[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1150},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account-related":291},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":275,"date":276,"description":277,"draft":278,"extension":279,"meta":280,"navigation":278,"path":281,"related":282,"seo":287,"stem":288,"term":289,"updated":276,"__hash__":290},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account.md","What Is a Demo Account? Demo vs Live Explained",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":267},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,72,83,86,90,93,101,109,113,132,135,146,150,153,223,227,259],[10,11,12],"p",{},"A demo account trades simulated money against a broker's price feed. A live account trades real money against real liquidity. The charts look identical, which is exactly why the gap between them is underestimated: what changes is not the price you see but the fill you get, the costs you are charged and the consequence of being wrong.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"how-it-works","How it works",[10,19,20],{},"A demo server accepts your order and confirms it against the quoted price. There is no counterparty, no position in a book and no capital at risk, so several constraints that shape a live fill simply do not exist.",[22,23,24,38,44,55,66],"ul",{},[25,26,27,31,32,37],"li",{},[28,29,30],"strong",{},"No depth, no queue."," Demo fills the whole order at the quoted price whatever the size. Live, an order works through available depth and the remainder ",[33,34,36],"a",{"href":35},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","fills worse",", or partially.",[25,39,40,43],{},[28,41,42],{},"No requotes, no rejections."," Demo servers rarely refuse an order. Live servers do, most often in the seconds when the trade mattered most.",[25,45,46,49,50,54],{},[28,47,48],{},"Idealised spread."," Demo feeds frequently carry typical rather than instantaneous ",[33,51,53],{"href":52},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","spread",", so the widening around releases and the daily rollover is muted or absent.",[25,56,57,60,61,65],{},[28,58,59],{},"Costs are modelled, not billed."," ",[33,62,64],{"href":63},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-swap-in-forex","Swap"," on demo may follow a stale schedule or none at all. Live swap is set per instrument, changes, and is charged triple on the rollover day.",[25,67,68,71],{},[28,69,70],{},"Unlimited resets."," A blown demo is refilled in one click and leaves no mark on the curve. A blown live account is the curve.",[73,74,79],"pre",{"className":75,"code":77,"language":78},[76],"language-text","Live result = demo result\n            - slippage on entries and exits\n            - entries that were rejected or requoted away\n            - real spread widening and real swap\n            - the trades you did not take because it was your money\n","text",[80,81,77],"code",{"__ignoreMap":82},"",[10,84,85],{},"The last line is not a joke. Position sizing, holding through a drawdown and following the plan are different activities when the money is real.",[14,87,89],{"id":88},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,91,92],{},"Every difference above runs the same direction. Demo does not add random noise to a result, it removes friction, and it removes it precisely where friction is expensive: at the entry, at the stop, and at the rollover. A demo track record is therefore an upper bound, not an estimate.",[10,94,95,96,100],{},"The effect scales with trade frequency and shrinks with target size, the same arithmetic that governs ",[33,97,99],{"href":98},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","backtesting",". On this platform the median trade lasts 2.4 hours — short enough that execution cost is a real share of the outcome, not a rounding error.",[10,102,103,104,108],{},"None of which makes demo useless. It is the correct place to check that an EA runs, that ",[33,105,107],{"href":106},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-magic-number","magic numbers"," are set and that lot calculations are right. It tests whether the system works. It does not test whether it earns.",[14,110,112],{"id":111},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,114,115,116,119,120,123,124,127,128,131],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the median account is up ",[28,117,118],{},"+3.2% time-weighted",", with a ",[28,121,122],{},"9.7% deepest drawdown"," and a ",[28,125,126],{},"median profit factor of 1.28",". ",[28,129,130],{},"63.0%"," are positive over time.",[10,133,134],{},"Those numbers include live accounts, and they are what real friction looks like at scale. A frictionless version of the same population would read better on every one of them, because none of the costs that produce them are fully charged on a demo server.",[10,136,137,138,141,142,145],{},"The largest of those costs are billed rather than modelled: ",[28,139,140],{},"$4,782,670"," in commission and ",[28,143,144],{},"$862,547"," in swap across that set. A demo server can display both figures and never has to collect either.",[14,147,149],{"id":148},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[10,151,152],{},"The point worth making is that this one is not self-declared.",[22,154,155,170,186,193],{},[25,156,157,158,161,162,165,166,169],{},"Every published account page shows a ",[28,159,160],{},"Certifications"," row in the header. The first badge reads ",[28,163,164],{},"Real Account"," or ",[28,167,168],{},"Demo Account",", and it is derived from the trade mode reported by the broker's server, not from a field the owner fills in. A server whose name contains \"demo\" resolves to Demo regardless of what else is reported. Hovering the badge explains what the status means for the numbers underneath.",[25,171,172,173,176,177,180,181,185],{},"Beside it sit ",[28,174,175],{},"Track Record"," and ",[28,178,179],{},"Trading Privileges",", marking whether history and ownership have been ",[33,182,184],{"href":183},"\u002Fguides\u002Fthird-party-verification-explained","independently corroborated",". Each shows a warning icon when they have not.",[25,187,188,189,192],{},"The ",[28,190,191],{},"Info"," row carries platform, broker with the trade server name in its tooltip, account currency and leverage — the environment the result was produced in.",[25,194,188,195,198,199,202,203,206,207,206,210,206,213,206,216,176,219,222],{},[28,196,197],{},"Terminal"," panel (",[28,200,201],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5) reports ",[28,204,205],{},"Ping",", ",[28,208,209],{},"Retransmission",[28,211,212],{},"Terminal build",[28,214,215],{},"Memory",[28,217,218],{},"Auto trading",[28,220,221],{},"DLL imports",": the live connection profile behind the fills.",[14,224,226],{"id":225},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[228,229,230,236,242,248],"ol",{},[25,231,232,235],{},[28,233,234],{},"\"Six months on demo means I'm ready.\""," It means the process works. Neither the fills nor the behaviour under a real drawdown have been tested.",[25,237,238,241],{},[28,239,240],{},"\"Demo prices are fake.\""," The feed is usually the real one. The simulation is in the fill, not the quote.",[25,243,244,247],{},[28,245,246],{},"\"A small live account is the same as demo.\""," It is far better, but very small accounts carry their own distortions — minimum lot sizes, cent-account scaling and commission that dwarfs a tiny balance.",[25,249,250,253,254,258],{},[28,251,252],{},"\"A demo record is still a record.\""," It is a record of code that runs. ",[33,255,257],{"href":256},"\u002Fguides\u002Ffinding-real-trading-accounts","Anyone reading a published result"," should check the account-type badge first, before the return.",[10,260,261,262,266],{},"For the patterns that separate a real result from a polished one, read ",[33,263,265],{"href":264},"\u002Fguides\u002Fspotting-fake-ea-results","spotting fake EA results",".",{"title":82,"searchDepth":268,"depth":268,"links":269},2,[270,271,272,273,274],{"id":16,"depth":268,"text":17},{"id":88,"depth":268,"text":89},{"id":111,"depth":268,"text":112},{"id":148,"depth":268,"text":149},{"id":225,"depth":268,"text":226},"Brokers","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","A demo account trades simulated money on real prices. Why demo fills flatter a strategy, and how ShowMyTrades reads Real or Demo status from the broker.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account",[283,284,285,286],"what-is-backtesting","what-is-slippage","what-is-order-execution","what-is-a-verified-track-record",{"title":5,"description":277},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-demo-vs-live-account","Demo vs Live Account","k47nyJkeiVE77BgYlrP3uoOnoHLeksfWxEFL_2at1lI",[292,479,701,946],{"id":293,"title":294,"body":295,"category":466,"date":276,"description":467,"draft":468,"extension":279,"meta":469,"navigation":278,"path":470,"related":471,"seo":475,"stem":476,"term":477,"updated":276,"__hash__":478},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-verified-track-record.md","What Is a Verified Track Record? Definition and Checks",{"type":7,"value":296,"toc":459},[297,300,302,324,330,333,340,346,348,361,364,366,376,392,394,410,421,423,452],[10,298,299],{},"A verified track record is a record of trading results that arrives directly from the broker through a read-only connection, continuously, with no step in the chain where the publisher can edit, delete or re-order anything. It is the difference between a claim and evidence. Two separate questions hide inside the phrase, and most arguments about verification come from confusing them.",[14,301,17],{"id":16},[10,303,304,305,206,309,313,314,318,319,323],{},"The first question is whether the data is real. That is answered by the connection itself: a channel that can read the account but never write to it, running without interruption, so the record is built continuously rather than exported at a convenient moment. On ShowMyTrades that channel is one of