[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1099},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution-related":297},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":281,"date":282,"description":283,"draft":284,"extension":285,"meta":286,"navigation":284,"path":287,"related":288,"seo":293,"stem":294,"term":295,"updated":282,"__hash__":296},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution.md","What Is Order Execution? Types, Requotes and Fills",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":273},"minimark",[9,19,24,27,39,49,60,63,74,82,86,89,92,96,107,110,126,130,232,236,266],[10,11,12,13,18],"p",{},"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: ",[14,15,17],"a",{"href":16},"\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.",[20,21,23],"h2",{"id":22},"how-it-works","How it works",[10,25,26],{},"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.",[10,28,29,33,34,38],{},[30,31,32],"strong",{},"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 ",[14,35,37],{"href":36},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","slip",".",[10,40,41,44,45,48],{},[30,42,43],{},"Instant execution."," You request a specific price. If the market has moved beyond the broker's tolerance, the server returns a ",[30,46,47],{},"requote",": a new price you must accept or decline. No slippage, but no guarantee the trade opens at all.",[10,50,51,52,55,56,59],{},"Two further outcomes matter. A ",[30,53,54],{},"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 ",[30,57,58],{},"rejection"," returns an error code and no position.",[10,61,62],{},"The elapsed time decomposes cleanly:",[64,65,70],"pre",{"className":66,"code":68,"language":69},[67],"language-text","Round-trip time = terminal -> trade server        (network path)\n                + order validation and matching   (broker)\n                + trade server -> terminal        (confirmation)\n","text",[71,72,68],"code",{"__ignoreMap":73},"",[10,75,76,77,81],{},"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 ",[14,78,80],{"href":79},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","VPS"," near the trade server changes measured execution without the broker changing anything.",[20,83,85],{"id":84},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,87,88],{},"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.",[10,90,91],{},"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.",[20,93,95],{"id":94},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,97,98,99,102,103,106],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), orders are sent to ",[30,100,101],{},"703 distinct broker servers",", and ",[30,104,105],{},"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.",[10,108,109],{},"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.",[10,111,112,113,116,117,120,121,125],{},"Comparison is still possible, but only by repetition. ",[30,114,115],{},"699 users run more than one account"," and ",[30,118,119],{},"429 run accounts at more than one broker",": ",[14,122,124],{"href":123},"\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.",[20,127,129],{"id":128},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[131,132,133,172,204,226],"ul",{},[134,135,136,137,140,141,144,145,151,152,158,159,162,163,162,166,116,169,38],"li",{},"The ",[30,138,139],{},"Terminal"," panel (",[30,142,143],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5) reports ",[30,146,147],{},[14,148,150],{"href":149},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","Ping",", the round-trip time to the broker's trade server, and ",[30,153,154],{},[14,155,157],{"href":156},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission","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 ",[30,160,161],{},"Terminal build",", ",[30,164,165],{},"Memory",[30,167,168],{},"Auto trading",[30,170,171],{},"DLL imports",[134,173,136,174,177,178,181,182,162,185,162,188,162,191,162,194,162,197,116,200,203],{},[30,175,176],{},"Closed Trades"," table under ",[30,179,180],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," carries ",[30,183,184],{},"Open Price",[30,186,187],{},"Close Price",[30,189,190],{},"S\u002FL",[30,192,193],{},"T\u002FP",[30,195,196],{},"Duration",[30,198,199],{},"Commission",[30,201,202],{},"Swap"," per ticket. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest read on execution available from broker records.",[134,205,206,209,210,213,214,162,220,116,223,38],{},[30,207,208],{},"Advanced Statistics"," shows ",[30,211,212],{},"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 ",[30,215,216],{},[14,217,219],{"href":218},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length","Avg. Trade Length",[30,221,222],{},"Total Commissions",[30,224,225],{},"Total Lots",[134,227,136,228,231],{},[30,229,230],{},"Info"," 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.",[20,233,235],{"id":234},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[237,238,239,245,251,260],"ol",{},[134,240,241,244],{},[30,242,243],{},"\"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.",[134,246,247,250],{},[30,248,249],{},"\"ECN, STP and NDD describe execution.\""," They are marketing labels, not regulated definitions, and they are not audited. Measure the account instead.",[134,252,253,256,257,259],{},[30,254,255],{},"\"Slow fills are the broker's fault.\""," Often the network path is. Check ",[30,258,150],{}," before drawing a conclusion about the server.",[134,261,262,265],{},[30,263,264],{},"\"Fast execution is good execution.\""," Speed without price quality is worthless. An order filled instantly three pips away is still three pips away.",[10,267,268,269,38],{},"For a method to compare execution and cost between two brokers, see the ",[14,270,272],{"href":271},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbroker-cost-audit","broker cost audit guide",{"title":73,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":275},2,[276,277,278,279,280],{"id":22,"depth":274,"text":23},{"id":84,"depth":274,"text":85},{"id":94,"depth":274,"text":95},{"id":128,"depth":274,"text":129},{"id":234,"depth":274,"text":235},"Brokers","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","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.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution",[289,290,291,292],"what-is-slippage","what-is-server-latency","what-is-a-b-book-broker","what-is-a-spread",{"title":5,"description":283},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution","Order Execution","oUI1tlc8dL3qnxp3T8uMtQ9xtrmbuLPGNNx8qX9JQho",[298,499,709,898],{"id":299,"title":300,"body":301,"category":281,"date":282,"description":490,"draft":284,"extension":285,"meta":491,"navigation":284,"path":16,"related":492,"seo":495,"stem":496,"term":497,"updated":282,"__hash__":498},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-b-book-broker.md","What Is a B-Book Broker? A-Book vs B-Book Explained",{"type":7,"value":302,"toc":483},[303,306,308,311,317,323,329,335,338,340,348,351,358,360,374,381,383,386,449,451,477],[10,304,305],{},"A B-book broker takes the other side of a client's trade on its own books instead of passing the order to an external liquidity provider. An A-book broker routes the order out and earns from a markup or commission on the flow. Both are legitimate, widely used business models, and most retail brokers operate both at once, deciding per client and per instrument which flow goes where.",[20,307,23],{"id":22},[10,309,310],{},"When your order reaches the broker, it is handled one of two ways.",[10,312,313,316],{},[30,314,315],{},"A-book."," The broker opens a matching position with a liquidity provider. Your profit is paid by that provider; the broker's revenue is the spread markup plus commission, and it is the same whether you win or lose.",[10,318,319,322],{},[30,320,321],{},"B-book."," The broker becomes your counterparty and holds the position internally. No external order is created. Your loss is its revenue and your profit is its cost.",[10,324,325,328],{},[30,326,327],{},"Hybrid routing"," is the normal case rather than the exception. Brokers classify flow — by client, size, instrument, historical profitability — internalise part of it and hedge the rest. Internalised flow also nets: one client long a lot and another short a lot cancel out, and the broker carries no market exposure while collecting both spreads.",[64,330,333],{"className":331,"code":332,"language":69},[67],"A-book revenue = markup + commission\nB-book revenue = markup + commission + net client losses - net client profits\n",[71,334,332],{"__ignoreMap":73},[10,336,337],{},"This is a description of order routing. It is not a description of conduct, and the two should not be collapsed into each other.",[20,339,85],{"id":84},[10,341,342,343,347],{},"The B-book model contains a structural conflict of interest: the firm's revenue improves when the client's account does not. That is a fact about the incentive, and it is worth understanding before choosing where to keep money. It is not, on its own, evidence