Live Bid-Ask Spread Monitor
for Forex, Futures & Commodities

The bid-ask spread is the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept (ask). Every time you open a trade, you effectively "pay" this spread — it's the primary transaction cost in Forex and Futures markets.

All spread data is collected in real-time from Interactive Brokers (IBKR) via TWS (Trader Workstation) using the ib_insync library. Bid and ask prices are sampled every 30 seconds and aggregated into 5-minute averages.

The dashboard refreshes automatically every 60 seconds. Raw data is collected every 30 seconds during market hours. Outside of trading hours some instruments show no quotes — this is expected.

Forex markets reopen on Sunday at 22:00–23:00 UTC after the weekend. Liquidity is very thin at that moment — fewer market makers are active, so the gap between bid and ask widens significantly. This is especially visible in GBP pairs, Gold and Silver. Spreads typically normalize within 30–60 minutes.

Yes, the dashboard is completely free. No account required.

Currently 33 instruments across: Forex majors (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CHF, USD/CAD), Forex crosses (EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY), FX Futures (6E, 6B, 6J, 6A, 6S, 6N, 6C, RP, RY), Equity Futures (MES, NQ, DAX, ESTX50, GBL), Commodity Futures (CL, MCL, MGC, 1OZ, SI, ZW, MBT) and Metal CFDs (XAUUSD, XAGUSD).

Average spread is the arithmetic mean of all samples — it can be pulled upward by occasional spikes (e.g. during news events or low liquidity). Median is the middle value, so it better represents the "typical" spread you'll encounter during normal trading conditions. For most instruments the median is lower than the average.