four — an Expert Advisor installed in MetaTrader 4 or 5, a direct connection using the ",[33,306,308],{"href":307},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-mt4-investor-password","MT4 investor password",[33,310,312],{"href":311},"\u002Fctrader-account-tracking","cTrader OAuth2 authorisation",", or the ",[33,315,317],{"href":316},"\u002Ftradelocker-tracking","TradeLocker REST API",". None of them can place, modify or close an order. Read-only credentials are the industry mechanism for this, and third-party trackers such as ",[33,320,322],{"href":321},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-myfxbook","Myfxbook"," connect MetaTrader accounts the same way.",[73,325,328],{"className":326,"code":327,"language":78},[76],"broker server → read-only connection → ShowMyTrades → public page\n                no editable step anywhere in the chain\n",[80,329,327],{"__ignoreMap":82},[10,331,332],{},"The second question is whether the person publishing the page owns the account. A read-only feed proves the trades exist; it does not prove whose they are, because an investor password can be handed to anyone. Closing that gap requires an action only someone with trading rights can perform: placing a pending order at an unreachable price with the publisher's user ID in the comment field. On cTrader, one OAuth authorisation answers both questions at once.",[10,334,335],{},[336,337],"img",{"alt":338,"src":339},"Track Record Verified answers whether the data arrived from the broker through a channel that cannot place, modify or close an order; Trading Privileges Verified answers whether the publisher controls the account","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Ftwo-badges.svg",[10,341,342],{},[343,344,345],"em",{},"A record can pass one and fail the other, which is why they are counted separately.",[14,347,89],{"id":88},[10,349,350,351,355,356,360],{},"Everything downstream of the connection is arithmetic. If the inputs can be edited, the profit factor, the ",[33,352,354],{"href":353},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-drawdown","drawdown"," and the ",[33,357,359],{"href":358},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-equity-curve","equity curve"," are all decoration, no matter how detailed the page looks. A screenshot, a PDF statement and a spreadsheet share the same defect: they are produced by the person asking you to trust them.",[10,362,363],{},"Continuity matters as much as read-only access. A record that can be paused and resumed lets a bad month disappear. When the feed is continuous, an interruption is itself visible on the page — which is information, not an absence of it.",[14,365,112],{"id":111},[10,367,368,369,176,372,375],{},"Verification is opt-in and requires effort, and the numbers reflect that. Across the 10,000+ accounts published on ShowMyTrades (August 2026), only ",[28,370,371],{},"65 carry Track Record Verified",[28,373,374],{},"264 carry Trading Privileges Verified",". More accounts prove ownership than prove data provenance, because placing one pending order is easier than changing a password at the broker.",[10,377,378,379,383,384,387,388,391],{},"Verified does not mean good. Across the public accounts with trading history, median ",[33,380,382],{"href":381},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-time-weighted-return","time-weighted return"," is ",[28,385,386],{},"+3.2%",", 63.0% are positive, and the median deepest drawdown is ",[28,389,390],{},"9.7%"," — with 17.6% of accounts having lost more than half their peak value at some point. That distribution, built from 15,436,464 synchronised trades, is what an honest record looks like, and it is nothing like the ones used in advertising.",[14,393,149],{"id":148},[10,395,396,397,399,400,176,402,404,405,165,407,409],{},"Both badges sit in the ",[28,398,160],{}," group in the header of every account page, above the numbers: ",[28,401,175],{},[28,403,179],{},", green when granted and grey when not, each with a tooltip explaining what it certifies for that platform. The same group also shows ",[28,406,164],{},[28,408,168],{},", derived from the broker server rather than self-declared.",[10,411,412,413,416,417,420],{},"Verification is managed in the account settings, where the ",[28,414,415],{},"Investor Password (Optional)"," field lives — clear it and the Track Record badge turns grey on the same save. Both badges are also rendered inside the ",[28,418,419],{},"Complete Dashboard"," widget, which embeds the account header, so an embed on someone else's site carries its own provenance.",[14,422,226],{"id":225},[22,424,425,434,440,446],{},[25,426,427,60,430,433],{},[28,428,429],{},"A link to a tracking site is not verification.",[33,431,432],{"href":183},"Any platform can host an unverified account",". Look for the badge on the page, not for the domain in the URL.",[25,435,436,439],{},[28,437,438],{},"Track Record Verified does not prove ownership."," It proves the trades are real. Someone reselling another trader's investor