[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1060},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission-related":240},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":225,"date":226,"description":227,"draft":228,"extension":229,"meta":230,"navigation":228,"path":231,"related":232,"seo":237,"stem":238,"term":124,"updated":226,"__hash__":239},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission.md","What Is Packet Retransmission in MetaTrader?",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":217},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,32,40,43,47,55,58,61,74,77,81,88,109,116,120,155,170,178,182,210],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Packet retransmission is the share of network packets that had to be sent a second time because the first copy was lost or never acknowledged, expressed as a percentage. On a healthy connection it sits at zero. It measures whether the link between a MetaTrader terminal and the outside world is reliable — a different question from how fast it is, and a more useful one.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"how-it-works","How it works",[10,19,20],{},"TCP, the protocol carrying everything between terminal and trade server, guarantees delivery by re-sending. The sender waits for an acknowledgement; if none arrives before a timeout, the packet goes out again.",[22,23,28],"pre",{"className":24,"code":26,"language":27},[25],"language-text","Retransmission % = packets re-sent \u002F packets sent × 100\n","text",[29,30,26],"code",{"__ignoreMap":31},"",[10,33,34,35,39],{},"MetaTrader exposes this as a terminal property, the Expert Advisor forwards it with the rest of the environment data, and ShowMyTrades formats it to two decimals — so anything below 0.005% displays as ",[36,37,38],"strong",{},"0.00%",".",[10,41,42],{},"Two properties matter when reading it. The value comes from the machine's own network stack rather than an isolated probe of one connection, so other software on the same VPS or home line contributes to it. And it is a rate, not an event count: any non-zero value means loss is ongoing, not a one-off.",[14,44,46],{"id":45},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,48,49,54],{},[50,51,53],"a",{"href":52},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","Ping"," is an average, and averages describe the good case. A connection can post an excellent mean round trip and still drop packets, because loss lives in the tail that the average smooths away. Retransmission is the tail, measured directly.",[10,56,57],{},"The cost of a single retransmission is not one extra round trip. The sender has to wait out a timeout before deciding the packet is gone, and that wait is typically several times the normal round trip. So a 1% retransmission rate does not make everything 1% slower — it makes 1% of messages dramatically slower, while the other 99% look perfect. Every average you can compute stays reassuring.",[10,59,60],{},"TCP also delivers in order, so while a lost packet is recovered everything behind it waits. That is the familiar symptom: quotes stop, then arrive in a burst.",[10,62,63,64,68,69,73],{},"What a rising rate predicts is therefore concrete. Requotes on ",[50,65,67],{"href":66},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution","instant execution",", because the price the terminal is working from is stale by the time the request lands. Wider realised ",[50,70,72],{"href":71},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","slippage"," on market execution. Expert Advisor actions that fire late or not at all. And, if it keeps climbing, a dropped session and a terminal that stops sending data entirely.",[10,75,76],{},"It is also the earlier signal of the two. Ping degrades when the route changes; retransmission degrades when the link itself is failing, usually well before a disconnection.",[14,78,80],{"id":79},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,82,83,84,87],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. Only MetaTrader accounts have a terminal to report on, and they are the overwhelming majority of the ",[36,85,86],{},"10,000+ connected accounts",". cTrader and TradeLocker accounts run through broker APIs with no terminal and no network readings of their own.",[10,89,90,91,94,95,98,99,103,104,108],{},"The reason it matters here is automation. The ",[36,92,93],{},"median autotrading share is 99%",", and ",[36,96,97],{},"53.9% of accounts are more than 90% automated",". Those terminals run unattended, often on a rented server their owner has not logged into for weeks. A discretionary trader notices a stuttering connection within minutes; the screen is in front of them. An ",[50,100,102],{"href":101},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-expert-advisor","Expert Advisor"," on a degrading ",[50,105,107],{"href":106},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","VPS"," at three