[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":972},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss-related":253},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":238,"date":239,"description":240,"draft":241,"extension":242,"meta":243,"navigation":241,"path":244,"related":245,"seo":249,"stem":250,"term":251,"updated":239,"__hash__":252},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss.md","What Is a Stop Loss? Types, Limits and Real Numbers",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":230},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,50,53,64,73,77,85,98,102,110,117,123,126,134,137,141,188,192,223],[10,11,12],"p",{},"A stop loss is an order placed in advance to close a position at a specified price, capping the loss on that trade. It is a decision made before the trade is open and handed to the broker's server, which is the entire point: it removes the exit from the moment when you will least want to take it. It caps intent, not outcome — the fill can be worse than the level.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"how-it-works","How it works",[10,19,20],{},"Four variants cover almost everything in use.",[22,23,24,32,38,44],"ul",{},[25,26,27,31],"li",{},[28,29,30],"strong",{},"Fixed stop."," A price level attached at entry and held on the broker's server. It survives a power cut, a crashed terminal and a lost connection, because it does not live on your machine.",[25,33,34,37],{},[28,35,36],{},"Trailing stop."," Follows price in the profitable direction and never moves back. It locks in gains and also turns winners into break-even trades in noisy markets. In MetaTrader the built-in version is managed by the terminal, so it only works while the platform runs — which is why EAs trail by modifying the server-side stop instead.",[25,39,40,43],{},[28,41,42],{},"Volatility-based stop."," Distance derived from current range, typically an ATR multiple, rather than a round number. The same 20-pip stop on EUR\u002FUSD and on gold is not the same risk.",[25,45,46,49],{},[28,47,48],{},"Time stop."," Exit after N hours or bars regardless of price. Rare, and underused.",[10,51,52],{},"Sizing follows from the stop, not the other way round:",[54,55,60],"pre",{"className":56,"code":58,"language":59},[57],"language-text","Position size = (Equity × Risk %) ÷ (Stop distance in pips × Pip value)\n","text",[61,62,58],"code",{"__ignoreMap":63},"",[10,65,66,67,72],{},"Choosing a lot size first and then hunting for a stop that fits the margin is the most common way an account acquires an unbounded loss. The ",[68,69,71],"a",{"href":70},"\u002Ftools\u002Fposition-size-calculator","position size calculator"," runs it in the correct order.",[14,74,76],{"id":75},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,78,79,80,84],{},"A stop loss is a trigger, not a price guarantee. Once the level trades, the order becomes a market order and fills at the next available price. In a gap — a Monday reopen, a rate surprise, the Swiss franc in January 2015 — that price can be a long way past the level. The difference is ",[68,81,83],{"href":82},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","slippage",", and it has no ceiling. Only a guaranteed stop loss, sold by some brokers for a fee, fills at the stated price.",[10,86,87,88,92,93,97],{},"The deeper function is behavioural. Without a pre-committed exit, the decision to close a loser is taken while holding it — the worst possible moment. Everything downstream — ",[68,89,91],{"href":90},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","profit factor",", drawdown, whether a ",[68,94,96],{"href":95},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-margin-call","margin call"," ever arrives — is decided there.",[14,99,101],{"id":100},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,103,104,105,109],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[68,106,108],{"href":107},"\u002Fguides\u002Fwin-rate-is-not-an-edge","median win rate"," is 68.8% and the median profit factor is 1.28. These describe accounts published here, not traders in general.",[10,111,112],{},[113,114],"img",{"alt":115,"src":116},"Median win rate of 68.8% beside a median profit factor of 1.28 across public ShowMyTrades accounts","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fwin-rate-vs-payoff.svg",[10,118,119],{},[120,121,122],"em",{},"Winning