[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1099},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency-related":233},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":217,"date":218,"description":219,"draft":220,"extension":221,"meta":222,"navigation":220,"path":223,"related":224,"seo":229,"stem":230,"term":231,"updated":218,"__hash__":232},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency.md","What Is Server Latency? Ping, Retransmission, Slippage",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":209},"minimark",[9,22,27,38,46,54,63,67,75,78,81,85,109,124,128,142,157,164,168,201],[10,11,12,13,21],"p",{},"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 ",[14,15,16],"strong",{},[17,18,20],"a",{"href":19},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","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.",[23,24,26],"h2",{"id":25},"how-it-works","How it works",[28,29,34],"pre",{"className":30,"code":32,"language":33},[31],"language-text","Ping (ms) = terminal → trade server → terminal, one round trip\n","text",[35,36,32],"code",{"__ignoreMap":37},"",[10,39,40,41,45],{},"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 ",[17,42,44],{"href":43},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","VPS"," in the same datacentre as the trade server.",[10,47,48,49,53],{},"Latency is charged twice per trade, in both directions. Prices reach your terminal late, so an ",[17,50,52],{"href":51},"\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.",[10,55,56,62],{},[14,57,58],{},[17,59,61],{"href":60},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission","Retransmission"," 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.",[23,64,66],{"id":65},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,68,69,70,74],{},"Latency is the half of ",[17,71,73],{"href":72},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","slippage"," 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.",[10,76,77],{},"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.",[10,79,80],{},"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.",[23,82,84],{"id":83},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,86,87,88,95,96,99,100,108],{},"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 ",[14,89,90,94],{},[17,91,93],{"href":92},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length","median trade"," lasts 2.4 hours",", the median account has closed ",[14,97,98],{},"171 trades",", and the ",[14,101,102,103,107],{},"median ",[17,104,106],{"href":105},"\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.",[10,110,111,112,115,116,119,120,123],{},"Those accounts reach ",[14,113,114],{},"703 distinct broker servers"," across ",[14,117,118],{},"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 ",[14,121,122],{},"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.",[23,125,127],{"id":126},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[10,129,130,131,134,135,138,139,141],{},"Almost no public track record says anything about the machine that produced it. On an Expert Advisor connection, ours does: the ",[14,132,133],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," module publishes ",[14,136,137],{},"Ping"," to the trade server and ",[14,140,61],{}," 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.",[10,143,144,145,148,149,152,153,156],{},"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 ",[14,146,147],{},"50 ms"," ping is excellent, above ",[14,150,151],{},"200 ms"," can mean slower execution and more slippage, and retransmission close to ",[14,154,155],{},"0%"," means a stable connection while consistently higher values point to an unreliable network or a distant trade server.",[10,158,159,160,163],{},"Two notes. A Direct Connection never touches your machine, so it reports none of this. And on MT4 the module is titled simply ",[14,161,162],{},"Terminal",", because the MT4 EA does not send the chart list.",[23,165,167],{"id":166},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[169,170,171,178,184,190],"ul",{},[172,173,174,177],"li",{},[14,175,176],{},"\"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.",[172,179,180,183],{},[14,181,182],{},"\"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.",[172,185,186,189],{},[14,187,188],{},"\"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.",[172,191,192,195,196,200],{},[14,193,194],{},"\"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 ",[197,198,199],"em",{},"Offline"," when the data has gone stale.",[10,202,203,204,208],{},"For how latency reads next to every other number on an account page: ",[17,205,207],{"href":206},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","how to read a trading account dashboard",".",{"title":37,"searchDepth":210,"depth":210,"links":211},2,[212,213,214,215,216],{"id":25,"depth":210,"text":26},{"id":65,"depth":210,"text":66},{"id":83,"depth":210,"text":84},{"id":126,"depth":210,"text":127},{"id":166,"depth":210,"text":167},"Platforms","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","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.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency",[225,226,227,228],"what-is-slippage","what-is-a-vps","what-is-metatrader","what-is-an-expert-advisor",{"title":5,"description":219},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-server-latency","Server Latency","RZp7rUnHKs42nH8XzjZDD51SK-WSO7ors7A6_UcCACA",[234,411,601,884],{"id":235,"title":236,"body":237,"category":217,"date":218,"description":403,"draft":220,"extension":221,"meta":404,"navigation":220,"path":43,"related":405,"seo":408,"stem":409,"term":44,"updated":218,"__hash__":410},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps.md","What Is a VPS in Trading? Why Uptime Decides Results",{"type":7,"value":238,"toc":396},[239,247,249,252,258,261,264,270,272,280,283,285,299,302,304,344,355,363,365,391],[10,240,241,242,246],{},"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 ",[17,243,245],{"href":244},"\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.",[23,248,26],{"id":25},[10,250,251],{},"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.",[28,253,256],{"className":254,"code":255,"language":33},[31],"Ping = terminal → trade server → terminal, round trip\n",[35,257,255],{"__ignoreMap":37},[10,259,260],{},"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.",[10,262,263],{},"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.",[10,265,266,267,269],{},"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 ",[17,268,73],{"href":72},", and no amount of strategy tuning trades around it.",[23,271,66],{"id":65},[10,273,274,275,279],{},"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 ",[17,276,278],{"href":277},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","backtest"," results overstate live performance: a backtest never disconnects, never misses a bar, and always fills at the modelled price.",[10,281,282],{},"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.",[23,284,84],{"id":83},[10,286,287,288,291,292,294,295,298],{},"Automation is the norm on our platform, not the exception. Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[14,289,290],{},"median autotrading share is 99%",", and ",[14,293,122],{},". The distribution is barbell-shaped: another ",[14,296,297],{},"42.2% are under 10% automated",", with very little in between. Traders are either fully hands-off or fully manual.",[10,300,301],{},"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.",[23,303,127],{"id":126},[10,305,306,307,309,310,314,315,317,318,321,322,325,326,329,330,333,334,321,337,340,341,343],{},"The ",[14,308,133],{}," module on the account page reports the live state of the machine the strategy runs on: ",[17,311,312],{"href":19},[14,313,137],{}," to the trade server, ",[14,316,61],{}," (the share of network packets that had to be sent again), ",[14,319,320],{},"Terminal build",", ",[14,323,324],{},"Memory"," of the host machine, and whether ",[14,327,328],{},"Auto trading"," and ",[14,331,332],{},"DLL imports"," are allowed. A connection badge reads ",[197,335,336],{},"Connected",[197,338,339],{},"No trade server"," or ",[197,342,199],{},", next to how long ago the terminal last reported, and the header counts how many of your terminals are online.",[10,345,346,347,351,352,208],{},"Below it, the open charts table lists each chart with its symbol, timeframe, ",[17,348,349],{"href":51},[14,350,52],{}," 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 ",[197,353,354],{},"99% autotrading",[10,356,357,358,362],{},"This is also what a ",[17,359,361],{"href":360},"\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.",[23,364,167],{"id":166},[169,366,367,373,379,385],{},[172,368,369,372],{},[14,370,371],{},"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.",[172,374,375,378],{},[14,376,377],{},"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.",[172,380,381,384],{},[14,382,383],{},"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.",[172,386,387,390],{},[14,388,389],{},"\"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.",[10,392,393,394,208],{},"To read the rest of an account page with the same scepticism: ",[17,395,207],{"href":206},{"title":37,"searchDepth":210,"depth":210,"links":397},[398,399,400,401,402],{"id":25,"depth":210,"text":26},{"id":65,"depth":210,"text":66},{"id":83,"depth":210,"text":84},{"id":126,"depth":210,"text":127},{"id":166,"depth":210,"text":167},"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.",{},[406,225,407],"what-is-a-verified-track-record","what-is-backtesting",{"title":236,"description":403},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","I4TIf563St5m6tF3Pb_5h1pPDQHp1v7OdG4YiQx2XLQ",{"id":412,"title":413,"body":414,"category":593,"date":218,"description":594,"draft":220,"extension":221,"meta":595,"navigation":220,"path":51,"related":596,"seo":598,"stem":599,"term":52,"updated":218,"__hash__":600},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-expert-advisor.md","What Is an Expert Advisor? EAs in MetaTrader Explained",{"type":7,"value":415,"toc":586},[416,422,424,427,433,436,446,454,456,459,470,472,483,500,503,505,511,533,551,553,579],[10,417,418,419,421],{},"An Expert Advisor, or EA, is a program written in MetaQuotes' MQL language that runs inside a ",[17,420,245],{"href":244}," terminal and can open, modify and close orders without anyone at the keyboard. It is attached to a single chart, reacts to the price ticks arriving there, and applies the rules it was compiled with. An EA is a way of executing a strategy, not a strategy that works.",[23,423,26],{"id":25},[10,425,426],{},"You compile the code, drop it on a chart, and the terminal calls it every time the market moves.",[28,428,431],{"className":429,"code":430,"language":33},[31],"Price tick arrives on the chart\n  → the EA's tick handler runs\n  → rules are evaluated against price, indicators and open positions\n  → an order is sent, stamped with a magic number\n  → the broker's trade server accepts, rejects or requeues it\n",[35,432,430],{"__ignoreMap":37},[10,434,435],{},"Three conditions must hold at once: the terminal is running and logged in, automated trading is permitted, and the broker accepts the request. Break one and the EA keeps running silently while placing nothing.",[10,437,438,439,442,443,445],{},"The critical detail is that an EA is ",[14,440,441],{},"client-side",": it is a guest process inside a program running on a machine you own. The broker's server holds nothing of it except a stop loss or take profit already attached to an open position. Close the terminal and the code is simply not there any more, which is why an unattended strategy belongs on a ",[17,444,44],{"href":43}," rather than a laptop that sleeps.",[10,447,448,449,453],{},"Each order the EA sends carries a ",[17,450,452],{"href":451},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-magic-number","magic number",", the integer that lets several EAs share one account and still be read apart afterwards.",[23,455,66],{"id":65},[10,457,458],{},"An EA removes hesitation, fatigue and the 3 a.m. problem. It also removes the judgement that would have switched it off. An EA has no idea that its edge stopped working; it will execute a broken rule set with exactly the same discipline it executed a good one.",[10,460,461,462,466,467,469],{},"Consistency of execution is the benefit on offer. Consistency is not profitability, and the gap between the two is where most automated money is lost. A strategy that looks flawless in the tester has usually been fitted to the sample it was tested on — see ",[17,463,465],{"href":464},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-curve-fitting","curve fitting"," — which is why a broker-synced account outranks any ",[17,468,278],{"href":277}," report. The tester shows what the code did to history; the account shows what the code, the broker and the machine did to money together.",[23,471,84],{"id":83},[10,473,474,475,321,477,329,479,482],{},"Automation is the default here, not a niche. Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[14,476,290],{},[14,478,122],{},[14,480,481],{},"42.2% sit under 10%",". Two clusters, almost nothing between them: an account here is run either entirely by code or entirely by hand.",[10,484,485,486,491,492,495,496,499],{},"Automation did not flatten the outcomes. The same population shows a ",[14,487,102,488,490],{},[17,489,106],{"href":105}," of 1.28",", a ",[14,493,494],{},"median deepest drawdown of 9.7%",", and a long left tail: ",[14,497,498],{},"38.2% of accounts have been more than 20% under water, 17.6% more than 50%",". Running a strategy by code changes who presses the button, not what the strategy is worth.",[10,501,502],{},"One boundary we hold to: we never estimate which commercial EA is running on an account. The same product installs with a different magic number on every account that buys it, so nothing in the broker feed identifies software, and a guess published as a fact would be worse than no answer.",[23,504,127],{"id":126},[10,506,507,508,510],{},"The account header carries a badge reading the automation split — for example ",[197,509,354],{},". It is not self-declared: a trade counts as automated when it arrives carrying a non-zero magic number, so the badge is a tally of the EA's own fingerprints on the order flow.",[10,512,513,514,516,517,519,520,522,523,340,526,529,530,532],{},"On an Expert Advisor connection, the ",[14,515,133],{}," module (",[14,518,162],{}," on MT4, whose EA does not report a chart list) shows the environment the code lives in, including ",[14,521,328],{}," reading ",[197,524,525],{},"Allowed",[197,527,528],{},"Blocked"," — the one switch that silently stops an otherwise healthy EA from placing anything. Below the tiles, the open charts table names the ",[14,531,52],{}," loaded on each chart with its symbol, timeframe and indicators: what is running, rather than what is claimed. A password-only Direct Connection never touches your machine, so it reports none of this.",[10,534,535,536,539,540,543,544,550],{},"Per-strategy results live in the ",[14,537,538],{},"Breakdown Statistics"," module, under the ",[14,541,542],{},"By Magic Number"," tab, where each EA gets its own row of trades, profit and won\u002Flost split. The ",[17,545,547],{"href":546},"\u002Fguides\u002Fcustom-analysis-and-filter-presets",[14,548,549],{},"Custom Analysis"," slideover narrows every statistic on the page to a single magic number, isolating one EA.",[23,552,167],{"id":166},[169,554,555,561,567,573],{},[172,556,557,560],{},[14,558,559],{},"\"The EA is the strategy.\""," The EA is the executor. Two EAs implementing the same rules produce the same trades; the rules are what has value.",[172,562,563,566],{},[14,564,565],{},"\"A great backtest means a great EA.\""," It means the code and the history agree. That is the minimum requirement, not evidence.",[172,568,569,572],{},[14,570,571],{},"\"Auto trading is on, so it is trading.\""," Permission is not activity: with the AutoTrading button off the EA still loads and runs, it simply cannot send orders. Accounts go quiet this way for weeks.",[172,574,575,578],{},[14,576,577],{},"\"It runs while my computer is off.\""," It does not. Only the server-held stop loss and take profit survive a terminal that is down.",[10,580,581,582,208],{},"For the specific tells that separate a real automated record from a manufactured one: ",[17,583,585],{"href":584},"\u002Fguides\u002Fspotting-fake-ea-results","how to spot fake EA results",{"title":37,"searchDepth":210,"depth":210,"links":587},[588,589,590,591,592],{"id":25,"depth":210,"text":26},{"id":65,"depth":210,"text":66},{"id":83,"depth":210,"text":84},{"id":126,"depth":210,"text":127},{"id":166,"depth":210,"text":167},"Automation","An Expert Advisor is a program that trades inside MetaTrader on your behalf. What it can do, what it cannot, and how automated the accounts published here are.",{},[227,597,226,407],"what-is-a-magic-number",{"title":413,"description":594},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-expert-advisor","2d9v7b7Bxd9O_dMQs14Asam5zM2qY1_3PnoVl22PW6U",{"id":602,"title":603,"body":604,"category":217,"date":218,"description":876,"draft":220,"extension":221,"meta":877,"navigation":220,"path":244,"related":878,"seo":881,"stem":882,"term":245,"updated":218,"__hash__":883},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-metatrader.md","What Is MetaTrader? MT4 vs