[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1137},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-copy-trading":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-copy-trading-related":299},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":283,"date":284,"description":285,"draft":286,"extension":287,"meta":288,"navigation":286,"path":289,"related":290,"seo":295,"stem":296,"term":297,"updated":284,"__hash__":298},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-copy-trading.md","What Is Copy Trading? How Copied Results Diverge",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":275},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,24,35,44,47,80,84,87,90,94,105,121,149,153,186,222,232,236,267],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Copy trading is an arrangement in which orders placed on one trading account are automatically reproduced on another, so the follower holds broadly the same positions as the source. The follower delegates entries, exits and timing, but keeps their own broker, their own account size and their own fills. That last part is why two accounts following the same signal almost never end the month with the same number.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"how-it-works","How it works",[10,19,20],{},"A copier sits between the two accounts. It watches the source for a new order, converts the size, and sends the equivalent order to the follower's account, usually within a fraction of a second. Closes, partial closes and stop modifications are relayed the same way.",[10,22,23],{},"The conversion step is where most of the outcome is decided. Three modes are common:",[25,26,31],"pre",{"className":27,"code":29,"language":30},[28],"language-text","Fixed lot      follower lot = 0.10                                 (same size every trade)\nProportional   follower lot = source lot × (follower equity \u002F source equity)\nRisk-adjusted  follower lot = follower equity × risk% \u002F (stop distance × pip value)\n","text",[32,33,29],"code",{"__ignoreMap":34},"",[10,36,37,38,43],{},"Fixed lot ignores account size entirely and is the mode that ruins small accounts copying large ones. Proportional keeps the ratio but inherits the source's risk appetite whole. Risk-adjusted is the only mode that is really ",[39,40,42],"a",{"href":41},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing","position sizing"," rather than mirroring, and it requires the source to use stops.",[10,45,46],{},"Three things then pull the copied result away from the original:",[48,49,50,63,74],"ul",{},[51,52,53,57,58,62],"li",{},[54,55,56],"strong",{},"Latency."," The copier reacts after the source fills. On fast entries the follower buys a slightly worse price, every time, in one direction. That is structural ",[39,59,61],{"href":60},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","slippage",", not bad luck.",[51,64,65,68,69,73],{},[54,66,67],{},"Spread and commission at your broker."," The source's edge was measured against the source's costs. Your ",[39,70,72],{"href":71},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","spread"," is a different number on the same instrument at the same second, and it is subtracted from every trade.",[51,75,76,79],{},[54,77,78],{},"Account size and rounding."," Minimum lot steps force rounding. On a small account a 0.03 lot signal becomes 0.01 or 0.10, and the proportion the copier was built to preserve is gone.",[14,81,83],{"id":82},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,85,86],{},"You inherit the source account's drawdown without inheriting the reason the trader stays in it. The person running the strategy knows why the position is open. You see only the loss, which is why followers usually disconnect near the bottom of a decline that the source rides out.",[10,88,89],{},"Costs also compound against you. A strategy with a small average win per trade can be profitable on the source's cost structure and unprofitable on yours, with identical trades, purely through spread and commission. Before copying anything, the source account is what you audit — not the marketing around it.",[14,91,93],{"id":92},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,95,96,97,100,101,104],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the median closed trade lasts ",[54,98,99],{},"2.4 hours"," and the median account has ",[54,102,103],{},"171 closed trades",". Short trades are where copier