often and earning little is the pattern a pre-committed exit exists to break.",[10,124,125],{},"Read them together, because separately each one flatters. Nearly seven trades in ten close green, yet gross profit is only 1.28 times gross loss. Both hold at once only if losers are substantially larger than winners: at a 68.8% win rate, a 1.28 profit factor implies an average loss roughly 1.7 times the average win. (Two medians of two distributions — an illustration, not one measured account, though the direction is not in doubt.)",[10,127,128,129,133],{},"That is the signature of taking profits early and letting losses run, and it is the pattern a stop loss exists to prevent. It surfaces again in the median ",[68,130,132],{"href":131},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-the-sharpe-ratio","Sharpe ratio"," of 0.05: return per unit of volatility barely above zero. The median account closes 171 trades, so this is not a thin sample.",[10,135,136],{},"Nor is it hand-made. Median autotrading share is 99%, and 53.9% of these accounts run above 90% automation. A missing stop loss there is a missing line of code, applied identically to every trade the system takes.",[14,138,140],{"id":139},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[22,142,143,154,164,173,179],{},[25,144,145,146,149,150,153],{},"The ",[28,147,148],{},"trades table"," has an ",[28,151,152],{},"S\u002FL"," column showing the stop price recorded on each position, marked in red when the trade was actually closed by it. Hundreds of rows with an empty S\u002FL column means the account trades without pre-committed exits.",[25,155,156,159,160,163],{},[28,157,158],{},"Avg. Win"," and ",[28,161,162],{},"Avg. Loss"," in the advanced statistics. If Avg. Loss is a multiple of Avg. Win, stops are either absent or being moved.",[25,165,166,159,169,172],{},[28,167,168],{},"Worst Trade (P&L)",[28,170,171],{},"Worst Trade (Pips)",". The largest single loss the account has taken is the real stop loss, whatever the description claims.",[25,174,175,178],{},[28,176,177],{},"Expectancy",", shown in pips and account currency, is the per-trade average once wins and losses are combined — the number a high win rate cannot flatter.",[25,180,181,187],{},[68,182,184],{"href":183},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length",[28,185,186],{},"Avg. Trade Length",", in the same block, exposes the asymmetry: losers that last days and winners that last minutes.",[14,189,191],{"id":190},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[22,193,194,200,211,217],{},[25,195,196,199],{},[28,197,198],{},"\"A stop loss guarantees my maximum loss.\""," It caps the trigger, not the fill. Gaps and thin books fill worse, sometimes far worse.",[25,201,202,205,206,210],{},[28,203,204],{},"\"Wider stops are safer.\""," A wider stop at the same lot size is a larger loss. Distance and size are one decision, not two — see ",[68,207,209],{"href":208},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing","position sizing",".",[25,212,213,216],{},[28,214,215],{},"\"Moving the stop gives the trade room.\""," Moving a stop away from price converts a defined loss into an undefined one. This single habit produces the Avg. Loss to Avg. Win gap above.",[25,218,219,222],{},[28,220,221],{},"\"My win rate is high enough that I do not need stops.\""," Backwards. The median account here already wins 68.8% of its trades and still only reaches a 1.28 profit factor.",[10,224,225,226,210],{},"For what to watch on your own record over time, see ",[68,227,229],{"href":228},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftracking-trading-performance","the guide to tracking trading performance",{"title":63,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":232},2,[233,234,235,236,237],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":75,"depth":231,"text":76},{"id":100,"depth":231,"text":101},{"id":139,"depth":231,"text":140},{"id":190,"depth":231,"text":191},"Risk","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","A stop loss is a pre-committed exit order that closes a losing trade at a set price. Types, why it is not a guarantee, and what thousands of real accounts show.