2020 was a really good year for trading commodity futures spreads. We are swing trading exchange supported spreads. We are not legging spreads manually and we are not buying bids and selling offers in an arbitrage or day trading scenario. We are taking advantage of cheap overnight margins, and retail commission rates are not a factor. We are not taking $12.50 out of a trade - we are taking much more than that. Paying $20 in fees and commissions for a one lot butterfly is not a problem if you're taking $750 out of the trade. In terms of liquidity - when comparing best bid and best offer there is always more volume on the intra market exchange supported futures spread than there is in the outright market. It's true for Corn, it's true for Eurodollars, it's true for Crude Oil. If you're considering a thin, esoteric market like Palladium or Oats or Electricity that might not be the case - but I would argue that you shouldn't be involved in those markets in any event unless you're a Commercial .