latency does the most damage, because a fixed delay is a larger share of a two-hour move than of a two-week one.",[10,106,107,108,111,112,115,116,120],{},"Venue matters too, and it varies enormously: the connected accounts sit on ",[54,109,110],{},"703 distinct broker servers",", and ",[54,113,114],{},"429 users"," run accounts at more than one broker. The ",[39,117,119],{"href":118},"\u002Fguides\u002Fsame-strategy-different-brokers","same strategy is genuinely executed at hundreds of different cost structures"," here.",[10,122,123,124,128,129,132,133,136,137,140,141,148],{},"The risk you would be adopting is not small either. The ",[39,125,127],{"href":126},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-maximum-drawdown","median deepest drawdown"," on those accounts is ",[54,130,131],{},"9.7%",", but ",[54,134,135],{},"38.2%"," have been more than 20% below their peak and ",[54,138,139],{},"17.6%"," have lost more than half of it. And of 10,000+ published accounts, only ",[54,142,143,144],{},"65 carry ",[39,145,147],{"href":146},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-verified-track-record","Track Record Verified"," — provenance is the exception, so check it before you copy.",[14,150,152],{"id":151},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[10,154,155,156,159,160,163,164,167,168,171,172,175,176,175,179,167,182,185],{},"The ",[54,157,158],{},"trades table"," is the due-diligence tool. Every closed trade shows Open Time, Close Time, Type, Symbol, Open Price, Close Price and ",[54,161,162],{},"Net P\u002FL",", with ",[54,165,166],{},"S\u002FL"," and ",[54,169,170],{},"T\u002FP"," on by default and ",[54,173,174],{},"Duration",", ",[54,177,178],{},"Swap",[54,180,181],{},"Commission",[54,183,184],{},"Magic"," available from the column menu. That is where you see whether entries are reachable at your latency and whether the strategy actually uses stops — which decides whether risk-adjusted copying is possible at all.",[10,187,188,189,192,193,197,198,175,204,167,207,210,211,197,214,217,218,221],{},"In ",[54,190,191],{},"Advanced Statistics",", the ",[194,195,196],"em",{},"Trades"," section carries ",[54,199,200],{},[39,201,203],{"href":202},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length","Avg. Trade Length",[54,205,206],{},"Total Commissions",[54,208,209],{},"Total Swap Paid",": the source's real cost load, which yours will differ from. The ",[194,212,213],{},"Performance Metrics",[54,215,216],{},"Expectancy",", the average result per trade that your extra spread eats into, and ",[54,219,220],{},"Z-Score (Probability)",", which says whether wins and losses arrive in streaks — the streak is what a follower has to sit through.",[10,223,224,227,228,231],{},[54,225,226],{},"Breakdown Statistics"," shows trade count and profit per symbol, split into Longs, Shorts and Total, so you can tell whether the record rests on majors or on instruments where spreads diverge most between brokers. The header's ",[194,229,230],{},"Info"," group names the platform, broker and leverage the record was produced on. None of the three is necessarily yours.",[14,233,235],{"id":234},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[48,237,238,244,250,256],{},[51,239,240,243],{},[54,241,242],{},"\"Same signals means same results.\""," It does not. Different broker, different fills, different costs, different size. Divergence is the default, not a malfunction.",[51,245,246,249],{},[54,247,248],{},"\"Proportional sizing makes it safe.\""," It makes it scaled. A 40% drawdown proportionally copied is still a 40% drawdown.",[51,251,252,255],{},[54,253,254],{},"\"The provider takes the risk.\""," The provider takes a fee. The margin call arrives on your account.",[51,257,258,261,262,266],{},[54,259,260],{},"\"A long track record on the source is enough.\""," Only if the data path is verified. Without ",[39,263,265],{"href":264},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-third-party-verification","third-party verification",", a long record is a long claim.",[10,268,269,270,274],{},"Before you mirror anyone's orders, read ",[39,271,273],{"href":272},"\u002Fguides\u002Fverifying-trading-performance-claims","how to verify performance claims",".",{"title":34,"searchDepth":276,"depth":276,"links":277},2,[278,279,280,281,282],{"id":16,"depth":276,"text":17},{"id":82,"depth":276,"text":83},{"id":92,"depth":276,"text":93},{"id":151,"depth":276,"text":152},{"id":234,"depth":276,"text":235},"Strategy","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","Copy trading reproduces one account's orders on another. Here are the three sizing modes, and why your result never matches the source account exactly.