Fees & costs · Lesson 09
Fees took almost half of my winning day
The day · 4 trades
- Winners
- 3 of 4
- Before costs
- ~$54
- After fees + borrow
- ~$29
- Costs took
- about 45%
"To short a stock you rent the shares first, and on small stocks that gets expensive."
▶ Watch the ShortTry it: how much of the day do costs take?
Every trade paid its fees, and on a short, the cost to borrow the shares, whether it won or not. Spread the same profit across more trades and the costs take a bigger share. Move the sliders.
Kept
Costs took
kept costs
Starting values are my day: 4 trades, about $54 before costs. $6.25 a trade is my ~$25 in costs ÷ 4, an average; the post only gave the total. The Short said "about 45%": $25 of $54 is 46.3%, and both were rounded. Everything past the starting values is illustrative. This is arithmetic, not advice.
What it taught me
Four trades, three winners, about $54 before costs. After fees and the cost to borrow the shares, I kept about $29, so costs took about 45%.
Every extra trade has to earn back its own costs.
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