password can produce a genuine feed of trades that are not theirs.",[25,441,442,445],{},[28,443,444],{},"Verified is not the same as profitable."," The badge certifies provenance and nothing else. Read gain and drawdown together afterwards.",[25,447,448,451],{},[28,449,450],{},"A verified demo account is still a demo account."," Demo fills are optimistic in exactly the conditions where live fills hurt.",[10,453,454,455,266],{},"The procedure for both badges, step by step: ",[33,456,458],{"href":457},"\u002Fguides\u002Fhow-to-verify-your-account","how to verify your trading account",{"title":82,"searchDepth":268,"depth":268,"links":460},[461,462,463,464,465],{"id":16,"depth":268,"text":17},{"id":88,"depth":268,"text":89},{"id":111,"depth":268,"text":112},{"id":148,"depth":268,"text":149},{"id":225,"depth":268,"text":226},"Verification","A verified track record is performance data pulled straight from the broker through a read-only link, continuously, with nothing the publisher can edit.",false,{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-verified-track-record",[472,473,474],"what-is-an-mt4-investor-password","what-is-myfxbook","what-is-drawdown",{"title":294,"description":467},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-verified-track-record","Verified Track Record","im3JV0qh8wz_ZbgStl23aUhUUL79OEa_VDXyYyMF254",{"id":480,"title":481,"body":482,"category":692,"date":276,"description":693,"draft":468,"extension":279,"meta":694,"navigation":278,"path":98,"related":695,"seo":697,"stem":698,"term":699,"updated":276,"__hash__":700},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting.md","What Is Backtesting? Definition, Limits and Live Data",{"type":7,"value":483,"toc":685},[484,487,489,492,498,501,528,536,538,541,544,546,557,580,589,595,600,602,610,636,646,648,678],[10,485,486],{},"Backtesting is the simulation of a trading strategy against historical price data to estimate how it would have performed. It produces an equity curve, a profit factor and a drawdown figure without a single order ever reaching a broker. Those outputs are a hypothesis about the strategy, not a record of it.",[14,488,17],{"id":16},[10,490,491],{},"The tester replays historical bars or ticks, applies the strategy's entry and exit rules to each one, and records a simulated fill. Everything that separates the simulation from reality lives in the cost and fill model:",[73,493,496],{"className":494,"code":495,"language":78},[76],"Net result per trade = Gross P&L − spread − commission − swap − slippage\n\nSpread cost  = spread (in price) × contract size × lots\nSwap         = swap rate × lots × nights held\n",[80,497,495],{"__ignoreMap":82},[10,499,500],{},"Three settings decide how honest the output is:",[22,502,503,509,518],{},[25,504,505,508],{},[28,506,507],{},"Modelling quality."," MT4 and MT5 report it as a percentage. \"Every tick\" interpolates from 1-minute bars unless you supply real tick data; \"control points\" and \"open prices only\" are approximations that flatter intrabar strategies badly.",[25,510,511,514,515,517],{},[28,512,513],{},"Spread assumption."," Most testers default to a fixed spread. Live spread widens at the rollover, on news and at the session open — exactly the moments many systems trade. A ",[33,516,53],{"href":52}," modelled at 0.8 pips and paid at 4.0 pips is a different strategy.",[25,519,520,523,524,527],{},[28,521,522],{},"Slippage and fill logic."," The tester assumes your order is filled at the requested price. ",[33,525,526],{"href":35},"Slippage",", rejected orders, requotes and partial fills do not exist in it.",[10,529,530,531,535],{},"There is a fourth problem the software does not report: the parameter set itself survived a search. If you ran 400 variants and kept the best one, the result you are reading was selected by hindsight. That is ",[33,532,534],{"href":533},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-curve-fitting","curve fitting",", and it is the single largest gap between tested and live performance.",[14,537,89],{"id":88},[10,539,540],{},"A backtest is the cheapest way to reject a bad idea and the most expensive way to confirm a good one. It can establish that a rule set is mechanically coherent, that it survives a rough cost assumption, and that its drawdown profile is something you could sit through. It cannot establish that the edge exists, because every input it uses is a reconstruction and every parameter it uses was chosen after the data was seen.",[10,542,543],{},"Anyone deciding where to put money should treat a backtest as a screening tool with a veto, never as evidence.",[14,545,112],{"id":111},[10,547,548,549,552,553,556],{},"ShowMyTrades publishes ",[28,550,551],{},"10,000+ accounts"," as public pages, resting on ",[28,554,555],{},"15,436,464 synchronised trades"," (August 2026). Not one of them is simulated: every trade in that count was filled by a broker and read back from it.",[10,558,559,560,563,564,383,568,571,572,383,576,579],{},"That published population is overwhelmingly automated — median