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-copy-trading",[291,292,293,294],"what-is-slippage","what-is-a-spread","what-is-position-sizing","what-is-third-party-verification",{"title":5,"description":285},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-copy-trading","Copy Trading","pyBosJcIC3D0CgfG1-pBCtOuV2lDHvxehjgx-mi3Zhc",[300,521,733,949],{"id":301,"title":302,"body":303,"category":509,"date":284,"description":510,"draft":511,"extension":287,"meta":512,"navigation":286,"path":71,"related":513,"seo":517,"stem":518,"term":519,"updated":284,"__hash__":520},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread.md","What Is a Spread in Forex? Definition and Real Costs",{"type":7,"value":304,"toc":502},[305,308,310,313,319,327,338,354,356,364,367,369,376,383,388,395,401,403,460,462,495],[10,306,307],{},"A spread is the difference between the bid price, at which you can sell, and the ask price, at which you can buy. It is what the broker charges for filling your order, and you pay it on every trade whether that trade wins or loses. On most retail accounts it is the largest single cost of trading and the only one that never appears as a line item on the statement.",[14,309,17],{"id":16},[10,311,312],{},"If EUR\u002FUSD is quoted 1.08432 \u002F 1.08442, the spread is 1.0 pip. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so the position opens showing a loss equal to the spread. The trade has to cover that distance before it is flat.",[25,314,317],{"className":315,"code":316,"language":30},[28],"Spread (pips)   = (Ask − Bid) \u002F Pip size\nCost per trade  = Spread (pips) × Pip value × Lots\n",[32,318,316],{"__ignoreMap":34},[10,320,321,322,326],{},"On a standard lot of EUR\u002FUSD the ",[39,323,325],{"href":324},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-pip","pip value"," is $10, so a 1.0 pip spread costs $10 per lot, charged once on the round turn.",[10,328,329,330,333,334,337],{},"There are two ways brokers price it. ",[54,331,332],{},"Spread-only"," accounts widen the quote and charge nothing else — the cost is buried in your fill price. ",[54,335,336],{},"Raw spread plus commission"," accounts quote close to the interbank price and bill the difference separately. The total can be identical; only the second model makes the cost visible.",[10,339,340,341,344,345,348,349,353],{},"Spreads are either ",[54,342,343],{},"fixed"," (constant, usually wider, quoted by a dealing desk) or ",[54,346,347],{},"variable"," (tracking real liquidity). Variable spreads sit near zero on majors during the London–New York overlap and widen sharply at economic releases, in the thin hour around the daily rollover, and at the Sunday open. The widening happens precisely when your ",[39,350,352],{"href":351},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss","stop loss"," is most likely to be hit.",[14,355,83],{"id":82},[10,357,358,359,363],{},"Spread scales with turnover, not with skill. A system targeting 5 pips per trade gives away ",[39,360,362],{"href":361},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-cost-percentage","20% of its gross edge"," to a 1-pip spread; a system targeting 200 pips gives away 0.5%. That single ratio decides whether a strategy survives at one broker and dies at another while the logic stays identical.",[10,365,366],{},"It also compounds invisibly. The median account published on ShowMyTrades closes 171 trades. One extra pip of spread across 171 standard lots is $1,710 — money that never shows anywhere except as a slightly worse equity curve.",[14,368,93],{"id":92},[10,370,371,372,375],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), traders have paid ",[54,373,374],{},"$4,782,670 in commissions",". That is only the visible half of execution cost: the spread portion cannot be totalled the same way, because it is priced into the fill rather than charged as a separate line.",[10,377,378],{},[379,380],"img",{"alt":381,"src":382},"The three broker cost lines: spread charged on every entry and exit and invisible in the P&L column, commission printed per trade, swap charged for time held — $4,782,670 in commissions and $862,547 in swap across public ShowMyTrades