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# What day trading actually costs: the six line items
- URL: https://www.daytraderincome.com/what-day-trading-actually-costs/
- Published: 2026-09-18T20:34:18.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-18T20:34:18.000Z
- Description: Commissions, fees, data, tools, slippage and tax — the shape of each, so you can find your own numbers.
- Author: Indy Karveli
- Tags: Costs, Getting started, #Import 2026-09-18 19:35

Every dollar figure you've ever seen about day trading income was probably gross. Here's what comes out before anything is real — the six line items, and roughly how each one behaves.

I'm not publishing my own numbers for these. That's deliberate: your broker isn't mine, your fills aren't mine, and a cost line that's true for me would be a lie for you. What follows is the shape of the costs, so you can find your own.

## 1\. Commissions

Charged per contract, per side, by the broker. A round turn is two — in and out. On MNQ this is small per trade and enormous over a year, because the strategy takes a lot of trades and every one of them pays it.

Find yours on your broker's fee schedule. Multiply by two. Multiply by the number of signals in a month. That number is bigger than you think.

## 2\. Exchange and regulatory fees

Charged by the exchange for the contract, plus a regulatory fee on top. Separate from commission, often shown separately on the statement, easy to forget about because it's small per contract. Same multiplication applies.

## 3\. Market data

A monthly subscription for real-time prices. Some brokers bundle it, some charge per exchange, most charge more for professional status. It's a fixed cost — you pay it whether the rules produced ten signals or none.

## 4\. Platform and tools

Charting, journaling, execution software. Some free, some not. Fixed costs again. Everything I pay for is on the [resources page](https://www.daytraderincome.com/resources/) with what it's for.

## 5\. Slippage

The difference between where the rules said to enter and where you actually got filled. This is the cost nobody counts, because it doesn't show up on a statement — it just quietly makes every signal a fraction worse than the chart says.

The rules on this site produce a level. Your fill is your fill. On a fast market the gap can be the whole edge.

## 6\. Tax

Depends entirely on where you live, how you're structured, and whether you qualify for any special treatment for trading income. In the US that means a conversation about trader tax status and the mark-to-market election, and the deadline for the election is earlier than most people expect. I'm not a tax professional and nothing here is tax advice — get someone who does this for traders specifically.

## Why the record is in points

Because every one of those six costs is different for every reader. If I published net dollars, I'd be baking my broker, my fills and my tax situation into a number and presenting it as if it applied to you.

Points don't have that problem. Take the net points from any session, multiply by CME's value for one MNQ, subtract your six line items. That's your number, built from your costs. [The full explanation is here.](https://www.daytraderincome.com/why-points-not-dollars/)

Notice 

Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any instrument, or advice tailored to any person. I am not a registered investment adviser or commodity trading advisor and I do not manage money for anyone. Trading carries a substantial risk of loss and you can lose more than your deposit. [Full disclosures](https://www.daytraderincome.com/privacy/).