MT5, Explained",{"type":7,"value":605,"toc":869},[606,609,611,614,620,628,631,708,714,716,719,727,729,754,760,762,776,793,802,834,836,862],[10,607,608],{},"MetaTrader is a trading platform built by MetaQuotes and licensed to brokers, who run their own servers and give clients the terminal to install. Two versions are in active use: MetaTrader 4, released in 2005, and MetaTrader 5, released in 2010. MetaTrader is not a broker and holds no money — it is the software layer between you and whichever broker issued your login.",[23,610,26],{"id":25},[10,612,613],{},"Every MetaTrader setup has three parts, and confusing them is the source of most support questions.",[28,615,618],{"className":616,"code":617,"language":33},[31],"Terminal (your PC or VPS)      ← charts, Expert Advisors, client-side logic\n    ↕ round trip measured as ping\nTrade server (your broker)     ← balance, order matching, server-held SL\u002FTP\nMQL (MQL4 or MQL5)             ← the language EAs and indicators are written in\n",[35,619,617],{"__ignoreMap":37},[10,621,622,623,627],{},"You log in with an account number, a server name and a password. There are two passwords against the same account: the master password, which can trade, and the ",[17,624,626],{"href":625},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-mt4-investor-password","investor password",", which is read-only and is the standard credential for third-party verification.",[10,629,630],{},"What actually differs between the versions:",[632,633,634,649],"table",{},[635,636,637],"thead",{},[638,639,640,643,646],"tr",{},[641,642],"th",{},[641,644,645],{},"MT4",[641,647,648],{},"MT5",[650,651,652,664,675,686,697],"tbody",{},[638,653,654,658,661],{},[655,656,657],"td",{},"Language",[655,659,660],{},"MQL4",[655,662,663],{},"MQL5",[638,665,666,669,672],{},[655,667,668],{},"Accounting",[655,670,671],{},"Order-based: one order is one position",[655,673,674],{},"Deal and position based, netting or hedging",[638,676,677,680,683],{},[655,678,679],{},"Timeframes",[655,681,682],{},"9",[655,684,685],{},"21",[638,687,688,691,694],{},[655,689,690],{},"Markets",[655,692,693],{},"Forex and CFDs",[655,695,696],{},"Adds exchange-traded instruments and depth of market",[638,698,699,702,705],{},[655,700,701],{},"Strategy tester",[655,703,704],{},"Single symbol, single thread",[655,706,707],{},"Multi-symbol, multi-threaded, real ticks",[10,709,710,711,713],{},"They are not two versions of one product in any practical sense. MQL4 code does not compile as MQL5, an ",[17,712,52],{"href":51}," does not port between them, and account history does not move. Migrating means starting a new account.",[23,715,66],{"id":65},[10,717,718],{},"Whichever version you run, the terminal is only the window. Your fills, your spread, your swap and your stop triggers are decided by the broker's trade server, and the same MT5 build produces different results at different brokers.",[10,720,721,722,726],{},"What MetaTrader does give you, and what has made it the default for two decades, is a machine-readable record that a third party can read directly from the broker. That is the whole basis of published ",[17,723,725],{"href":724},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-track-record","track records",": a read-only credential, an open feed, and no file the trader gets to edit on the way out.",[23,728,84],{"id":83},[10,730,731,732,735,736,739,740,329,744,748,749,751,752,208],{},"MetaTrader is very nearly the whole market we see. Of the ",[14,733,734],{},"10,000+ accounts connected to ShowMyTrades"," (August 2026), the overwhelming majority run ",[14,737,738],{},"MT4 or MT5",", alongside ",[17,741,743],{"href":742},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-ctrader","cTrader",[17,745,747],{"href":746},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-tradelocker","TradeLocker",". Those accounts reach ",[14,750,114],{}," and have produced ",[14,753,118],{},[10,755,756,757,759],{},"MT5 outnumbers MT4 by more than four to one here. That is a statement about the accounts arriving on this platform in 2026, not a verdict on either version; plenty of long-running MT4 records are still the better track record on the page. Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[14,758,290],{}," — only possible because both versions run code natively, with no bridge, no API key and no third-party plumbing.",[23,761,127],{"id":126},[10,763,764,765,321,768,321,771,340,773,775],{},"The account header shows the platform as a badge — ",[14,766,767],{},"MetaTrader 4",[14,769,770],{},"MetaTrader 5",[14,772,743],{},[14,774,747],{}," — beside the broker, the account currency, the leverage and the automation split.",[10,777,778,779,329,782,785,786,329,789,792],{},"When you add an account, the connection picker names the difference directly: ",[197,780,781],{},"MetaTrader 4 with EA",[197,783,784],{},"MetaTrader 5 with EA"," are marked recommended because updates are far more frequent, while ",[197,787,788],{},"MetaTrader 4 Direct Connection",[197,790,791],{},"MetaTrader 5 Direct Connection",", both still labelled Beta, sync from the broker using the investor password with nothing installed in your terminal.",[10,794,795,796,798,799,801],{},"That choice changes what the page can show, on either version. Only an EA connection produces the ",[14,797,133],{}," module, where the terminal reports on its own host and link and lists the charts and Expert Advisors currently loaded. On MT4 the same module is titled simply ",[14,800,162],{},", because the MT4 EA does not report the chart list at all — we show nothing rather than claim no charts are open.",[10,803,804,805,810,811,814,815,329,818,821,822,826,827,830,831,833],{},"Verification is version-neutral. The header carries a ",[14,806,807],{},[17,808,809],{"href":360},"Track Record"," badge, green once the read-only investor password is on file, and a ",[14,812,813],{},"Trading Privileges"," badge, green once a pending order carrying your ShowMyTrades user ID in the comment field has been placed. Across the connected accounts, ",[14,816,817],{},"65 hold Track Record Verified",[14,819,820],{},"264 Trading Privileges Verified",". ",[17,823,825],{"href":824},"\u002Fguides\u002Fmagic-numbers-and-strategy-labels","Per-strategy reporting"," in ",[14,828,829],{},"Breakdown Statistics → By Magic Number"," is an MT4 and MT5 capability, because the ",[17,832,452],{"href":451}," field is a MetaTrader concept.",[23,835,167],{"id":166},[169,837,838,844,850,856],{},[172,839,840,843],{},[14,841,842],{},"\"MetaTrader is my broker.\""," It is software your broker licenses. Deposits, withdrawals, spreads and execution are the broker's, and complaints go to them.",[172,845,846,849],{},[14,847,848],{},"\"MT5 is MT4 with more features.\""," It is a rewrite. EAs, indicators and scripts have to be rebuilt, which is why many working systems never moved.",[172,851,852,855],{},[14,853,854],{},"\"MT5 does not allow hedging.\""," It supports both netting and hedging; which one applies is set by the broker when the account is opened, and it cannot be changed afterwards.",[172,857,858,861],{},[14,859,860],{},"\"The platform decides my fills.\""," The trade server does. Two terminals of the same build, on two brokers, will not fill the same order the same way.",[10,863,864,865,208],{},"To turn a MetaTrader login into a record other people can check: ",[17,866,868],{"href":867},"\u002Fguides\u002Fhow-to-verify-your-account","how to verify your trading account",{"title":37,"searchDepth":210,"depth":210,"links":870},[871,872,873,874,875],{"id":25,"depth":210,"text":26},{"id":65,"depth":210,"text":66},{"id":83,"depth":210,"text":84},{"id":126,"depth":210,"text":127},{"id":166,"depth":210,"text":167},"MetaTrader is the platform most retail forex accounts run on. What separates MT4 from MT5, what the investor password does, and the real platform split we see.",{},[879,228,597,226,880],"what-is-an-mt4-investor-password","what-is-ctrader",{"title":603,"description":876},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-metatrader","MKdDWOKBnGlWX-ZwLgaS8-7RFBIRZWEdssYltOPR2Z8",{"id":885,"title":886,"body":887,"category":1089,"date":218,"description":1090,"draft":220,"extension":221,"meta":1091,"navigation":220,"path":72,"related":1092,"seo":1095,"stem":1096,"term":1097,"updated":218,"__hash__":1098},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage.md","What Is Slippage? Definition, Causes and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":888,"toc":1082},[889,892,894,900,903,909,915,926,933,935,945,953,955,971,981,983,986,1047,1049,1076],[10,890,891],{},"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.",[23,893,26],{"id":25},[28,895,898],{"className":896,"code":897,"language":33},[31],"Slippage (pips) = (Fill price − Requested