NDD Glossary
MetricPro

Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA)

syn. TCA

A post-trade analytical process that measures total execution costs including spread, slippage, market impact, and timing costs to evaluate execution quality.

Last updated: February 10, 2026
1

After trades are executed, TCA systems collect all execution data.

2

Each trade is compared against benchmarks: VWAP, arrival price, close price.

3

Costs are decomposed: explicit (commission, fees) and implicit (spread, slippage, market impact).

4

The analysis identifies patterns in execution quality across brokers, venues, and time periods.

5

Reports are generated for compliance, optimization, and broker evaluation.