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Exchange fee

The per-contract charge the exchange levies on each side of a futures trade, separate from broker commission.

Total cost per trade is commission + exchange fee + clearing fee + regulatory fee, charged per side. Exchange fees are published, vary by product, and are lower for members and for firms that lease memberships.

For micro-futures and high-frequency scalping, fees are a large share of the edge. Ten round turns a day on one ES contract is a four-figure annual cost before commissions.

Example: a typical all-in retail round-turn on ES runs about $4 ($1.20 commission per side plus roughly $1.40 of exchange, clearing and NFA fees). On MES it is nearer $1, on a contract worth one-tenth as much.

Related: round-turn, micro-futures, fcm, market-data-fee, give-up

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