accounts","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fwhere-costs-hide.svg",[10,384,385],{},[194,386,387],{},"Only one of the three arrives with a number attached to it.",[10,389,390,391,394],{},"The scale of that hidden half is easy to bound. Those accounts have traded ",[54,392,393],{},"1,724,575 lots",". On a $10-per-pip instrument, a difference of just 0.2 pips in average spread across that volume is roughly $3.4 million — more than two thirds of all commissions ever recorded on the platform.",[10,396,397,398,400],{},"And the conditions genuinely differ: those accounts connect through ",[54,399,110],{},", and 429 users run accounts at more than one broker precisely to compare them.",[14,402,152],{"id":151},[48,404,405,424,434,454],{},[51,406,407,409,410,175,412,167,415,418,419,423],{},[54,408,191],{}," shows ",[54,411,206],{},[54,413,414],{},"Total Lots",[54,416,417],{},"Total Pips",". Divide the first by the second and you have ",[39,420,422],{"href":421},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbroker-cost-audit","that account's real commission per lot"," — a number brokers rarely publish in a comparable form.",[51,425,426,427,429,430,274],{},"The most useful check is ",[54,428,417],{}," against net profit. When an account is positive in pips but flat or negative in money, execution cost is consuming the edge. ",[39,431,433],{"href":432},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-cost-percentage","That gap is the spread and commission bill",[51,435,155,436,439,440,443,444,446,447,167,450,453],{},[54,437,438],{},"Closed Trades"," table under ",[54,441,442],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," carries a ",[54,445,181],{}," column per ticket, alongside ",[54,448,449],{},"Open Price",[54,451,452],{},"Close Price",", so you can see what an individual fill actually cost.",[51,455,155,456,459],{},[54,457,458],{},"account header"," carries the broker badge, with the trade server name in its tooltip, next to the account currency and leverage. That is what makes two accounts running the same strategy comparable at all.",[14,461,235],{"id":234},[463,464,465,471,477,483],"ol",{},[51,466,467,470],{},[54,468,469],{},"\"Zero spread\" does not mean free."," Zero- or raw-spread accounts move the cost into commission. Compare the total, not the headline.",[51,472,473,476],{},[54,474,475],{},"The advertised spread is a best case."," Brokers quote typical or minimum spreads measured in liquid hours. Your fills during a rate decision are a different number.",[51,478,479,482],{},[54,480,481],{},"Spread is not on the statement, so people assume they are not paying it."," It is deducted at entry, before the trade exists as a row.",[51,484,485,488,489,167,492,494],{},[54,486,487],{},"Spread alone does not rank a broker."," ",[39,490,178],{"href":491},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-swap-in-forex",[39,493,61],{"href":60}," belong in the same comparison, and a tight spread with poor execution is the more expensive deal.",[10,496,497,498,274],{},"To put real numbers on your own instrument and lot size, see the ",[39,499,501],{"href":500},"\u002Fguides\u002Fforex-calculators-guide","guide to forex calculators",{"title":34,"searchDepth":276,"depth":276,"links":503},[504,505,506,507,508],{"id":16,"depth":276,"text":17},{"id":82,"depth":276,"text":83},{"id":92,"depth":276,"text":93},{"id":151,"depth":276,"text":152},{"id":234,"depth":276,"text":235},"Costs","A spread is the gap between the bid and ask price, the cost you pay to enter a trade. Here is how it works, what it costs per lot, and why brokers differ.",false,{},[514,291,515,516],"what-is-a-swap-in-forex","what-is-a-regulated-broker","what-is-a-profit-factor",{"title":302,"description":510},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","Spread","_HiS3N0q5xG6kWJPv01Kjk02mu226hR7wa-SzSCJ0_U",{"id":522,"title":523,"body":524,"category":721,"date":284,"description":722,"draft":511,"extension":287,"meta":723,"navigation":286,"path":41,"related":724,"seo":729,"stem":730,"term":731,"updated":284,"__hash__":732},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing.md","What Is Position Sizing? Formula and Lot Size Calculation",{"type":7,"value":525,"toc":714},[526,534,536,539,545,548,554,561,564,584,590,595,597,600,608,610,623,626,640,642,649,675,677,708],[10,527,528,529,533],{},"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 ",[39,530,532],{"href":531},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-drawdown","drawdown"," profile, and