Direct answer
Costs that can affect Multiple Targets fall into two groups: direct costs that are typically stated in your order pricing (such as spread and commission), and indirect costs that show up during execution (such as slippage and changing spreads). The size and timing of these costs depend on market conditions, execution quality, and how your provider processes multi-exit order logic. Because those inputs are variable, the facts you can confirm are the provider’s fee rules and your own recorded execution results.
Mechanism and definition
Multiple Targets means a single trade concept with more than one take-profit level, where an order plan may generate one or multiple exit fills as price reaches different targets. In practice, cost impact comes from when and how fills occur.
Direct costs are usually applied per fill or per transaction, for example:
- Spread: the difference between quoted bid and ask, which effectively determines the entry cost and the effective exit price for each filled leg.
- Commission or fees: charges that may be per lot, per trade, or otherwise linked to each executed portion.
Indirect costs are execution-related and can change even if your published fee schedule stays the same:
- Slippage: the difference between the intended execution price and the actual fill price.
- Spread widening during movement: if liquidity drops or volatility rises, the spread can change between targets, shifting the effective exit price.
- Fill timing and partial fills: if only some portions fill at the first target and the rest behave differently than expected, the cost pattern across targets changes.
Assumption for examples: The same instrument is traded under the same provider rules, and you compare outcomes using the same entry basis and the same target prices you set.
Evidence or example you can verify
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Check the fee schedule for what is charged per execution. If your provider charges commission per executed volume (or per round turn), Multiple Targets can increase total executed volume across multiple exits. Verify whether fees apply to each partial fill, not just the original entry.
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Record and compare intended vs actual fill prices. To assess slippage and spread effects, compute for each exit fill:
- Intended exit level (your target)
- Actual fill price
- Difference (actual minus intended, adjusted for whether you are buying or selling) This directly measures indirect execution costs. If you do this across several trades, you can see whether costs are stable or highly variable.
- Separate “pricing costs” from “execution costs.” A common failure mode is to treat every adverse price movement as “spread.” For verification, use your execution reports: if the actual fill reflects a gap larger than what spread alone would explain, slippage or re-pricing events are likely contributing.
Limitations and risks
Multiple Targets can fail to behave as expected due to execution mechanics. Material limitation and failure modes include:
- Partial fill and cancellation behavior: If one target fills first and the rest of the plan is modified, cancelled, or handled differently, your intended sequence can break.
- Latency and rapid price changes: Fast moves can cause multiple levels to be reached within short time windows, increasing slippage and making “which target filled when” harder to interpret.
- Changing liquidity: Spread widening and reduced depth can make costs larger and less predictable.
- Provider-specific order processing differences: The same label “Multiple Targets” can be implemented with different handling of order legs, fills, and post-fill behavior.
Because of these uncertainties, historical relationships between cost components and outcomes do not guarantee future results.
Verification or next question
To verify the cost impact for your own situation, focus on two independent checks:
- Provider documents: Identify the exact fee components and whether they apply per executed portion.
- Execution reports: Measure slippage and effective spread around each target fill.
A useful next question is: How does your provider define and report fills for multi-exit orders when only part of the plan executes or when spreads change quickly?