price) \u002F Pip size\n                  sign reversed for sell orders\n",[35,899,897],{"__ignoreMap":37},[10,901,902],{},"Three things produce it.",[10,904,905,908],{},[14,906,907],{},"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.",[10,910,911,914],{},[14,912,913],{},"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.",[10,916,917,920,921,925],{},[14,918,919],{},"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 ",[17,922,924],{"href":923},"\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.",[10,927,928,929,932],{},"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. ",[14,930,931],{},"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.",[23,934,66],{"id":65},[10,936,937,938,940,941,944],{},"Slippage is the gap between a strategy on paper and the same strategy on a server. A ",[17,939,278],{"href":277}," run on historical bid prices with zero slippage assumes an execution model that does not exist, and the shorter the ",[17,942,943],{"href":92},"average trade",", the larger the share of the edge that assumption invents.",[10,946,947,948,952],{},"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 ",[17,949,951],{"href":950},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","spread"," and commission rather than instead of them.",[23,954,84],{"id":83},[10,956,957,958,291,960,962,963,965,966,970],{},"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 ",[14,959,290],{},[14,961,122],{}," (42.2% are under 10%). Those accounts reach ",[14,964,114],{}," — ",[17,967,969],{"href":968},"\u002Fguides\u002Fsame-strategy-different-brokers","the same strategy, sent to seven hundred different matching engines",", with seven hundred different latency profiles.",[10,972,973,974,977,978,980],{},"Holding periods make the exposure worse. On those accounts the ",[14,975,976],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account has closed ",[14,979,98],{},": execution cost is charged often, and each trade has little time for price movement to absorb it.",[23,982,127],{"id":126},[10,984,985],{},"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.",[169,987,988,1014,1038],{},[172,989,306,990,992,993,995,996,1000,1001,1005,1006,321,1008,321,1010,329,1012,208],{},[14,991,162],{}," panel (",[14,994,133],{}," on MT5) reports ",[14,997,998],{},[17,999,137],{"href":19},", the round-trip time between the terminal and the broker's trade server, and ",[14,1002,1003],{},[17,1004,61],{"href":60},", 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 ",[14,1007,320],{},[14,1009,324],{},[14,1011,328],{},[14,1013,332],{},[172,1015,306,1016,1019,1020,1023,1024,329,1027,1030,1031,329,1034,1037],{},[14,1017,1018],{},"Closed Trades"," table under ",[14,1021,1022],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," carries ",[14,1025,1026],{},"Open Price",[14,1028,1029],{},"Close Price"," per ticket, next to the ",[14,1032,1033],{},"S\u002FL",[14,1035,1036],{},"T\u002FP"," columns. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest reading of slippage available from broker records.",[172,1039,1040,826,1043,1046],{},[14,1041,1042],{},"Worst Trade (Pips)",[14,1044,1045],{},"Advanced Statistics"," 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.",[23,1048,167],{"id":166},[1050,1051,1052,1058,1064,1070],"ol",{},[172,1053,1054,1057],{},[14,1055,1056],{},"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.",[172,1059,1060,1063],{},[14,1061,1062],{},"\"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.",[172,1065,1066,1069],{},[14,1067,1068],{},"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.",[172,1071,1072,1075],{},[14,1073,1074],{},"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.",[10,1077,1078,1079,208],{},"For how ping, retransmission and the rest of the page fit together, read the ",[17,1080,1081],{"href":206},"guide to reading a trading account dashboard",{"title":37,"searchDepth":210,"depth":210,"links":1083},[1084,1085,1086,1087,1088],{"id":25,"depth":210,"text":26},{"id":65,"depth":210,"text":66},{"id":83,"depth":210,"text":84},{"id":126,"depth":210,"text":127},{"id":166,"depth":210,"text":167},"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.",{},[1093,1094,226,407],"what-is-a-spread","what-is-a-stop-loss",{"title":886,"description":1090},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","Slippage","JLOyPs_NTBij0Irz000OtvybQcW-dMK5fckGo-AXXJo",1787415690345]