about any particular broker's behaviour. Regulated firms operate under best-execution obligations, client-money segregation and reporting requirements that exist precisely because the incentive exists — which is why the ",[14,344,346],{"href":345},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-regulated-broker","regulator"," matters more than the routing model.",[10,349,350],{},"The trade-off also runs the other way. Internalisation is what makes micro lot sizes possible and what removes rejections for size. A pure A-book routes you to real liquidity, which means real requotes at thin moments, real partial fills and real minimum order sizes. Neither model is a ranking.",[10,352,353,354,357],{},"The practical problem is that routing is not observable from outside. Brokers are not required to publish per-order routing decisions, and no third party can reconstruct them from trade records. So the useful question is not which book you are on. It is what your own ",[14,355,356],{"href":287},"execution"," actually looks like.",[20,359,95],{"id":94},[10,361,362,363,365,366,369,370,373],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), accounts connect through ",[30,364,101],{},", and their owners have paid ",[30,367,368],{},"$4,782,670 in commissions"," on ",[30,371,372],{},"1,724,575 lots",". Cost of that kind is measurable because it is billed as its own line. Routing is not billed at all, which is why no figure on this page — or on any page assembled from broker records — discloses where an order went. Commission-based pricing is in use by firms on both sides of the distinction.",[10,375,376,377,380],{},"What can be compared is one environment against another. ",[30,378,379],{},"429 users here hold accounts at more than one broker",", and running the same rules on both over the same period separates cost and fill quality from the strategy itself. That comparison answers the question the routing label was standing in for, and it does so with numbers rather than inference.",[20,382,129],{"id":128},[10,384,385],{},"We do not label brokers A-book or B-book, and we will not: the information required to do it honestly is not available to us or to anyone outside the firm. What the account page gives you is the measurable surface.",[131,387,388,397,410,433],{},[134,389,136,390,392,393,396],{},[30,391,230],{}," row in the account header carries the broker badge with the ",[30,394,395],{},"trade server name"," in its tooltip. The server, not the brand, identifies the environment — a broker running several server groups often prices and executes differently across them.",[134,398,136,399,140,401,144,403,116,407,409],{},[30,400,139],{},[30,402,143],{},[14,404,405],{"href":149},[30,406,150],{},[30,408,157],{},", the connection quality behind every fill.",[134,411,412,209,414,162,416,162,418,116,421,424,425,428,429,38],{},[30,413,208],{},[30,415,222],{},[30,417,225],{},[30,419,420],{},"Total Pips",[30,422,423],{},"Total Swap Paid",". Commissions divided by lots is ",[14,426,427],{"href":271},"the account's real cost per lot","; pips positive while money is flat is ",[14,430,432],{"href":431},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-cost-percentage","execution cost eating the edge",[134,434,136,435,177,437,209,439,116,441,443,444,116,446,448],{},[30,436,176],{},[30,438,180],{},[30,440,184],{},[30,442,187],{}," against ",[30,445,190],{},[30,447,193],{},", ticket by ticket.",[20,450,235],{"id":234},[237,452,453,459,465,471],{},[134,454,455,458],{},[30,456,457],{},"\"B-book means the broker is trading against me personally.\""," Internalised flow is largely netted between clients. The firm's position is the residual, not a mirror of yours.",[134,460,461,464],{},[30,462,463],{},"\"A-book means no conflict of interest.\""," An A-book broker earns from turnover, so its incentive is volume — which is not automatically aligned with your survival either.",[134,466,467,470],{},[30,468,469],{},"\"ECN, STP or NDD in the name guarantees A-book.\""," Those terms are unregulated marketing labels and are not audited.",[134,472,473,476],{},[30,474,475],{},"\"A bad losing streak proves manipulation.