autotrading share ",[28,561,562],{},"99%",", with 53.9% of accounts running above 90% automation and 42.2% below 10%. The automated portion consists, in the main, of strategies that were backtested before they were funded. Across the whole published set the median ",[33,565,567],{"href":566},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","profit factor",[28,569,570],{},"1.28"," and the median ",[33,573,575],{"href":574},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-the-sharpe-ratio","Sharpe ratio",[28,577,578],{},"0.05",". Those are the figures the tester reports were competing against.",[10,581,582,583,585,586,588],{},"Costs are the line a simulation most often understates, and here they are billed rather than assumed: ",[28,584,140],{}," charged in commission and ",[28,587,144],{}," in swap, with 86.3% of the accounts that carry any swap paying it net negative. A backtest set to zero swap on a strategy that holds positions overnight is not slightly optimistic; it is missing a recurring charge.",[10,590,591],{},[336,592],{"alt":593,"src":594},"Spread, commission and swap as three separate cost lines: $4,782,670 charged in commission and $862,547 in swap across public ShowMyTrades accounts","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fwhere-costs-hide.svg",[10,596,597],{},[343,598,599],{},"A tester with a fixed spread and no swap has left out two of the three.",[14,601,149],{"id":148},[10,603,604,605,609],{},"Nowhere, deliberately. ShowMyTrades does not host backtests, upload simulations or accept a strategy report as a ",[33,606,608],{"href":607},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-track-record","track record",". Every account page is synced read-only from the broker, which is why the numbers above describe executed trades rather than modelled ones.",[10,611,612,613,176,616,619,620,622,623,176,625,627,628,631,632,635],{},"The modules that expose what a backtest hides are: ",[28,614,615],{},"Total Commissions",[28,617,618],{},"Total Swap Paid"," in the Advanced Statistics block, the real cost of the strategy in account currency; the ",[28,621,197],{}," panel, which reports ",[28,624,205],{},[28,626,209],{}," to the trade server, the conditions your fills were actually obtained under; and ",[28,629,630],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression",", whose ",[28,633,634],{},"Closed Trades"," tab lists each executed order at the price it was genuinely filled at rather than the price a tester would have granted it.",[10,637,188,638,641,642,645],{},[28,639,640],{},"Track Record Verified"," badge, held by 65 accounts, and ",[28,643,644],{},"Trading Privileges Verified",", held by 264, mark the records where that broker-to-page chain has been checked rather than asserted.",[14,647,226],{"id":225},[22,649,650,656,666,672],{},[25,651,652,655],{},[28,653,654],{},"\"It used every tick, so it is accurate.\""," Tick modelling improves the price path, not the fill. Your broker's spread, execution and rejections are still absent.",[25,657,658,60,661,665],{},[28,659,660],{},"\"It was tested over ten years.\"",[33,662,664],{"href":663},"\u002Fguides\u002Fhow-much-history-a-track-record-needs","Length is not independence",". A decade that contained one dominant regime is one observation, not 2,500.",[25,667,668,671],{},[28,669,670],{},"\"Only three parameters were optimised.\""," Three parameters at twenty values each is 8,000 experiments. The winner of 8,000 experiments is partly lucky by construction.",[25,673,674,677],{},[28,675,676],{},"\"The demo forward test confirmed it.\""," Demo servers fill optimistically and never reject. A demo result is a second simulation, not a first live test.",[10,679,680,681,266],{},"Before you trust any performance figure, tested or live, work through ",[33,682,684],{"href":683},"\u002Fguides\u002Fverifying-trading-performance-claims","how to verify trading performance claims",{"title":82,"searchDepth":268,"depth":268,"links":686},[687,688,689,690,691],{"id":16,"depth":268,"text":17},{"id":88,"depth":268,"text":89},{"id":111,"depth":268,"text":112},{"id":148,"depth":268,"text":149},{"id":225,"depth":268,"text":226},"Strategy","Backtesting simulates a trading strategy on historical price data. What it can prove, what it cannot, and why live broker-synced results almost always differ.",{},[696,286,284],"what-is-curve-fitting",{"title":481,"description":693},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","Backtesting","he7JKboqSnysaWcJ_U_Uz3xPVvizet9GFQbrgkBSinQ",{"id":702,"title":703,"body":704,"category":275,"date":276,"description":935,"draft":278,"extension":279,"meta":936,"navigation":278,"path":937,"related":938,"seo":942,"stem":943,"term":944,"updated":276,"__hash__":945},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution.md","What Is Order Execution? Types, Requotes and Fills",{"type":7,"value":705,"toc":928},[706,714,716,719,728,738,749,752,758,766,768,771,774,776,787,790,805,807,890,892,921],[10,707,708,709,713],{},"Order execution is the process by which a