it is chosen before the trade rather than discovered after it.",[14,535,17],{"id":16},[10,537,538],{},"Three steps, in order.",[25,540,543],{"className":541,"code":542,"language":30},[28],"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",[32,544,542],{"__ignoreMap":34},[10,546,547],{},"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:",[25,549,552],{"className":550,"code":551,"language":30},[28],"Risk amount   = 10,000 × 0.01      = $100\nPosition size = 100 \u002F (50 × 10)    = 0.20 lots\n",[32,553,551],{"__ignoreMap":34},[10,555,556,557,560],{},"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 ",[39,558,559],{"href":351},"stop-loss"," placement cannot be decided separately.",[10,562,563],{},"Three methods dominate in practice:",[48,565,566,572,578],{},[51,567,568,571],{},[54,569,570],{},"Fixed lot."," Always 0.10 lots, whatever the stop or the balance. Simple, and the risk per trade drifts constantly as both change.",[51,573,574,577],{},[54,575,576],{},"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.",[51,579,580,583],{},[54,581,582],{},"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.",[10,585,586],{},[379,587],{"alt":588,"src":589},"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",[10,591,592],{},[194,593,594],{},"Which one an account uses is readable from the lot sizes alone.",[14,596,83],{"id":82},[10,598,599],{},"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%.",[10,601,602,603,607],{},"Sizing is also where ",[39,604,606],{"href":605},"\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.",[14,609,93],{"id":92},[10,611,612,613,615,616,619,620,622],{},"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 — ",[54,614,135],{}," have been ",[39,617,618],{"href":126},"more than 20% underwater"," at some point and ",[54,621,139],{}," have lost more than half their peak value.",[10,624,625],{},"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.",[10,627,628,629,111,632,635,636,639],{},"Context for who is doing the sizing: the median autotrading share on these accounts is ",[54,630,631],{},"99%",[54,633,634],{},"53.9%"," run above 90% automated, against ",[54,637,638],{},"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.",[14,641,152],{"id":151},[10,643,155,644,648],{},[39,645,647],{"href":646},"\u002Ftools\u002Fposition-size-calculator","position size calculator"," 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.",[10,650,651,652,443,654,657,658,661,662,665,666,671,672,674],{},"On a published account page you can audit sizing rather than assume it. The ",[54,653,158],{},[54,655,656],{},"Volume"," column showing the lot size of every individual trade, so a size that steps up after each loser is visible directly. ",[54,659,660],{},"Custom Analysis"," adds a ",[54,663,664],{},"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. ",[54,667,668],{},[39,669,414],{"href":670},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-volume-analysis"," in the ",[54,673,191],{}," module gives the aggregate; across published accounts it stands at 1,724,575 lots traded.",[14,676,235],{"id":234},[48,678,679,685,696,702],{},[51,680,681,684],{},[54,682,683],{},"\"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.",[51,686,687,690,691,695],{},[54,688,689],{},"\"I risk 1% per trade, so my worst case is 1%.\""," Only with one position open. ",[39,692,694],{"href":693},"\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.",[51,697,698,701],{},[54,699,700],{},"\"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.",[51,703,704,707],{},[54,705,706],{},"\"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.",[10,709,710,711,274],{},"For the full set of risk and sizing tools and when each one applies, see ",[39,712,713],{"href":500},"the forex calculators guide",{"title":34,"searchDepth":276,"depth":276,"links":715},[716,717,718,719,720],{"id":16,"depth":276,"text":17},{"id":82,"depth":276,"text":83},{"id":92,"depth":276,"text":93},{"id":151,"depth":276,"text":152},{"id":234,"depth":276,"text":235},"Risk","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.",{},[725,726,727,728],"what-is-drawdown","what-is-maximum-drawdown","what-is-a-stop-loss","what-is-leverage",{"title":523,"description":722},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing","Position