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss",[246,247,248],"what-is-position-sizing","what-is-a-profit-factor","what-is-slippage",{"title":5,"description":240},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss","Stop Loss","AAYa1iiPaOMw4kuu8v5SZJKK5hmXtrG8EOOybDzr9vg",[254,533,745],{"id":255,"title":256,"body":257,"category":522,"date":239,"description":523,"draft":524,"extension":242,"meta":525,"navigation":241,"path":90,"related":526,"seo":530,"stem":531,"term":423,"updated":239,"__hash__":532},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor.md","What Is Profit Factor? Formula, Good Values, Real Data",{"type":7,"value":258,"toc":515},[259,262,264,270,273,276,282,285,353,355,358,366,374,376,389,394,399,406,417,419,446,474,476,510],[10,260,261],{},"Profit factor is gross profit divided by gross loss: the total won across all winning trades, divided by the total lost across all losing trades. A profit factor of 1.50 means the account made $1.50 for every $1.00 it gave back. Below 1.00 the account loses money by construction, regardless of how often it wins.",[14,263,17],{"id":16},[54,265,268],{"className":266,"code":267,"language":59},[57],"Profit Factor = Gross Profit \u002F |Gross Loss|\n",[61,269,267],{"__ignoreMap":63},[10,271,272],{},"Note what the formula ignores: how long the account traded, how much capital it used, and how deep it fell along the way.",[10,274,275],{},"It can also be written in terms of win rate and average trade size, which is where it becomes diagnostic:",[54,277,280],{"className":278,"code":279,"language":59},[57],"Profit Factor = (Win Rate × Avg Win) \u002F ((1 − Win Rate) × Avg Loss)\n",[61,281,279],{"__ignoreMap":63},[10,283,284],{},"Two very different systems can land on the same value. A 30% win rate with winners four times the size of losers gives 1.71. An 80% win rate with winners half the size of losers gives 2.00. Both work; they fail differently and feel completely different to trade.",[286,287,288,301],"table",{},[289,290,291],"thead",{},[292,293,294,298],"tr",{},[295,296,297],"th",{},"Profit factor",[295,299,300],{},"Reading",[302,303,304,313,321,329,337,345],"tbody",{},[292,305,306,310],{},[307,308,309],"td",{},"Below 1.00",[307,311,312],{},"Loses money — structurally, not marginally",[292,314,315,318],{},[307,316,317],{},"1.00 – 1.10",[307,319,320],{},"Inside the noise. One bad week erases it",[292,322,323,326],{},[307,324,325],{},"1.10 – 1.30",[307,327,328],{},"Thin but real edge, if the sample is large",[292,330,331,334],{},[307,332,333],{},"1.30 – 2.00",[307,335,336],{},"A working strategy",[292,338,339,342],{},[307,340,341],{},"2.00 – 3.00",[307,343,344],{},"Strong. Check trade count and cost accounting",[292,346,347,350],{},[307,348,349],{},"Above 3.00",[307,351,352],{},"Rare on long histories: usually a short sample, a few outsized winners, or open losers not yet realised",[14,354,76],{"id":75},[10,356,357],{},"Profit factor is the cleanest single answer to \"does this system make money\", and it is much harder to dress up than a win rate, because every loss enters the denominator at full size.",[10,359,360,361,365],{},"It is not, however, a risk measure. Profit factor knows nothing about sequence: an account that made its money in one month and bled for eleven shows the same value as one that ground upward every week. Read it next to ",[68,362,364],{"href":363},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-maximum-drawdown","maximum drawdown",", or you are measuring the destination without the trip.",[10,367,368,369,373],{},"The same caution applies to a profit factor quoted from a ",[68,370,372],{"href":371},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","backtest",": optimisers maximise exactly this ratio, so a high backtested value often measures the fitting process rather than the strategy.",[14,375,101],{"id":100},[10,377,378,379,382,383,388],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. Across the published accounts that have trading history (August 2026), the ",[28,380,381],{},"median profit factor is 1.28"," and the ",[28,384,385,387],{},[68,386,108],{"href":107}," is 68.8%",". Both are calculated after costs here: swap and commission are folded into each trade before it is classed as a winner or a loser, so 1.28 is net, not gross.",[10,390,391],{},[113,392],{"alt":393,"src":116},"Medians across public ShowMyTrades accounts: a 68.8% win rate beside a 1.28 profit factor",[10,395,396],{},[120,397,398],{},"Two