\""," It usually proves variance. The way to test it is a second account elsewhere running the same rules, not a forum thread.",[10,478,479,480,38],{},"For a structured way to run that comparison, read ",[14,481,482],{"href":123},"running the same strategy at different brokers",{"title":73,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":484},[485,486,487,488,489],{"id":22,"depth":274,"text":23},{"id":84,"depth":274,"text":85},{"id":94,"depth":274,"text":95},{"id":128,"depth":274,"text":129},{"id":234,"depth":274,"text":235},"A B-book broker takes the other side of your trade instead of passing it to the market. How A-book and B-book routing differ, and what each one costs you.",{},[493,494,289,292],"what-is-order-execution","what-is-a-regulated-broker",{"title":300,"description":490},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-b-book-broker","B-Book Broker","1OwZ92QdYpDp21QJbG8Tgxb5BAZ67baZAh_47u0pHdo",{"id":500,"title":501,"body":502,"category":697,"date":282,"description":698,"draft":699,"extension":285,"meta":700,"navigation":284,"path":701,"related":702,"seo":705,"stem":706,"term":707,"updated":282,"__hash__":708},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread.md","What Is a Spread in Forex? Definition and Real Costs",{"type":7,"value":503,"toc":690},[504,507,509,512,518,526,537,553,555,562,565,567,573,580,586,592,598,600,648,650,683],[10,505,506],{},"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.",[20,508,23],{"id":22},[10,510,511],{},"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.",[64,513,516],{"className":514,"code":515,"language":69},[67],"Spread (pips)   = (Ask − Bid) \u002F Pip size\nCost per trade  = Spread (pips) × Pip value × Lots\n",[71,517,515],{"__ignoreMap":73},[10,519,520,521,525],{},"On a standard lot of EUR\u002FUSD the ",[14,522,524],{"href":523},"\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.",[10,527,528,529,532,533,536],{},"There are two ways brokers price it. ",[30,530,531],{},"Spread-only"," accounts widen the quote and charge nothing else — the cost is buried in your fill price. ",[30,534,535],{},"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.",[10,538,539,540,543,544,547,548,552],{},"Spreads are either ",[30,541,542],{},"fixed"," (constant, usually wider, quoted by a dealing desk) or ",[30,545,546],{},"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 ",[14,549,551],{"href":550},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss","stop loss"," is most likely to be hit.",[20,554,85],{"id":84},[10,556,557,558,561],{},"Spread scales with turnover, not with skill. A system targeting 5 pips per trade gives away ",[14,559,560],{"href":431},"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.",[10,563,564],{},"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.",[20,566,95],{"id":94},[10,568,569,570,572],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), traders have paid ",[30,571,368],{},". 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.",[10,574,575],{},[576,577],"img",{"alt":578,"src":579},"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",[10,581,582],{},[583,584,585],"em",{},"Only one of the three arrives with a number attached to it.",[10,587,588,589,591],{},"The scale of that hidden half is easy to bound. Those accounts have traded ",[30,590,372],{},". 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.",[10,593,594,595,597],{},"And the conditions genuinely differ: those accounts connect through ",[30,596,101],{},", and 429 users run accounts at more than one broker precisely to compare them.",[20,599,129],{"id":128},[131,601,602,617,627,642],{},[134,603,604,209,606,162,608,116,610,612,613,616],{},[30,605,208],{},[30,607,222],{},[30,609,225],{},[30,611,420],{},". Divide the first by the second and you have ",[14,614,615],{"href":271},"that account's real commission per lot"," — a number brokers rarely publish in a comparable form.",[134,618,619,620,622,623,38],{},"The most useful check is ",[30,621,420],{}," against net profit. When an account is positive in pips but flat or negative in money, execution cost is consuming the edge. ",[14,624,626],{"href":625},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-cost-percentage","That gap is the spread and commission bill",[134,628,136,629,177,631,633,634,636,637,116,639,641],{},[30,630,176],{},[30,632,180],{}," carries a ",[30,635,199],{}," column per ticket, alongside ",[30,638,184],{},[30,640,187],{},", so you can see what an individual fill actually cost.",[134,643,136,644,647],{},[30,645,646],{},"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.",[20,649,235],{"id":234},[237,651,652,658,664,670],{},[134,653,654,657],{},[30,655,656],{},"\"Zero spread\" does not mean free."," Zero- or raw-spread accounts move the cost into commission. Compare the total, not the