in the morning notices nothing, and neither does anyone else, until the results come out wrong.",[10,110,111,112,115],{},"Those accounts reach ",[36,113,114],{},"703 distinct broker servers",", and the path to each one is different.",[14,117,119],{"id":118},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[10,121,122,125,126,129,130,133,134,136,137,139,140,143,144,143,147,150,151,154],{},[36,123,124],{},"Retransmission"," is the second of six tiles in the ",[36,127,128],{},"Terminal"," panel — ",[36,131,132],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5, plain ",[36,135,128],{}," on MT4 — immediately after ",[36,138,53],{},", followed by ",[36,141,142],{},"Terminal build",", ",[36,145,146],{},"Memory",[36,148,149],{},"Auto trading"," and ",[36,152,153],{},"DLL imports",". The tile shows a percentage to two decimals, and its tooltip states the reading directly: close to 0% means a stable connection, while consistently higher values point to an unreliable network or a trade server that is far away.",[10,156,157,158,143,162,165,166,169],{},"Read it with the panel header, which carries a status badge — ",[159,160,161],"em",{},"Connected",[159,163,164],{},"No trade server"," or ",[159,167,168],{},"Offline"," — and the age of the last reading; an account silent for 11 minutes is marked offline. Retransmission climbing while that timestamp falls behind is the sequence that precedes a terminal going quiet.",[10,171,172,173,177],{},"The panel is owner-only and lives on the account's dashboard page: terminal data, including the Expert Advisors running on open charts, is never published on ",[50,174,176],{"href":175},"\u002Fguides\u002Fpublic-profile-and-custom-slugs","public pages"," or in widgets. cTrader and TradeLocker accounts have no terminal, so no such panel.",[14,179,181],{"id":180},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[183,184,185,192,198,204],"ul",{},[186,187,188,191],"li",{},[36,189,190],{},"\"0.00% means a perfect connection.\""," It means below the display's two decimals at the last sync. It is a snapshot, and one clean reading does not describe the night.",[186,193,194,197],{},[36,195,196],{},"\"It is the broker's fault.\""," It describes the network path and the machine at the near end of it. A busy VPS raises it with no help from the broker at all.",[186,199,200,203],{},[36,201,202],{},"\"If ping is low, retransmission does not matter.\""," That combination is the specific case worth worrying about: a fast average hiding a fat tail.",[186,205,206,209],{},[36,207,208],{},"\"It only affects the data feed, not my orders.\""," Quotes and orders travel the same TCP connection. Whatever stalls one stalls the other.",[10,211,212,213,39],{},"The terminal readings arrive with the same Expert Advisor you install when connecting an account — see ",[50,214,216],{"href":215},"\u002Fguides\u002Fhow-to-verify-your-account","how to verify your account",{"title":31,"searchDepth":218,"depth":218,"links":219},2,[220,221,222,223,224],{"id":16,"depth":218,"text":17},{"id":45,"depth":218,"text":46},{"id":79,"depth":218,"text":80},{"id":118,"depth":218,"text":119},{"id":180,"depth":218,"text":181},"Platforms","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","Retransmission is the share of network packets that had to be sent again. Why it reads stability better than ping, and what a rising rate does to execution.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission",[233,234,235,236],"what-is-terminal-ping","what-is-a-vps","what-is-order-execution","what-is-slippage",{"title":5,"description":227},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission","Lo__3cF3heoDhsvPaIFDJmhYPfY78nSNIrbvxg21lRk",[241,409,656,858],{"id":242,"title":243,"body":244,"category":225,"date":226,"description":401,"draft":228,"extension":229,"meta":402,"navigation":228,"path":106,"related":403,"seo":406,"stem":407,"term":107,"updated":226,"__hash__":408},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps.md","What Is a VPS in Trading? Why Uptime Decides Results",{"type":7,"value":245,"toc":394},[246,254,256,259,265,268,271,277,279,287,290,292,304,307,309,340,351,359,361,387],[10,247,248,249,253],{},"A VPS, or virtual private server, is a slice of a physical machine in a datacentre that you rent and use like a remote computer. In trading it has one job: run your ",[50,250,252],{"href":251},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-metatrader","MetaTrader"," terminal continuously, on a connection that does not drop, in a building close to your broker's trade server. For an automated strategy it is not an optimisation — it is the environment the strategy actually lives in.",[14,255,17],{"id":16},[10,257,258],{},"You connect to the VPS over remote desktop, install the terminal there, log in and leave it running. Your own laptop can then be closed, updated or thrown away without the strategy noticing. The two things you are buying are uptime and physical