medians from the same set: the win rate looks strong, the edge behind it is thin.",[10,400,401,402,405],{},"That pairing is the point. Nearly seven trades in ten close green on the median account, and the whole edge still amounts to $1.28 earned for every $1.00 lost. Take an account sitting on both medians and invert the formula: its average winner is worth roughly ",[28,403,404],{},"0.58×"," its average loser. Winning often and earning well are separate achievements, and the first is far easier to manufacture — hold losers, cut winners, and the win rate climbs while the profit factor falls.",[10,407,408,409,412,413,416],{},"The median Sharpe ratio on the same set is ",[28,410,411],{},"0.05",", and the median account has ",[28,414,415],{},"171 closed trades",". At that sample size a profit factor above 3.00 is not evidence of a superior system; it is evidence that the sample is too small to have met its worst trade yet.",[14,418,140],{"id":139},[10,420,421,424,425,428,429,432,433,432,435,432,437,432,439,159,442,445],{},[28,422,423],{},"Profit Factor"," sits in the ",[28,426,427],{},"Advanced Statistics"," module on every published account page, alongside the numbers that explain it: ",[28,430,431],{},"Win Rate",", ",[28,434,158],{},[28,436,162],{},[28,438,177],{},[28,440,441],{},"Total Trades",[28,443,444],{},"Sharpe Ratio",". The six together say what the single ratio cannot.",[10,447,448,449,452,453,159,456,459,460,159,463,466,467,473],{},"Two product details matter. First, the costs already inside the ratio are itemised separately: the trades table carries ",[28,450,451],{},"Profit (Gross)"," with ",[28,454,455],{},"Swap",[28,457,458],{},"Commission"," as their own columns, and Advanced Statistics totals ",[28,461,462],{},"Total Commissions",[28,464,465],{},"Total Swap Paid",", so you can see how much the net figure absorbed. Across published accounts those totals stand at $4,782,670 in commissions and $862,547 in swap. Second, ",[68,468,470],{"href":469},"\u002Fguides\u002Fcustom-analysis-and-filter-presets",[28,471,472],{},"Custom Analysis"," recomputes the whole statistics block on a filtered subset — by date range, symbol, magic number, direction or lot size — which is how you check whether a profit factor holds up outside its best quarter or without its best symbol.",[14,475,191],{"id":190},[22,477,478,488,498,504],{},[25,479,480,483,484,210],{},[28,481,482],{},"\"Profit factor above 1 means I am profitable.\""," Only if costs are inside the ratio. Where they are not, a high-frequency system at 1.05 gross can be flat or negative ",[68,485,487],{"href":486},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-cost-percentage","once commission and swap are applied",[25,489,490,493,494,497],{},[28,491,492],{},"\"A high profit factor means low risk.\""," It says nothing about drawdown, position size or sequence. A martingale ",[68,495,496],{"href":208},"position-sizing"," progression can post 4.00 right up to the day it does not.",[25,499,500,503],{},[28,501,502],{},"\"It is comparable across timeframes.\""," It is not annualised. A scalper's 1.20 over 20,000 trades and a swing trader's 1.20 over 60 are not the same statement.",[25,505,506,509],{},[28,507,508],{},"\"Open trades do not affect it.\""," They do, by absence. Floating losses left open are excluded from gross loss entirely, which inflates the ratio until the position is closed.",[10,511,512,513,210],{},"For which metrics to track over time and in what order, see ",[68,514,229],{"href":228},{"title":63,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":516},[517,518,519,520,521],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":75,"depth":231,"text":76},{"id":100,"depth":231,"text":101},{"id":139,"depth":231,"text":140},{"id":190,"depth":231,"text":191},"Metrics","Profit factor is gross profit divided by gross loss. Below 1.0 an account loses by construction. Here are the bands and the 1.28 median across thousands of accounts.",false,{},[527,528,246,529],"what-is-drawdown","what-is-maximum-drawdown","what-is-backtesting",{"title":256,"description":523},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","0loLRuqRU0mx9nEOfjdEFW6U1Fb_JAC1jN2JQSkIjuE",{"id":534,"title":535,"body":536,"category":238,"date":239,"description":736,"draft":524,"extension":242,"meta":737,"navigation":241,"path":208,"related":738,"seo":741,"stem":742,"term":743,"updated":239,"__hash__":744},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing.md","What