> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.hydravision.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.hydravision.ai/products/asset-profiler/cost-at-entry-and-the-cost-budget.md).

# Cost at entry, and the cost budget

The third tile in the top block, plus the coloured bar underneath it.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**The common misreading.** That the green section of the bar is profit. It isn't. The whole bar is your **cost budget,** the amount of the profit target you've agreed costs may consume. Green is the part you haven't spent yet.
{% endhint %}

### What it means

Trading costs you money before price has moved at all. The figures in this tile are per lot, for one round trip, open and close. Two things make it up:

**Spread** — paid twice per lot, once opening and once closing.

**Commission** — your broker's round-turn charge.

The tile shows the total in dollars per lot, with the split underneath, and the same figure in ticks. Ticks are what matters for the model, because the step size is measured in ticks too.

<figure><img src="https://3755235599-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9jMFtiGRmjSb3oxcTvx7%2Fuploads%2F9pnvfD93nDxsuu6n6zwg%2FAP%20-%20EURUSD%20Costs.png?alt=media&amp;token=aafd96c6-9899-4a3e-82bf-ae13dbb1e743" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

EURUSD from the sample set:

```
Cost at entry
$9.26
$3.26 spread + $6.00 commission
9.3 ticks · charged before the trade does anything
```

Worth noticing: commission is nearly two-thirds of that. On tight-spread majors, the broker's commission is the dominant cost, and shopping for a tighter spread barely moves the number.

Compare US30 over the same window: $34.45 per lot, of which $28.45 is spread. Completely the opposite shape. There, the spread is the whole story.

<figure><img src="https://3755235599-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9jMFtiGRmjSb3oxcTvx7%2Fuploads%2Fph7Y7WYyNZFp3JFqru2E%2FAP%20-%20US30%20Costs.png?alt=media&amp;token=04974723-aa9c-481f-a9f5-48e321a92561" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### The cost budget bar

Below the tiles is a bar in three colours, with a heading like:

```
Cost budget at the band midpoint, 17.29 pips · 21.2 ticks ($21.18 / lot)
```

That heading tells you the budget being drawn. The budget is the share of the profit target you've said costs may take, by default 35% of a target that is itself 35% of the step. The wider the step, the bigger the target, and the bigger the budget.

Then the bar splits that budget three ways:

| Colour    | What it is                                                     |
| --------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Red**   | Spread                                                         |
| **Amber** | Commission                                                     |
| **Green** | Left over, available to pay for holding the position overnight |

Green is not profit. It's headroom. It's what stands between you and the cost tolerance being breached while you wait for the retrace.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Why the bar is drawn at the working step, not at the floor.** On an asset where costs set the floor, the budget at the floor equals the entry cost exactly. That's what "the cost floor" means. Drawing the bar there would show an empty green section on every such asset, which tells you nothing. So it's drawn at the step you'd realistically run: the recommended step if the report has one, otherwise the midpoint of the range.
{% endhint %}

### How much green you want

There's no target figure. What matters is green measured against how long you'll actually be holding.

* **No overnight cost on the account?** Green is irrelevant. Nothing will ever spend it, and the report says so.
* **Overnight cost, and green covers many days?** Comfortable. US30 in the sample set has 181 days of runway against a p80 wait of five and a half hours.
* **Overnight cost, and green covers days rather than weeks?** Worth watching. EURCAD has 2.35 days of runway. Its p80 retrace arrives in half an hour, so it's fine, but the margin is much thinner than it looks from the range alone.

<figure><img src="https://3755235599-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9jMFtiGRmjSb3oxcTvx7%2Fuploads%2FKjoq4NJ3Jnuob5sWYuCO%2FAP%20-%20EURCAD%20Costs.png?alt=media&amp;token=3a15205d-a023-46be-9c97-58ac4613bde8" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

The [Carry](/products/asset-profiler/carry.md) page turns green into days properly.

### When there's no green at all

On a cost-floored asset drawn at a tight step, spread and commission can take the entire budget. The report says so directly and tells you where room opens up as the step widens.

That isn't a fault. It's the definition of a cost-set floor, and it's the clearest possible signal that the tight end of your range isn't really available.

### What to do with this

* Look at the split, not just the total. Spread-dominated and commission-dominated assets respond to completely different fixes.
* If spread dominates, check [Session Cost](/products/asset-profiler/session-cost.md). You may be able to cut it just by changing when you trade.
* If commission dominates, the only lever is your account terms.