broker turns an order request into a filled position at a specific price. It covers everything between your terminal sending the request and the server confirming a fill: ",[33,710,712],{"href":711},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-b-book-broker","routing",", price validation, and the decision to accept, requote or reject. Two accounts running identical logic at different brokers can produce different results for this reason alone, with no difference in the strategy at all.",[14,715,17],{"id":16},[10,717,718],{},"MetaTrader documents four execution modes — Request, Instant, Market and Exchange — but retail forex accounts run on two of them, and the difference between those two is what happens when the price moves while your request is in flight.",[10,720,721,724,725,266],{},[28,722,723],{},"Market execution."," The order fills at whatever price exists when it reaches the server. It cannot be rejected for price movement, so it effectively always fills — and it can ",[33,726,727],{"href":35},"slip",[10,729,730,733,734,737],{},[28,731,732],{},"Instant execution."," You request a specific price. If the market has moved beyond the broker's tolerance, the server returns a ",[28,735,736],{},"requote",": a new price you must accept or decline. No slippage, but no guarantee the trade opens at all.",[10,739,740,741,744,745,748],{},"Two further outcomes matter. A ",[28,742,743],{},"partial fill"," occurs when the size available at your price is smaller than your order, so part fills and the remainder either fills worse or is cancelled. A ",[28,746,747],{},"rejection"," returns an error code and no position.",[10,750,751],{},"The elapsed time decomposes cleanly:",[73,753,756],{"className":754,"code":755,"language":78},[76],"Round-trip time = terminal -> trade server        (network path)\n                + order validation and matching   (broker)\n                + trade server -> terminal        (confirmation)\n",[80,757,755],{"__ignoreMap":82},[10,759,760,761,765],{},"Only the middle term is the broker's execution speed. The first and third are network path, which is why moving a terminal onto a ",[33,762,764],{"href":763},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","VPS"," near the trade server changes measured execution without the broker changing anything.",[14,767,89],{"id":88},[10,769,770],{},"Execution is where a strategy stops being arithmetic. A backtest fills every order at the requested price, never gets requoted and never misses an entry. Live, each of those assumptions costs something, and the shorter the holding period the larger the share of the edge that execution decides rather than the signal.",[10,772,773],{},"Rejections are the under-counted half. Slippage at least shows up in the fill price, so it can be reasoned about after the fact. A trade that never opened leaves no record anywhere — and a strategy judged on the trades it managed to place is a survivorship-biased version of itself.",[14,775,112],{"id":111},[10,777,778,779,782,783,786],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), orders are sent to ",[28,780,781],{},"703 distinct broker servers",", and ",[28,784,785],{},"15,436,464 trades"," have been read back from them. There is no single execution environment here: seven hundred independently configured servers stand between the same instruction and the same market.",[10,788,789],{},"Every one of those 15,436,464 records is a fill. None is an attempt — broker history reports positions that opened, so requotes, rejections and cancelled remainders are missing from the count by construction, on this platform and on every other one built from broker records.",[10,791,792,793,176,796,799,800,804],{},"Comparison is still possible, but only by repetition. ",[28,794,795],{},"699 users run more than one account",[28,797,798],{},"429 run accounts at more than one broker",": ",[33,801,803],{"href":802},"\u002Fguides\u002Fsame-strategy-different-brokers","holding the logic constant and varying the server"," is the nearest thing to a controlled execution test a retail trader has.",[14,806,149],{"id":148},[22,808,809,835,864,885],{},[25,810,188,811,198,813,202,815,820,821,826,827,206,829,206,831,176,833,266],{},[28,812,197],{},[28,814,201],{},[28,816,817],{},[33,818,205],{"href":819},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping",", the round-trip time to the broker's trade server, and ",[28,822,823],{},[33,824,209],{"href":825},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission",", the share of network packets that had to be sent again. Under 50 ms is excellent; above 200 ms can mean slower order execution and more slippage. The same panel shows ",[28,828,212],{},[28,830,215],{},[28,832,218],{},[28,834,221],{},[25,836,188,837,839,840,842,843,206,846,206,849,206,852,206,855,206,858,176,861,863],{},[28,838,634],{}," table under ",[28,841,630],{}," carries ",[28,844,845],{},"Open Price",[28,847,848],{},"Close Price",[28,850,851],{},"S\u002FL",[28,853,854],{},"T\u002FP",[28,856,857],{},"Duration",[28,859,860],{},"Commission",[28,862,64],{}," per ticket. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest read on execution available from broker records.",[25,865,866,869,870,873,874,206,880,176,882,266],{},[28,867,868],{},"Advanced Statistics"," shows ",[28,871,872],{},"Worst Trade (Pips)"," — an outlier far beyond the account's usual stop distance is the fingerprint of a gapped or badly filled exit rather than a bad entry — plus ",[28,875,876],{},[33,877,879],{"href":878},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length","Avg. Trade Length",[28,881,615],{},[28,883,884],{},"Total Lots",[25,886,188,887,889],{},[28,888,191],{}," row in the account header carries the broker badge with the trade server name in its tooltip, next to platform, currency and leverage. The server, not the brand, identifies the execution environment.",[14,891,226],{"id":225},[228,893,894,900,906,915],{},[25,895,896,899],{},[28,897,898],{},"\"Market execution is worse than instant.\""," Neither is better. One buys price certainty at the cost of fill certainty; the other does the reverse. Which one hurts depends on the strategy.",[25,901,902,905],{},[28,903,904],{},"\"ECN, STP and NDD describe execution.\""," They are marketing labels, not regulated definitions, and they are not audited. Measure the account instead.",[25,907,908,911,912,914],{},[28,909,910],{},"\"Slow fills are the broker's fault.\""," Often the network path is. Check ",[28,913,205],{}," before drawing a conclusion about the server.",[25,916,917,920],{},[28,918,919],{},"\"Fast execution is good execution.\""," Speed without price quality is worthless. An order filled instantly three pips away is still three pips away.",[10,922,923,924,266],{},"For a method to compare execution and cost between two brokers, see the ",[33,925,927],{"href":926},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbroker-cost-audit","broker cost audit guide",{"title":82,"searchDepth":268,"depth":268,"links":929},[930,931,932,933,934],{"id":16,"depth":268,"text":17},{"id":88,"depth":268,"text":89},{"id":111,"depth":268,"text":112},{"id":148,"depth":268,"text":149},{"id":225,"depth":268,"text":226},"Order execution is how a broker turns your request into a filled trade. Market vs instant execution, requotes, partial fills, and how to measure quality.",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution",[284,939,940,941],"what-is-server-latency","what-is-a-b-book-broker","what-is-a-spread",{"title":703,"description":935},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution","Order Execution","oUI1tlc8dL3qnxp3T8uMtQ9xtrmbuLPGNNx8qX9JQho",{"id":947,"title":948,"body":949,"category":1141,"date":276,"description":1142,"draft":278,"extension":279,"meta":1143,"navigation":278,"path":35,"related":1144,"seo":1147,"stem":1148,"term":526,"updated":276,"__hash__":1149},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage.md","What Is Slippage? Definition, Causes and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":950,"toc":1134},[951,954,956,962,965,971,977,988,995,997,1008,1014,1016,1033,1044,1046,1049,1099,1101,1127],[10,952,953],{},"Slippage is the difference between the price you expected when you sent an order and the price at which it was actually filled. It happens because the market moves in the interval between your terminal sending the request and the broker's server matching it. It can run against you or in your favour, but it is not symmetric in practice: the conditions that produce large slippage are the same conditions in which a precise fill matters most.",[14,955,17],{"id":16},[73,957,960],{"className":958,"code":959,"language":78},[76],"Slippage (pips) = (Fill price − Requested price) \u002F Pip size\n                  sign reversed for sell orders\n",[80,961,959],{"__ignoreMap":82},[10,963,964],{},"Three things produce it.",[10,966,967,970],{},[28,968,969],{},"Latency."," Every millisecond between request and execution is time in which the price can change. Latency comes from the network path to the trade server, the terminal's own processing, and the broker's matching queue.",[10,972,973,976],{},[28,974,975],{},"Liquidity."," Your order is filled against the book. If the size available at the quoted price is smaller than your order, the remainder fills at the next level. This is why slippage grows with position size and shrinks with market depth.",[10,978,979,982,983,987],{},[28,980,981],{},"Order type."," Market orders fill at whatever price exists and therefore slip. Limit orders never slip, but they fail to fill, which is its own cost. Stop orders — including a ",[33,984,986],{"href":985},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss","stop loss"," — become market orders the moment they trigger, which is the single most important consequence: a stop guarantees your exit, not your exit price.",[10,989,990,991,994],{},"The worst conditions are predictable: scheduled economic releases, the thin window around the daily rollover, the Sunday open gap, and the moment a cluster of stops is