Is Position Sizing? Formula and Lot Size Calculation",{"type":7,"value":537,"toc":729},[538,546,548,551,557,560,566,573,576,596,602,607,609,612,620,622,637,640,655,657,662,689,691,722],[10,539,540,541,545],{},"Position sizing is the decision of how large a trade to open, derived from how much of the account you are willing to lose if the trade fails. It converts a risk percentage into a lot size using two inputs: the distance to your stop and the value of one pip at that size. It is the single variable that determines an account's ",[68,542,544],{"href":543},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-drawdown","drawdown"," profile, and it is chosen before the trade rather than discovered after it.",[14,547,17],{"id":16},[10,549,550],{},"Three steps, in order.",[54,552,555],{"className":553,"code":554,"language":59},[57],"1. Risk amount   = Account balance × Risk %\n2. Pip value     = Contract size × Pip in quote currency × FX rate to account currency\n3. Position size = Risk amount \u002F (Stop distance in pips × Pip value per lot)\n",[61,556,554],{"__ignoreMap":63},[10,558,559],{},"A worked example on a $10,000 account risking 1% per trade, with a 50-pip stop on EUR\u002FUSD, where one standard lot moves $10 per pip:",[54,561,564],{"className":562,"code":563,"language":59},[57],"Risk amount   = 10,000 × 0.01      = $100\nPosition size = 100 \u002F (50 × 10)    = 0.20 lots\n",[61,565,563],{"__ignoreMap":63},[10,567,568,569,572],{},"Widen the stop to 100 pips and the same $100 of risk buys 0.10 lots. The risk stays constant; the size adapts. That inversion is the whole idea, and it is why sizing and ",[68,570,571],{"href":244},"stop-loss"," placement cannot be decided separately.",[10,574,575],{},"Three methods dominate in practice:",[22,577,578,584,590],{},[25,579,580,583],{},[28,581,582],{},"Fixed lot."," Always 0.10 lots, whatever the stop or the balance. Simple, and the risk per trade drifts constantly as both change.",[25,585,586,589],{},[28,587,588],{},"Percentage risk (fixed fractional)."," The formula above. Risk stays proportional, so losses shrink in currency terms as the account falls — the mechanism that makes recovery arithmetically possible.",[25,591,592,595],{},[28,593,594],{},"Martingale progression."," Size increases after a loss to recover it. Wins are frequent and small, the equity curve looks immaculate, and the distribution of outcomes has a fat left tail that arrives all at once.",[10,597,598],{},[113,599],{"alt":600,"src":601},"Doubling the lot size after every loss against a fixed fraction of equity: same win rate, same market, opposite outcomes","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Flot-progression.svg",[10,603,604],{},[120,605,606],{},"Which one an account uses is readable from the lot sizes alone.",[14,608,76],{"id":75},[10,610,611],{},"Entries decide whether you win. Sizing decides whether you are still there for the next one. Two traders taking identical signals with identical stops produce identical win rates and completely different accounts, because one risked 0.5% and the other risked 8%.",[10,613,614,615,619],{},"Sizing is also where ",[68,616,618],{"href":617},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-leverage","leverage"," does its actual damage. High leverage is not itself risk — it is permission to take risk. The risk arrives when that permission is used to open a size whose stop distance implies a loss the account cannot absorb twice in a row.",[14,621,101],{"id":100},[10,623,624,625,628,629,632,633,636],{},"Sizing leaves its signature in the drawdown tail. Across the accounts published on ShowMyTrades that have trading history (August 2026) — accounts published here, not traders in general — ",[28,626,627],{},"38.2%"," have been ",[68,630,631],{"href":363},"more than 20% underwater"," at some point and ",[28,634,635],{},"17.6%"," have lost more than half their peak value.",[10,638,639],{},"A properly sized fixed-fractional account rarely reaches that last band. Losing 50% at 1% risk per trade requires roughly 69 consecutive losses. Accounts in that tail generally arrived another way: escalating size after losses, or a size chosen without reference to the stop at