Slippage and Fees

Composer includes estimated trading costs in symphony backtests. These costs include Composer fees, regulatory fees, and slippage. 

The model simulates Composer fees of $30 per month over the course of the backtest. Please note that Composer also offers an annual plan at $288 per year (a 20% discount), which is not modeled. In addition, Composer fees are charged per account and not per symphony, so if you plan on investing in more than one symphony, your actual fees will be significantly lower than simulated.

The US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) charge regulatory fees on sales (i.e., selling a stock or an ETF). Composer does not benefit from these fees, and all proceeds go directly to the SEC and FINRA.

• SEC: $5.10 per $1,000,000 of principal (sells only) - this fee is rounded up to the nearest penny on each fill or partial-fill.
• FINRA Trading Activity Fee (TAF): $.000119 per share (sells only) - this fee is rounded up to the nearest penny on each fill or partial fill and will be no greater than $5.95.

In addition, trading costs include slippage, which captures the difference between hypothetical trades in the backtest and actual trades that incur spreads and experience price movement. Market conditions, liquidity, and bid-ask spreads can impact the amount of slippage.

Users can better understand how a live-trade symphony may perform by adding estimated trading costs to the backtest. Further, investors can customize slippage estimates to test symphony performance in times of market stress or evaluate the robustness of symphony performance.