proximity to the trade server, and the second one is measurable as round-trip latency.",[22,260,263],{"className":261,"code":262,"language":27},[25],"Ping = terminal → trade server → terminal, round trip\n",[29,264,262],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,266,267],{},"There is no official threshold for a good number, and the one that matters is relative: the same figure that is unremarkable for a strategy holding positions for days is disqualifying for one working the spread. What is not arguable is the direction — as the round trip grows, fills arrive further from the price the strategy asked for.",[10,269,270],{},"What happens when the terminal goes down mid-position is the part people get wrong. In MetaTrader, a stop loss or take profit attached to an open position is held by the broker's server, so it still triggers with the terminal off. Everything else is client-side and stops dead: new entries, trailing stops, partial closes, break-even moves, virtual stops the Expert Advisor keeps in memory, grid and recovery logic. A martingale system that loses its terminal halfway through a sequence does not pause — it holds an unmanaged basket until the terminal comes back, and the position it would have opened to balance the book never exists.",[10,272,273,274,276],{},"Latency and packet loss matter for a separate reason: they widen the gap between the price your EA decided on and the price it received. That gap is ",[50,275,72],{"href":71},", and no amount of strategy tuning trades around it.",[14,278,46],{"id":45},[10,280,281,282,286],{},"An automated strategy's live result is the strategy plus its execution environment. Two accounts running identical code on different machines produce different curves, and the difference belongs to ping, uptime and fill quality rather than to logic. This is one of the reasons ",[50,283,285],{"href":284},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","backtest"," results overstate live performance: a backtest never disconnects, never misses a bar, and always fills at the modelled price.",[10,288,289],{},"It also matters for anyone reading someone else's record. A track record produced on a 40 ms VPS is not reproducible on a home laptop with 300 ms ping and nightly Windows updates, even with the same EA and the same broker.",[14,291,80],{"id":79},[10,293,294,295,94,297,299,300,303],{},"Automation is the norm on our platform, not the exception. Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[36,296,93],{},[36,298,97],{},". The distribution is barbell-shaped: another ",[36,301,302],{},"42.2% are under 10% automated",", with very little in between. Traders are either fully hands-off or fully manual.",[10,305,306],{},"More than half of the accounts publishing results here therefore depend on a terminal that has to stay up, connected, and permitted to trade — across 703 distinct broker servers and 15,436,464 synchronised trades.",[14,308,119],{"id":118},[10,310,311,312,314,315,319,320,322,323,143,325,327,328,150,330,332,333,143,335,165,337,339],{},"The ",[36,313,132],{}," module on the account page reports the live state of the machine the strategy runs on: ",[50,316,317],{"href":52},[36,318,53],{}," to the trade server, ",[36,321,124],{}," (the share of network packets that had to be sent again), ",[36,324,142],{},[36,326,146],{}," of the host machine, and whether ",[36,329,149],{},[36,331,153],{}," are allowed. A connection badge reads ",[159,334,161],{},[159,336,164],{},[159,338,168],{},", next to how long ago the terminal last reported, and the header counts how many of your terminals are online.",[10,341,342,343,347,348,39],{},"Below it, the open charts table lists each chart with its symbol, timeframe, ",[50,344,345],{"href":101},[36,346,102],{}," and indicators — so you can see what is actually loaded, not what is claimed. In the account header, a badge shows the automation split read from the trades themselves, for example ",[159,349,350],{},"99% autotrading",[10,352,353,354,358],{},"This is also what a ",[50,355,357],{"href":356},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-verified-track-record","verified track record"," looks like when it is honest about its own conditions: the numbers and the environment that produced them, on the same page.",[14,360,181],{"id":180},[183,362,363,369,375,381],{},[186,364,365,368],{},[36,366,367],{},"A VPS does not make a strategy profitable."," It removes missed executions and downtime. If the edge is not there, a faster machine loses money more reliably.",[186,370,371,374],{},[36,372,373],{},"Ping to a website is not ping to the trade server."," The number that matters is the round trip to your broker's server, which is what the terminal reports — a VPS in the wrong city can be slower than your desk.",[186,376,377,380],{},[36,378,379],{},"Low latency does not eliminate slippage."," Spread, liquidity and the broker's execution model still apply. A VPS removes