all.",[10,641,642,643,646,647,650,651,654],{},"Context for who is doing the sizing: the median autotrading share on these accounts is ",[28,644,645],{},"99%",", and ",[28,648,649],{},"53.9%"," run above 90% automated, against ",[28,652,653],{},"42.2%"," under 10%. On more than half of the published set, position size is a line in an EA's settings — configured once and never revisited as the balance moves.",[14,656,140],{"id":139},[10,658,145,659,661],{},[68,660,71],{"href":70}," runs the formula above with live prices, in your account currency, for percentage or fixed-amount risk and for stops expressed in price or pips.",[10,663,664,665,667,668,671,672,674,675,678,679,685,686,688],{},"On a published account page you can audit sizing rather than assume it. The ",[28,666,148],{}," carries a ",[28,669,670],{},"Volume"," column showing the lot size of every individual trade, so a size that steps up after each loser is visible directly. ",[28,673,472],{}," adds a ",[28,676,677],{},"Lot Size"," min\u002Fmax filter: set a floor above the account's normal size and see whether the surviving trades cluster immediately after losses, which is the martingale signature. ",[28,680,681],{},[68,682,684],{"href":683},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-volume-analysis","Total Lots"," in the ",[28,687,427],{}," module gives the aggregate; across published accounts it stands at 1,724,575 lots traded.",[14,690,191],{"id":190},[22,692,693,699,710,716],{},[25,694,695,698],{},[28,696,697],{},"\"Risking 2% means using 2% of my account.\""," No. 2% is the loss if the stop is hit. The margin the position occupies is a separate figure entirely, set by leverage.",[25,700,701,704,705,709],{},[28,702,703],{},"\"I risk 1% per trade, so my worst case is 1%.\""," Only with one position open. ",[68,706,708],{"href":707},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-correlation-risk","Five correlated positions"," at 1% each are one 5% trade wearing a disguise, and correlated pairs move together precisely when it hurts.",[25,711,712,715],{},[28,713,714],{},"\"No stop loss, so no risk to calculate.\""," Without a stop, the position size formula has no denominator — the risk is not small, it is undefined, and its true value is the margin call.",[25,717,718,721],{},[28,719,720],{},"\"Compounding means scaling up.\""," Fixed-fractional sizing scales both ways. Increasing lots after wins while holding them constant after losses is not compounding; it is a slow ratchet toward a drawdown you never sized for.",[10,723,724,725,210],{},"For the full set of risk and sizing tools and when each one applies, see ",[68,726,728],{"href":727},"\u002Fguides\u002Fforex-calculators-guide","the forex calculators guide",{"title":63,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":730},[731,732,733,734,735],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":75,"depth":231,"text":76},{"id":100,"depth":231,"text":101},{"id":139,"depth":231,"text":140},{"id":190,"depth":231,"text":191},"Position sizing turns a risk percentage into a lot size using your stop distance and pip value. The formula, the three common methods, and what bad sizing costs.",{},[527,528,739,740],"what-is-a-stop-loss","what-is-leverage",{"title":535,"description":736},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing","Position Sizing","qP5mfGAxSuWSiccKuy0i_N8LQtpN2UHwOG-ZOVxOViU",{"id":746,"title":747,"body":748,"category":962,"date":239,"description":963,"draft":241,"extension":242,"meta":964,"navigation":241,"path":82,"related":965,"seo":968,"stem":969,"term":970,"updated":239,"__hash__":971},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage.md","What Is Slippage? Definition, Causes and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":749,"toc":955},[750,753,755,761,764,770,776,786,793,795,805,813,815,834,845,847,850,919,921,948],[10,751,752],{},"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.",[14,754,17],{"id":16},[54,756,759],{"className":757,"code":758,"language":59},[57],"Slippage (pips) = (Fill price − Requested price) \u002F Pip size\n                  sign reversed for sell orders\n",[61,760,758],{"__ignoreMap":63},[10,762,763],{},"Three things produce it.",[10,765,766,769],{},[28,767,768],{},"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.",[10,771,772,775],{},[28,773,774],{},"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.",[10,777,778,781,782,785],{},[28,779,780],{},"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 ",[68,783,784],{"href":244},"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.",[10,787,788,789,792],{},"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. ",[28,790,791],{},"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.",[14,794,76],{"id":75},[10,796,797,798,800,801,804],{},"Slippage is the gap between a strategy on paper and the same strategy on a server. A ",[68,799,372],{"href":371}," run on historical bid prices with zero slippage assumes an execution model that does not exist, and the shorter the ",[68,802,803],{"href":183},"average trade",", the larger the share of the edge that assumption invents.",[10,806,807,808,812],{},"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 ",[68,809,811],{"href":810},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","spread"," and commission rather than instead of them.",[14,814,101],{"id":100},[10,816,817,818,646,821,824,825,828,829,833],{},"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 ",[28,819,820],{},"median autotrading share is 99%",[28,822,823],{},"53.9% of accounts are more than 90% automated"," (42.2% are under 10%). Those accounts reach ",[28,826,827],{},"703 distinct broker servers"," — ",[68,830,832],{"href":831},"\u002Fguides\u002Fsame-strategy-different-brokers","the same strategy, sent to seven hundred different matching engines",", with seven hundred different latency profiles.",[10,835,836,837,840,841,844],{},"Holding periods make the exposure worse. On those accounts the ",[28,838,839],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account has closed ",[28,842,843],{},"171 trades",": execution cost is charged often, and each trade has little time for price movement to absorb it.",[14,846,140],{"id":139},[10,848,849],{},"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.",[22,851,852,888,911],{},[25,853,145,854,857,858,861,862,868,869,875,876,432,879,432,882,159,885,210],{},[28,855,856],{},"Terminal"," panel (",[28,859,860],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5) reports ",[28,863,864],{},[68,865,867],{"href":866},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","Ping",", the round-trip time between the terminal and the broker's trade server, and ",[28,870,871],{},[68,872,874],{"href":873},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission","Retransmission",", 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 ",[28,877,878],{},"Terminal build",[28,880,881],{},"Memory",[28,883,884],{},"Auto trading",[28,886,887],{},"DLL imports",[25,889,145,890,893,894,897,898,159,901,904,905,159,907,910],{},[28,891,892],{},"Closed Trades"," table under ",[28,895,896],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," carries ",[28,899,900],{},"Open Price",[28,902,903],{},"Close Price"," per ticket, next to the ",[28,906,152],{},[28,908,909],{},"T\u002FP"," columns. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest reading of slippage available from broker records.",[25,912,913,915,916,918],{},[28,914,171],{}," in ",[28,917,427],{}," 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.",[14,920,191],{"id":190},[922,923,924,930,936,942],"ol",{},[25,925,926,929],{},[28,927,928],{},"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.",[25,931,932,935],{},[28,933,934],{},"\"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.",[25,937,938,941],{},[28,939,940],{},"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.",[25,943,944,947],{},[28,945,946],{},"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.",[10,949,950,951,210],{},"For how ping, retransmission and the rest of the page fit together, read the ",[68,952,954],{"href":953},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","guide to reading a trading account dashboard",{"title":63,"searchDepth":231,"depth":231,"links":956},[957,958,959,960,961],{"id":16,"depth":231,"text":17},{"id":75,"depth":231,"text":76},{"id":100,"depth":231,"text":101},{"id":139,"depth":231,"text":140},{"id":190,"depth":231,"text":191},"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.",{},[966,739,967,529],"what-is-a-spread","what-is-a-vps",{"title":747,"description":963},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","Slippage","JLOyPs_NTBij0Irz000OtvybQcW-dMK5fckGo-AXXJo",1787415692488]