A fee charged by a clearing house for its services. A clearing fee is most often associated with the trading of futures. Transaction fees often include both a brokerage fee and a clearing fee, but seldom include a delivery fee, since the actual delivery of the underlying asset in a future contract is rare.
A clearing fee is a variable cost, as the total amount of the fee may depend on the size of the transaction, the level of service required or the type of future being traded. The effect of clearing fees is felt by investors who trade several futures contracts in one day, since long positions spread the per-contract fee out over a longer period of time.