headline.",[134,659,660,663],{},[30,661,662],{},"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.",[134,665,666,669],{},[30,667,668],{},"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.",[134,671,672,675,676,116,679,682],{},[30,673,674],{},"Spread alone does not rank a broker."," ",[14,677,202],{"href":678},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-swap-in-forex",[14,680,681],{"href":36},"slippage"," belong in the same comparison, and a tight spread with poor execution is the more expensive deal.",[10,684,685,686,38],{},"To put real numbers on your own instrument and lot size, see the ",[14,687,689],{"href":688},"\u002Fguides\u002Fforex-calculators-guide","guide to forex calculators",{"title":73,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":691},[692,693,694,695,696],{"id":22,"depth":274,"text":23},{"id":84,"depth":274,"text":85},{"id":94,"depth":274,"text":95},{"id":128,"depth":274,"text":129},{"id":234,"depth":274,"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,{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread",[703,289,494,704],"what-is-a-swap-in-forex","what-is-a-profit-factor",{"title":501,"description":698},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","Spread","_HiS3N0q5xG6kWJPv01Kjk02mu226hR7wa-SzSCJ0_U",{"id":710,"title":711,"body":712,"category":886,"date":282,"description":887,"draft":284,"extension":285,"meta":888,"navigation":284,"path":889,"related":890,"seo":894,"stem":895,"term":896,"updated":282,"__hash__":897},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency.md","What Is Server Latency? Ping, Retransmission, Slippage",{"type":7,"value":713,"toc":879},[714,723,725,731,737,745,752,754,760,763,766,768,791,805,807,819,834,840,842,872],[10,715,716,717,722],{},"Server latency is the time a message takes to travel from your trading terminal to the broker's trade server and back. MetaTrader reports it as ",[30,718,719],{},[14,720,721],{"href":149},"ping",", in milliseconds. It is a property of the route between two specific machines — not of your internet plan, and not of the broker alone.",[20,724,23],{"id":22},[64,726,729],{"className":727,"code":728,"language":69},[67],"Ping (ms) = terminal → trade server → terminal, one round trip\n",[71,730,728],{"__ignoreMap":73},[10,732,733,734,736],{},"Two things dominate it: physical distance and the number of network hops in between. Bandwidth barely enters into it. Light covers roughly 200 km per millisecond through fibre, the return leg doubles that, and every router adds its own queueing delay. A 500 Mbit home line in Sydney reaching a London server will always lose to a 10 Mbit ",[14,735,80],{"href":79}," in the same datacentre as the trade server.",[10,738,739,740,744],{},"Latency is charged twice per trade, in both directions. Prices reach your terminal late, so an ",[14,741,743],{"href":742},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-expert-advisor","Expert Advisor"," decides on a quote that has already aged; then the order takes the same trip back, so the market has moved again before the server sees it.",[10,746,747,751],{},[30,748,749],{},[14,750,157],{"href":156}," measures something different and, when it is high, worse. TCP guarantees delivery by re-sending any packet that is lost or unacknowledged, and the retransmission figure is the share that had to be sent again. A lost packet does not cost you one extra hop, it costs a timeout — so retransmission does not raise your average delay smoothly, it injects spikes. An account with 40 ms ping and visible retransmission has a less predictable link than one sitting steadily at 90 ms, and the spikes land at random moments relative to your open positions.",[20,753,85],{"id":84},[10,755,756,757,759],{},"Latency is the half of ",[14,758,681],{"href":36}," you can actually measure. Every millisecond between decision and fill is time in which the price can move, and the direction it moves is not random when the market is trending or reacting to news.",[10,761,762],{},"The exposure scales with how often you trade, not with how much you make. A position held for three weeks does not notice 200 ms; a system opening several trades a day pays that gap on every entry and every exit.",[10,764,765],{},"The asymmetry is what hurts: a link degrades under the same load that makes the market move, so your slowest round trip and your fastest price tend to arrive together rather than independently.",[20,767,95],{"id":94},[10,769,770,771,777,778,781,782,790],{},"Latency is billed per order, so what matters is how often an account trades and how thin its margin is. Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[30,772,773,776],{},[14,774,775],{"href":218},"median trade"," lasts 2.4 hours",", the median account has closed ",[30,779,780],{},"171 trades",", and the ",[30,783,784,785,789],{},"median ",[14,786,788],{"href":787},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","profit factor"," is 1.28",". At that margin, execution quality is not a rounding error on the result — it is a component of it.",[10,792,793,794,796,797,800,801,804],{},"Those accounts reach ",[30,795,101],{}," across ",[30,798,799],{},"15,436,464 synchronised trades",": seven hundred matching engines in seven hundred buildings, each a different distance from wherever the terminal happens to be running. And ",[30,802,803],{},"53.9% of accounts are more than 90% automated",", which means most orders here are sent the instant a condition is met, by something that cannot decide to wait for a calmer moment.",[20,806,129],{"id":128},[10,808,809,810,812,813,815,816,818],{},"Almost no public track record says anything about the machine that produced it. On an Expert Advisor connection, ours does: the ",[30,811,143],{}," module publishes ",[30,814,150],{}," to the trade server and ",[30,817,157],{}," beside the terminal's build, memory and permissions, with a connection badge, the time since the terminal last reported, and how many of your terminals are online.",[10,820,821,822,825,826,829,830,833],{},"Both figures are the terminal's own measurement of the route it is genuinely using, not an estimate from your location, and the thresholds we read them against sit in the tooltips rather than in anyone's head: under ",[30,823,824],{},"50 ms"," ping is excellent, above ",[30,827,828],{},"200 ms"," can mean slower execution and more slippage, and retransmission close to ",[30,831,832],{},"0%"," means a stable connection while consistently higher values point to an unreliable network or a distant trade server.",[10,835,836,837,839],{},"Two notes. A Direct Connection never touches your machine, so it reports none of this. And on MT4 the module is titled simply ",[30,838,139],{},", because the MT4 EA does not send the chart list.",[20,841,235],{"id":234},[131,843,844,850,856,862],{},[134,845,846,849],{},[30,847,848],{},"\"Ping is my execution speed.\""," Ping measures the network round trip and nothing else. The broker's own processing, its queue and any dealer intervention sit on top of that number and are invisible inside it.",[134,851,852,855],{},[30,853,854],{},"\"Faster internet lowers it.\""," An order is a few hundred bytes, so the width of the pipe is never the constraint. Its length is, which is why proximity to the trade server beats a bigger connection every time.",[134,857,858,861],{},[30,859,860],{},"\"The average looks fine, so the link is fine.\""," An average conceals spikes, and spikes are precisely what the retransmission figure is reporting. Orders are not sent at the average moment; they cluster where the market moves.",[134,863,864,867,868,871],{},[30,865,866],{},"\"Connected means the terminal is alive.\""," The flag is the last value the terminal reported, which on a machine switched off weeks ago still reads connected. Freshness decides — that is why the badge falls back to ",[583,869,870],{},"Offline"," when the data has gone stale.",[10,873,874,875,38],{},"For how latency reads next to every other number on an account page: ",[14,876,878],{"href":877},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","how to read a trading account dashboard",{"title":73,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":880},[881,882,883,884,885],{"id":22,"depth":274,"text":23},{"id":84,"depth":274,"text":85},{"id":94,"depth":274,"text":95},{"id":128,"depth":274,"text":129},{"id":234,"depth":274,"text":235},"Platforms","Server latency is the round-trip time between your terminal and the broker's trade server. Why it converts into slippage, and how retransmission exposes a bad link.",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency",[289,891,892,893],"what-is-a-vps","what-is-metatrader","what-is-an-expert-advisor",{"title":711,"description":887},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency","Server Latency","RZp7rUnHKs42nH8XzjZDD51SK-WSO7ors7A6_UcCACA",{"id":899,"title":900,"body":901,"category":697,"date":282,"description":1090,"draft":284,"extension":285,"meta":1091,"navigation":284,"path":36,"related":1092,"seo":1095,"stem":1096,"term":1097,"updated":282,"__hash__":1098},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage.md","What