triggered and drains the book. ",[28,992,993],{},"Positive slippage"," exists too — a fill better than requested — and a broker that passes it on while also passing on the negative is behaving symmetrically. One that keeps the good fills and gives you the bad ones is not.",[14,996,89],{"id":88},[10,998,999,1000,1003,1004,1007],{},"Slippage is the gap between a strategy on paper and the same strategy on a server. A ",[33,1001,1002],{"href":98},"backtest"," run on historical bid prices with zero slippage assumes an execution model that does not exist, and the shorter the ",[33,1005,1006],{"href":878},"average trade",", the larger the share of the edge that assumption invents.",[10,1009,1010,1011,1013],{},"The arithmetic is unforgiving at small targets. Half a pip of adverse slippage is a tenth of a five-pip target and a four-hundredth of a two-hundred-pip one, and it lands on top of ",[33,1012,53],{"href":52}," and commission rather than instead of them.",[14,1015,112],{"id":111},[10,1017,1018,1019,782,1022,1025,1026,1028,1029,1032],{},"Execution quality matters most to systems that fire without waiting for a convenient moment, and that is most of the platform. Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[28,1020,1021],{},"median autotrading share is 99%",[28,1023,1024],{},"53.9% of accounts are more than 90% automated"," (42.2% are under 10%). Those accounts reach ",[28,1027,781],{}," — ",[33,1030,1031],{"href":802},"the same strategy, sent to seven hundred different matching engines",", with seven hundred different latency profiles.",[10,1034,1035,1036,1039,1040,1043],{},"Holding periods make the exposure worse. On those accounts the ",[28,1037,1038],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account has closed ",[28,1041,1042],{},"171 trades",": execution cost is charged often, and each trade has little time for price movement to absorb it.",[14,1045,149],{"id":148},[10,1047,1048],{},"We do not record the price your terminal requested, so per-trade slippage is not a metric we publish, and no honest platform can publish it from broker data alone. What we do publish is the measurable half — the latency that produces it.",[22,1050,1051,1075,1091],{},[25,1052,188,1053,198,1055,202,1057,1061,1062,1066,1067,206,1069,206,1071,176,1073,266],{},[28,1054,197],{},[28,1056,201],{},[28,1058,1059],{},[33,1060,205],{"href":819},", the round-trip time between the terminal and the broker's trade server, and ",[28,1063,1064],{},[33,1065,209],{"href":825},", the share of network packets that had to be sent again. Under 50 ms ping is excellent; above 200 ms can mean slower execution and more slippage. Consistently high retransmission points to an unreliable network or a distant trade server. The same panel shows ",[28,1068,212],{},[28,1070,215],{},[28,1072,218],{},[28,1074,221],{},[25,1076,188,1077,839,1079,842,1081,176,1083,1085,1086,176,1088,1090],{},[28,1078,634],{},[28,1080,630],{},[28,1082,845],{},[28,1084,848],{}," per ticket, next to the ",[28,1087,851],{},[28,1089,854],{}," columns. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest reading of slippage available from broker records.",[25,1092,1093,1095,1096,1098],{},[28,1094,872],{}," in ",[28,1097,868],{}," is the fast check. A worst trade far deeper than the account's intended stop distance is the fingerprint of a gapped or slipped exit, not of a bad entry.",[14,1100,226],{"id":225},[228,1102,1103,1109,1115,1121],{},[25,1104,1105,1108],{},[28,1106,1107],{},"A stop loss guarantees the exit, not the price."," In a gap it fills at the first available price, which can be far beyond the level.",[25,1110,1111,1114],{},[28,1112,1113],{},"\"Zero slippage\" is not a promise anyone can keep"," on a market order. Guaranteed stops exist, but they are a separate product and they are paid for.",[25,1116,1117,1120],{},[28,1118,1119],{},"Slippage is not always a loss."," Check whether your fills are ever better than requested; if they never are, that is information about the broker.",[25,1122,1123,1126],{},[28,1124,1125],{},"Demo results are optimistic."," Demo servers do not model queue position or book depth, so a strategy that is flawless on demo can be marginal live.",[10,1128,1129,1130,266],{},"For how ping, retransmission and the rest of the page fit together, read the ",[33,1131,1133],{"href":1132},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","guide to reading a trading account dashboard",{"title":82,"searchDepth":268,"depth":268,"links":1135},[1136,1137,1138,1139,1140],{"id":16,"depth":268,"text":17},{"id":88,"depth":268,"text":89},{"id":111,"depth":268,"text":112},{"id":148,"depth":268,"text":149},{"id":225,"depth":268,"text":226},"Costs","Slippage is the difference between the price you expected and the price you got. Why it is worst when it hurts most, and how latency makes it measurable.",{},[941,1145,1146,283],"what-is-a-stop-loss","what-is-a-vps",{"title":948,"description":1142},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","JLOyPs_NTBij0Irz000OtvybQcW-dMK5fckGo-AXXJo",1787415685907]