your share of the delay, not theirs.",[186,382,383,386],{},[36,384,385],{},"\"My PC never crashes\" is not the claim being made."," Windows updates, sleep settings, ISP outages and power cuts all disconnect a terminal, and each one happens at a random moment relative to your open positions.",[10,388,389,390,39],{},"To read the rest of an account page with the same scepticism: ",[50,391,393],{"href":392},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","how to read a trading account dashboard",{"title":31,"searchDepth":218,"depth":218,"links":395},[396,397,398,399,400],{"id":16,"depth":218,"text":17},{"id":45,"depth":218,"text":46},{"id":79,"depth":218,"text":80},{"id":118,"depth":218,"text":119},{"id":180,"depth":218,"text":181},"A VPS is an always-on rented server that keeps your trading terminal running and connected when your own computer sleeps, reboots or loses its connection.",{},[404,236,405],"what-is-a-verified-track-record","what-is-backtesting",{"title":243,"description":401},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","I4TIf563St5m6tF3Pb_5h1pPDQHp1v7OdG4YiQx2XLQ",{"id":410,"title":411,"body":412,"category":645,"date":226,"description":646,"draft":228,"extension":229,"meta":647,"navigation":228,"path":66,"related":648,"seo":652,"stem":653,"term":654,"updated":226,"__hash__":655},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution.md","What Is Order Execution? Types, Requotes and Fills",{"type":7,"value":413,"toc":638},[414,422,424,427,436,446,457,460,466,472,474,477,480,482,491,494,509,511,599,601,631],[10,415,416,417,421],{},"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: ",[50,418,420],{"href":419},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-b-book-broker","routing",", price validation, and the decision to accept, requote or reject. Two accounts running identical logic at different brokers can produce different results for this reason alone, with no difference in the strategy at all.",[14,423,17],{"id":16},[10,425,426],{},"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.",[10,428,429,432,433,39],{},[36,430,431],{},"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 ",[50,434,435],{"href":71},"slip",[10,437,438,441,442,445],{},[36,439,440],{},"Instant execution."," You request a specific price. If the market has moved beyond the broker's tolerance, the server returns a ",[36,443,444],{},"requote",": a new price you must accept or decline. No slippage, but no guarantee the trade opens at all.",[10,447,448,449,452,453,456],{},"Two further outcomes matter. A ",[36,450,451],{},"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 ",[36,454,455],{},"rejection"," returns an error code and no position.",[10,458,459],{},"The elapsed time decomposes cleanly:",[22,461,464],{"className":462,"code":463,"language":27},[25],"Round-trip time = terminal -> trade server        (network path)\n                + order validation and matching   (broker)\n                + trade server -> terminal        (confirmation)\n",[29,465,463],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,467,468,469,471],{},"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 ",[50,470,107],{"href":106}," near the trade server changes measured execution without the broker changing anything.",[14,473,46],{"id":45},[10,475,476],{},"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.",[10,478,479],{},"Rejections are the under-counted half. Slippage at least shows up in the fill price, so it can be reasoned about after the fact. A trade that never opened leaves no record anywhere — and a strategy judged on the trades it managed to place is a survivorship-biased version of itself.",[14,481,80],{"id":79},[10,483,484,485,94,487,490],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), orders are sent to ",[36,486,114],{},[36,488,489],{},"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.",[10,492,493],{},"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.",[10,495,496,497,150,500,503,504,508],{},"Comparison is still possible, but only by repetition. ",[36,498,499],{},"699 users run more than one account",[36,501,502],{},"429 run accounts at more than one broker",": ",[50,505,507],{"href":506},"\u002Fguides\u002Fsame-strategy-different-brokers","holding the logic constant and varying the server"," is the nearest thing to a controlled execution test a retail trader has.",[14,510,119],{"id":118},[183,512,513,539,571,593],{},[186,514,311,515,517,518,520,521,525,526,530,531,143,533,143,535,150,537,39],{},[36,516,128],{}," panel (",[36,519,132],{}," on MT5) reports ",[36,522,523],{},[50,524,53],{"href":52},", the round-trip time to the broker's trade server, and ",[36,527,528],{},[50,529,124],{"href":231},", 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 ",[36,532,142],{},[36,534,146],{},[36,536,149],{},[36,538,153],{},[186,540,311,541,544,545,548,549,143,552,143,555,143,558,143,561,143,564,150,567,570],{},[36,542,543],{},"Closed Trades"," table under ",[36,546,547],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," carries ",[36,550,551],{},"Open Price",[36,553,554],{},"Close Price",[36,556,557],{},"S\u002FL",[36,559,560],{},"T\u002FP",[36,562,563],{},"Duration",[36,565,566],{},"Commission",[36,568,569],{},"Swap"," per ticket. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest read on execution available from broker records.",[186,572,573,576,577,580,581,143,587,150,590,39],{},[36,574,575],{},"Advanced Statistics"," shows ",[36,578,579],{},"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 ",[36,582,583],{},[50,584,586],{"href":585},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length","Avg. Trade Length",[36,588,589],{},"Total Commissions",[36,591,592],{},"Total Lots",[186,594,311,595,598],{},[36,596,597],{},"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.",[14,600,181],{"id":180},[602,603,604,610,616,625],"ol",{},[186,605,606,609],{},[36,607,608],{},"\"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.",[186,611,612,615],{},[36,613,614],{},"\"ECN, STP and NDD describe execution.\""," They are marketing labels, not regulated definitions, and they are not audited. Measure the account instead.",[186,617,618,621,622,624],{},[36,619,620],{},"\"Slow fills are the broker's fault.\""," Often the network path is. Check ",[36,623,53],{}," before drawing a conclusion about the server.",[186,626,627,630],{},[36,628,629],{},"\"Fast execution is good execution.\""," Speed without price quality is worthless. An order filled instantly three pips away is still three pips away.",[10,632,633,634,39],{},"For a method to compare execution and cost between two brokers, see the ",[50,635,637],{"href":636},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbroker-cost-audit","broker cost audit guide",{"title":31,"searchDepth":218,"depth":218,"links":639},[640,641,642,643,644],{"id":16,"depth":218,"text":17},{"id":45,"depth":218,"text":46},{"id":79,"depth":218,"text":80},{"id":118,"depth":218,"text":119},{"id":180,"depth":218,"text":181},"Brokers","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.",{},[236,649,650,651],"what-is-server-latency","what-is-a-b-book-broker","what-is-a-spread",{"title":411,"description":646},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-order-execution","Order Execution","oUI1tlc8dL3qnxp3T8uMtQ9xtrmbuLPGNNx8qX9JQho",{"id":657,"title":658,"body":659,"category":849,"date":226,"description":850,"draft":228,"extension":229,"meta":851,"navigation":228,"path":71,"related":852,"seo":854,"stem":855,"term":856,"updated":226,"__hash__":857},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage.md","What Is Slippage? Definition, Causes and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":660,"toc":842},[661,664,666,672,675,681,687,698,705,707,717,725,727,742,753,755,758,808,810,836],[10,662,663],{},"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.",[14,665,17],{"id":16},[22,667,670],{"className":668,"code":669,"language":27},[25],"Slippage (pips) = (Fill price − Requested price) \u002F Pip size\n                  sign reversed for sell orders\n",[29,671,669],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,673,674],{},"Three things produce it.",[10,676,677,680],{},[36,678,679],{},"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.",[10,682,683,686],{},[36,684,685],{},"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.",[10,688,689,692,693,697],{},[36,690,691],{},"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 ",[50,694,696],{"href":695},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss","stop loss"," — become market orders the moment they trigger, which is the single most important consequence: a stop guarantees your exit, not your exit price.",[10,699,700,701,704],{},"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. ",[36,702,703],{},"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.",[14,706,46],{"id":45},[10,708,709,710,712,713,716],{},"Slippage is the gap between a strategy on paper and the same strategy on a server. A ",[50,711,285],{"href":284}," run on historical bid prices with zero slippage assumes an execution model that does not exist, and the shorter the ",[50,714,715],{"href":585},"average trade",", the larger the share of the edge that assumption invents.",[10,718,719,720,724],{},"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 ",[50,721,723],{"href":722},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","spread"," and commission rather than instead of them.",[14,726,80],{"id":79},[10,728,729,730,94,732,734,735,737,738,741],{},"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 ",[36,731,93],{},[36,733,97],{}," (42.2% are under 10%). Those accounts reach ",[36,736,114],{}," — ",[50,739,740],{"href":506},"the same strategy, sent to seven hundred different matching engines",", with seven hundred different latency profiles.",[10,743,744,745,748,749,752],{},"Holding periods make the