20 in the forty-fill example, or wrong by $36 of fixed charges in the $400 Driftlane month. Mintcanopy labels the ten-fill, $2,000 demo as month C so it cannot be mistaken for the month you trade. Add the spread yourself if you know it. A zero typed for show makes a thin book look free, and this guide will not do that.