Sizing","qP5mfGAxSuWSiccKuy0i_N8LQtpN2UHwOG-ZOVxOViU",{"id":734,"title":735,"body":736,"category":509,"date":284,"description":940,"draft":286,"extension":287,"meta":941,"navigation":286,"path":60,"related":942,"seo":945,"stem":946,"term":947,"updated":284,"__hash__":948},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage.md","What Is Slippage? Definition, Causes and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":737,"toc":933},[738,741,743,749,752,757,763,772,779,781,793,799,801,818,829,831,834,898,900,926],[10,739,740],{},"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.",[14,742,17],{"id":16},[25,744,747],{"className":745,"code":746,"language":30},[28],"Slippage (pips) = (Fill price − Requested price) \u002F Pip size\n                  sign reversed for sell orders\n",[32,748,746],{"__ignoreMap":34},[10,750,751],{},"Three things produce it.",[10,753,754,756],{},[54,755,56],{}," 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.",[10,758,759,762],{},[54,760,761],{},"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.",[10,764,765,768,769,771],{},[54,766,767],{},"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 ",[39,770,352],{"href":351}," — become market orders the moment they trigger, which is the single most important consequence: a stop guarantees your exit, not your exit price.",[10,773,774,775,778],{},"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. ",[54,776,777],{},"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.",[14,780,83],{"id":82},[10,782,783,784,788,789,792],{},"Slippage is the gap between a strategy on paper and the same strategy on a server. A ",[39,785,787],{"href":786},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","backtest"," run on historical bid prices with zero slippage assumes an execution model that does not exist, and the shorter the ",[39,790,791],{"href":202},"average trade",", the larger the share of the edge that assumption invents.",[10,794,795,796,798],{},"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 ",[39,797,72],{"href":71}," and commission rather than instead of them.",[14,800,93],{"id":92},[10,802,803,804,111,807,810,811,813,814,817],{},"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 ",[54,805,806],{},"median autotrading share is 99%",[54,808,809],{},"53.9% of accounts are more than 90% automated"," (42.2% are under 10%). Those accounts reach ",[54,812,110],{}," — ",[39,815,816],{"href":118},"the same strategy, sent to seven hundred different matching engines",", with seven hundred different latency profiles.",[10,819,820,821,824,825,828],{},"Holding periods make the exposure worse. On those accounts the ",[54,822,823],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account has closed ",[54,826,827],{},"171 trades",": execution cost is charged often, and each trade has little time for price movement to absorb it.",[14,830,152],{"id":151},[10,832,833],{},"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.",[48,835,836,872,889],{},[51,837,155,838,841,842,845,846,852,853,859,860,175,863,175,866,167,869,274],{},[54,839,840],{},"Terminal"," panel (",[54,843,844],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5) reports ",[54,847,848],{},[39,849,851],{"href":850},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","Ping",", the round-trip time between the terminal and the broker's trade server, and ",[54,854,855],{},[39,856,858],{"href":857},"\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 ",[54,861,862],{},"Terminal build",[54,864,865],{},"Memory",[54,867,868],{},"Auto trading",[54,870,871],{},"DLL imports",[51,873,155,874,439,876,878,879,167,881,883,884,167,886,888],{},[54,875,438],{},[54,877,442],{}," carries ",[54,880,449],{},[54,882,452],{}," per ticket, next to the ",[54,885,166],{},[54,887,170],{}," columns. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest reading of slippage available from broker records.",[51,890,891,894,895,897],{},[54,892,893],{},"Worst Trade (Pips)"," in ",[54,896,191],{}," 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.",[14,899,235],{"id":234},[463,901,902,908,914,920],{},[51,903,904,907],{},[54,905,906],{},"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.",[51,909,910,913],{},[54,911,912],{},"\"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.",[51,915,916,919],{},[54,917,918],{},"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.",[51,921,922,925],{},[54,923,924],{},"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.",[10,927,928,929,274],{},"For how ping, retransmission and the rest of the page fit together, read the ",[39,930,932],{"href":931},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","guide to reading a trading account dashboard",{"title":34,"searchDepth":276,"depth":276,"links":934},[935,936,937,938,939],{"id":16,"depth":276,"text":17},{"id":82,"depth":276,"text":83},{"id":92,"depth":276,"text":93},{"id":151,"depth":276,"text":152},{"id":234,"depth":276,"text":235},"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.",{},[292,727,943,944],"what-is-a-vps","what-is-backtesting",{"title":735,"description":940},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","Slippage","JLOyPs_NTBij0Irz000OtvybQcW-dMK5fckGo-AXXJo",{"id":950,"title":951,"body":952,"category":1125,"date":284,"description":1126,"draft":286,"extension":287,"meta":1127,"navigation":286,"path":264,"related":1128,"seo":1133,"stem":1134,"term":1135,"updated":284,"__hash__":1136},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-third-party-verification.md","What Is Third-Party Verification in Trading?",{"type":7,"value":953,"toc":1118},[954,957,959,962,968,976,982,987,990,992,1002,1009,1011,1025,1035,1037,1050,1063,1083,1085,1111],[10,955,956],{},"Third-party verification is an arrangement where an independent platform reads trading results directly from the broker, over a path that carries data one way, so the published record has no step at which the trader could edit it. The trader supplies access, not data. That single distinction separates evidence from a claim, and it is the whole of what verification does.",[14,958,17],{"id":16},[10,960,961],{},"The chain has three links and one rule.",[25,963,966],{"className":964,"code":965,"language":30},[28],"broker server → independent read path → tracking platform → public page\n                          ↑\n              the trader can revoke this, but never edit it\n",[32,967,965],{"__ignoreMap":34},[10,969,970,971,975],{},"The connection is not the same on every platform. On MetaTrader it is the ",[39,972,974],{"href":973},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-mt4-investor-password","investor password",", a second credential the broker issues that can read balance, equity and full closed history but cannot open, modify or close a position — read-only by construction. On cTrader it is an OAuth2 authorisation granted through the trader's own cTrader ID, withdrawable whenever the trader chooses. On TradeLocker it is a REST connection whose credentials are held encrypted server-side and used only to read. What the three have in common is the part that matters: the record is read from the broker, and the trader has no step at which they can edit it.",[10,977,978],{},[379,979],{"alt":980,"src":981},"Four read-only connections: MT4 and MT5 by investor password, cTrader by OAuth, TradeLocker by REST API with credentials encrypted server-side","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Ffour-platforms.svg",[10,983,984],{},[194,985,986],{},"Different credentials, one property in common: none of them can send an order.",[10,988,989],{},"Two separate questions hide inside the phrase, and they need two separate answers. Whether the data is real is settled by the connection. Whether the publisher is the person who traded it is not — an investor password can be handed to anyone — so proving ownership requires an action only a full-access holder can perform inside the platform.",[14,991,83],{"id":82},[10,993,994,995,997,998,274],{},"Everything downstream of the connection is arithmetic on the inputs. If the inputs are editable, the profit factor, the ",[39,996,532],{"href":531}," and the equity curve are decoration, however detailed the page looks. Screenshots, PDF statements and spreadsheets share one defect: ",[39,999,1001],{"href":1000},"\u002Fguides\u002Fverified-vs-unverified-track-records","they are produced by the party asking to be trusted",[10,1003,1004,1005,1008],{},"What verification does not prove is equally definite. It says nothing about skill, nothing about whether the strategy survives the next regime, nothing about the other accounts the same person runs and did not publish, and nothing about whether the record is worth ",[39,1006,1007],{"href":289},"copying",". It removes a specific set of lies from the table so that the uncertainty left over is honest uncertainty. That is a real service and a narrow one.",[14,1010,93],{"id":92},[10,1012,1013,1014,1017,1018,1021,1022,1024],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. ",[54,1015,1016],{},"10,000+ accounts are connected"," here (August 2026), resting on ",[54,1019,1020],{},"15,436,464 synchronised trades"," across ",[54,1023,110],{},". That is the volume of data the question applies to.",[10,1026,1027,1028,167,1031,1034],{},"Against it, ",[54,1029,1030],{},"65 published accounts carry Track Record Verified",[54,1032,1033],{},"264 carry Trading Privileges Verified",". The distance between those two counts is the informative part: proving you can trade an account is a cheaper action than opening an independent read path into it, and it is the read path that decides whether the numbers are evidence. Roughly three published pages in a hundred carry that badge, so \"where did this data come from\" gets a different answer on almost every page you open.",[14,1036,152],{"id":151},[10,1038,1039,1040,1045,1046,1049],{},"Which mechanism verified a page is written on the page itself. The ",[54,1041,1042],{},[39,1043,1044],{"href":146},"Track Record"," badge in the account header carries a tooltip naming the path used for that account — the read-only investor password on MT4 and MT5, the cTrader Open API authorisation on cTrader. The ",[54,1047,1048],{},"Trading Privileges"," badge names its own: on MetaTrader, a pending order placed with the owner's ShowMyTrades user ID in the comment field, an action only a full-access holder can perform. Read both tooltips and you know which of the two questions above the page has answered.",[10,1051,1052,1053,1055,1056,192,1059,1062],{},"Next to them, the ",[194,1054,230],{}," group of the same header prints the ",[54,1057,1058],{},"platform",[54,1060,1061],{},"broker"," with its trade server behind the tooltip, the account currency, the leverage and whether the account trades manually or automatically. None of that is typed in by the owner; it arrives with the feed, which makes it the quickest cross-check against whatever the page claims in words.",[10,1064,1065,1066,1069,1070,175,1073,1075,1076,1082],{},"Everything below the header — ",[54,1067,1068],{},"Account Stats",", the charts viewer, ",[54,1071,1072],{},"Monthly Returns",[54,1074,191],{},", the trades table — is arithmetic on that same feed, and the header travels with the ",[54,1077,1078],{},[39,1079,1081],{"href":1080},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-widgets-and-embeds","Complete Dashboard"," widget, so an embed on someone else's site carries its provenance rather than borrowing the host's.",[14,1084,235],{"id":234},[48,1086,1087,1093,1099,1105],{},[51,1088,1089,1092],{},[54,1090,1091],{},"Read-only describes the data path, not your money."," An investor password cannot place, modify or close an order, and a verified feed gives the platform no ability to trade the account it reads.",[51,1094,1095,1098],{},[54,1096,1097],{},"Verification is a live state, not a stamp."," Revoke the credential and the feed stops and the badge turns grey. It attests to a connection that is open now, not to a claim made once.",[51,1100,1101,1104],{},[54,1102,1103],{},"The two badges answer different questions."," Provenance and ownership are separate problems, and a page can settle one without settling the other — 264 against 65 is what that looks like at scale.",[51,1106,1107,1110],{},[54,1108,1109],{},"Nothing about the strategy is certified."," What remains after verification is genuine uncertainty about method, regime and sample size, and it is still the larger part of the decision.",[10,1112,1113,1114,274],{},"The full treatment — what each badge establishes, and the four things neither can prove — is in ",[39,1115,1117],{"href":1116},"\u002Fguides\u002Fthird-party-verification-explained","what third-party verification actually proves",{"title":34,"searchDepth":276,"depth":276,"links":1119},[1120,1121,1122,1123,1124],{"id":16,"depth":276,"text":17},{"id":82,"depth":276,"text":83},{"id":92,"depth":276,"text":93},{"id":151,"depth":276,"text":152},{"id":234,"depth":276,"text":235},"Verification","Third-party verification means an independent party reads the results straight from the broker, and the trader has no step where they can edit the record.",{},[1129,1130,1131,1132],"what-is-a-verified-track-record","what-is-an-mt4-investor-password","what-is-myfxbook","what-is-copy-trading",{"title":951,"description":1126},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-third-party-verification","Third-Party Verification","7uukXYP-rYIBVYNmit2aCt9mQPDa_HDPRNRavt-V9jk",1787415690152]