exposure worse. On those accounts the ",[36,746,747],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account has closed ",[36,750,751],{},"171 trades",": execution cost is charged often, and each trade has little time for price movement to absorb it.",[14,754,119],{"id":118},[10,756,757],{},"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.",[183,759,760,784,800],{},[186,761,311,762,517,764,520,766,770,771,775,776,143,778,143,780,150,782,39],{},[36,763,128],{},[36,765,132],{},[36,767,768],{},[50,769,53],{"href":52},", the round-trip time between the terminal and the broker's trade server, and ",[36,772,773],{},[50,774,124],{"href":231},", 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 ",[36,777,142],{},[36,779,146],{},[36,781,149],{},[36,783,153],{},[186,785,311,786,544,788,548,790,150,792,794,795,150,797,799],{},[36,787,543],{},[36,789,547],{},[36,791,551],{},[36,793,554],{}," per ticket, next to the ",[36,796,557],{},[36,798,560],{}," columns. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest reading of slippage available from broker records.",[186,801,802,804,805,807],{},[36,803,579],{}," in ",[36,806,575],{}," 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.",[14,809,181],{"id":180},[602,811,812,818,824,830],{},[186,813,814,817],{},[36,815,816],{},"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.",[186,819,820,823],{},[36,821,822],{},"\"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.",[186,825,826,829],{},[36,827,828],{},"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.",[186,831,832,835],{},[36,833,834],{},"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.",[10,837,838,839,39],{},"For how ping, retransmission and the rest of the page fit together, read the ",[50,840,841],{"href":392},"guide to reading a trading account dashboard",{"title":31,"searchDepth":218,"depth":218,"links":843},[844,845,846,847,848],{"id":16,"depth":218,"text":17},{"id":45,"depth":218,"text":46},{"id":79,"depth":218,"text":80},{"id":118,"depth":218,"text":119},{"id":180,"depth":218,"text":181},"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.",{},[651,853,234,405],"what-is-a-stop-loss",{"title":658,"description":850},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","Slippage","JLOyPs_NTBij0Irz000OtvybQcW-dMK5fckGo-AXXJo",{"id":859,"title":860,"body":861,"category":225,"date":226,"description":1052,"draft":228,"extension":229,"meta":1053,"navigation":228,"path":52,"related":1054,"seo":1056,"stem":1057,"term":1058,"updated":226,"__hash__":1059},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping.md","What Is Terminal Ping? Latency to Your Trade Server",{"type":7,"value":862,"toc":1045},[863,869,871,874,880,883,886,915,918,920,923,926,929,931,940,951,960,962,986,996,1008,1010,1034],[10,864,865,866,39],{},"Terminal ping is the round-trip time between a MetaTrader terminal and the broker's trade server: how long a packet takes to travel out and come back, measured in milliseconds. It is a property of the network path, not of the strategy running on top of it: the dead time inside which a requested price is only a hope. MetaTrader reports it in microseconds; ShowMyTrades converts and displays it as milliseconds to one decimal, so 12,245 µs reads ",[36,867,868],{},"12.2 ms",[14,870,17],{"id":16},[10,872,873],{},"The terminal records the last known round trip to the trade server. Everything an order does is layered on top of it.",[22,875,878],{"className":876,"code":877,"language":27},[25],"Ping (ms) = last measured round trip terminal ↔ trade server\n\nOrder latency ≈ ping\u002F2   (request travelling out)\n              + broker matching and validation\n              + ping\u002F2   (confirmation travelling back)\n",[29,879,877],{"__ignoreMap":31},[10,881,882],{},"Only the middle term belongs to the broker. The first and third are geography and routing, which is why the same broker gives a 3 ms reading to a terminal in the same data centre and 280 ms to a home connection across the world.",[10,884,885],{},"Useful bands:",[183,887,888,897,903],{},[186,889,890,893,894,896],{},[36,891,892],{},"Under 50 ms"," — excellent, which is the word the tile's own tooltip uses. Typical of a ",[50,895,107],{"href":106}," near the broker's data centre.",[186,898,899,902],{},[36,900,901],{},"50 to 150 ms"," — ordinary for a home or office connection to a regional server.",[186,904,905,908,909,912,913,39],{},[36,906,907],{},"Above 200 ms"," — the tooltip's warning threshold: measurably slower ",[50,910,911],{"href":66},"order execution"," and wider realised ",[50,914,72],{"href":71},[10,916,917],{},"One distinction decides how much any of this matters. Stop loss and take profit orders live on the trade server, not in the terminal, so they trigger however bad the connection is. Ping delays only what the terminal initiates: entries, manual closes, modifications, and any trailing logic implemented inside an Expert Advisor rather than as a server-side