Is Slippage? Definition, Causes and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":902,"toc":1083},[903,906,908,914,917,923,929,938,945,947,959,966,968,984,994,996,999,1049,1051,1077],[10,904,905],{},"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.",[20,907,23],{"id":22},[64,909,912],{"className":910,"code":911,"language":69},[67],"Slippage (pips) = (Fill price − Requested price) \u002F Pip size\n                  sign reversed for sell orders\n",[71,913,911],{"__ignoreMap":73},[10,915,916],{},"Three things produce it.",[10,918,919,922],{},[30,920,921],{},"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.",[10,924,925,928],{},[30,926,927],{},"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.",[10,930,931,934,935,937],{},[30,932,933],{},"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 ",[14,936,551],{"href":550}," — become market orders the moment they trigger, which is the single most important consequence: a stop guarantees your exit, not your exit price.",[10,939,940,941,944],{},"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. ",[30,942,943],{},"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.",[20,946,85],{"id":84},[10,948,949,950,954,955,958],{},"Slippage is the gap between a strategy on paper and the same strategy on a server. A ",[14,951,953],{"href":952},"\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 ",[14,956,957],{"href":218},"average trade",", the larger the share of the edge that assumption invents.",[10,960,961,962,965],{},"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 ",[14,963,964],{"href":701},"spread"," and commission rather than instead of them.",[20,967,95],{"id":94},[10,969,970,971,102,974,976,977,979,980,983],{},"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 ",[30,972,973],{},"median autotrading share is 99%",[30,975,803],{}," (42.2% are under 10%). Those accounts reach ",[30,978,101],{}," — ",[14,981,982],{"href":123},"the same strategy, sent to seven hundred different matching engines",", with seven hundred different latency profiles.",[10,985,986,987,990,991,993],{},"Holding periods make the exposure worse. On those accounts the ",[30,988,989],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account has closed ",[30,992,780],{},": execution cost is charged often, and each trade has little time for price movement to absorb it.",[20,995,129],{"id":128},[10,997,998],{},"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.",[131,1000,1001,1025,1041],{},[134,1002,136,1003,140,1005,144,1007,1011,1012,1016,1017,162,1019,162,1021,116,1023,38],{},[30,1004,139],{},[30,1006,143],{},[30,1008,1009],{},[14,1010,150],{"href":149},", the round-trip time between the terminal and the broker's trade server, and ",[30,1013,1014],{},[14,1015,157],{"href":156},", 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 ",[30,1018,161],{},[30,1020,165],{},[30,1022,168],{},[30,1024,171],{},[134,1026,136,1027,177,1029,181,1031,116,1033,1035,1036,116,1038,1040],{},[30,1028,176],{},[30,1030,180],{},[30,1032,184],{},[30,1034,187],{}," per ticket, next to the ",[30,1037,190],{},[30,1039,193],{}," columns. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest reading of slippage available from broker records.",[134,1042,1043,1045,1046,1048],{},[30,1044,212],{}," in ",[30,1047,208],{}," 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.",[20,1050,235],{"id":234},[237,1052,1053,1059,1065,1071],{},[134,1054,1055,1058],{},[30,1056,1057],{},"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.",[134,1060,1061,1064],{},[30,1062,1063],{},"\"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.",[134,1066,1067,1070],{},[30,1068,1069],{},"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.",[134,1072,1073,1076],{},[30,1074,1075],{},"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.",[10,1078,1079,1080,38],{},"For how ping, retransmission and the rest of the page fit together, read the ",[14,1081,1082],{"href":877},"guide to reading a trading account dashboard",{"title":73,"searchDepth":274,"depth":274,"links":1084},[1085,1086,1087,1088,1089],{"id":22,"depth":274,"text":23},{"id":84,"depth":274,"text":85},{"id":94,"depth":274,"text":95},{"id":128,"depth":274,"text":129},{"id":234,"depth":274,"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.",{},[292,1093,891,1094],"what-is-a-stop-loss","what-is-backtesting",{"title":900,"description":1090},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","Slippage","JLOyPs_NTBij0Irz000OtvybQcW-dMK5fckGo-AXXJo",1787415690347]