order.",[14,919,46],{"id":45},[10,921,922],{},"Latency converts directly into cost on market execution, because the fill happens at whatever price exists when the request arrives, not the one that was on screen when it left. A 200 ms round trip is a fifth of a second in which the market is free to move, and it moves furthest precisely when orders matter most.",[10,924,925],{},"Whether that fifth of a second is expensive depends entirely on the target. A position held for hours, aiming at a fifty-pip move, absorbs it without noticing. A system targeting three to five pips can lose a meaningful share of its edge in the same interval, on every trade. Backtests are silent on this: they fill at the requested price, instantly, always.",[10,927,928],{},"Ping is the first thing to check before blaming a broker. Poor fills with a 300 ms reading is a network problem wearing a broker's name.",[14,930,80],{"id":79},[10,932,933,934,936,937,939],{},"The figures below describe accounts published on ShowMyTrades, not traders in general. A terminal reading only exists where there is a terminal, and the overwhelming majority of the ",[36,935,86],{}," run ",[50,938,252],{"href":251},". cTrader and TradeLocker accounts connect through broker APIs with no local terminal, so they have no ping to report.",[10,941,942,943,150,945,947,948,950],{},"Sensitivity across that population is high. The ",[36,944,93],{},[36,946,97],{},", so almost every order is machine-sent, travelling the round trip without a human pausing to check the price. Those accounts reach ",[36,949,114],{},", so there is no single latency environment here.",[10,952,311,953,959],{},[36,954,955,958],{},[50,956,957],{"href":585},"median trade length"," is 2.4 hours",", which puts the median account outside the range where milliseconds decide anything. The tail that trades in seconds is where this number earns its place on the page.",[14,961,119],{"id":118},[10,963,964,966,967,969,970,972,973,975,976,143,978,143,980,143,982,150,984,39],{},[36,965,53],{}," is the first of six tiles in the ",[36,968,128],{}," panel, on the owner's own dashboard page for the account. The header reads ",[36,971,132],{}," on MT5, where the terminal also reports the charts it has open, and plain ",[36,974,128],{}," on MT4, whose Expert Advisor does not collect that list. The other tiles are ",[36,977,124],{},[36,979,142],{},[36,981,146],{},[36,983,149],{},[36,985,153],{},[10,987,988,989,143,991,165,993,995],{},"Beside the header sits a status badge — ",[159,990,161],{},[159,992,164],{},[159,994,168],{}," — and the age of the reading. Freshness overrules the flag: after 11 minutes without an update the account is shown as offline, whatever the terminal last said.",[10,997,998,999,1002,1003,1007],{},"Two limits matter. The panel is owner-only, served by an endpoint that refuses anyone else's account, so terminal readings — including the names of ",[50,1000,1001],{"href":101},"Expert Advisors"," on open charts — never appear on public pages or ",[50,1004,1006],{"href":1005},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-widgets-and-embeds","in widgets",". And it exists only for MetaTrader: cTrader and TradeLocker accounts have no terminal, and the panel does not render at all until one has reported.",[14,1009,181],{"id":180},[183,1011,1012,1018,1028],{},[186,1013,1014,1017],{},[36,1015,1016],{},"\"Low ping means a good broker.\""," It measures the path, not the counterparty. A 2 ms reading to a server with poor fills is a fast route to a bad price.",[186,1019,1020,1023,1024,1027],{},[36,1021,1022],{},"\"One reading is the truth.\""," It is the last value at the last sync. Stability matters more than the number, which is what ",[50,1025,1026],{"href":231},"retransmission"," adds.",[186,1029,1030,1033],{},[36,1031,1032],{},"\"A VPS fixes execution.\""," It fixes the network path. Matching speed, price feed and spread policy stay exactly where they were.",[10,1035,1036,1037,1041,1042,39],{},"The same round trip described from the network's side, rather than from this tile, is ",[50,1038,1040],{"href":1039},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency","server latency",". For a method that separates latency from cost when the same strategy runs at two brokers, see ",[50,1043,1044],{"href":506},"same strategy, different brokers",{"title":31,"searchDepth":218,"depth":218,"links":1046},[1047,1048,1049,1050,1051],{"id":16,"depth":218,"text":17},{"id":45,"depth":218,"text":46},{"id":79,"depth":218,"text":80},{"id":118,"depth":218,"text":119},{"id":180,"depth":218,"text":181},"Terminal ping is the round trip between a MetaTrader terminal and the broker's trade server. What good and bad look like in ms, and how it becomes slippage.",{},[1055,236,234,235],"what-is-packet-retransmission",{"title":860,"description":1052},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","Terminal Ping","bgiP3vxFYvRY7BpOYCK3dm8FftKf9R2Oxi2BN1clobU",1787415690352]