[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1089},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage":3,"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage-related":271},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":255,"date":256,"description":257,"draft":258,"extension":259,"meta":260,"navigation":258,"path":261,"related":262,"seo":267,"stem":268,"term":269,"updated":256,"__hash__":270},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage.md","What Is Slippage? Definition, Causes and Real Data",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":247},"minimark",[9,13,18,29,32,39,45,57,64,68,81,89,93,113,124,128,131,209,213,240],[10,11,12],"p",{},"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.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"how-it-works","How it works",[19,20,25],"pre",{"className":21,"code":23,"language":24},[22],"language-text","Slippage (pips) = (Fill price − Requested price) \u002F Pip size\n                  sign reversed for sell orders\n","text",[26,27,23],"code",{"__ignoreMap":28},"",[10,30,31],{},"Three things produce it.",[10,33,34,38],{},[35,36,37],"strong",{},"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.",[10,40,41,44],{},[35,42,43],{},"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.",[10,46,47,50,51,56],{},[35,48,49],{},"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 ",[52,53,55],"a",{"href":54},"\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.",[10,58,59,60,63],{},"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. ",[35,61,62],{},"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.",[14,65,67],{"id":66},"why-it-matters","Why it matters",[10,69,70,71,75,76,80],{},"Slippage is the gap between a strategy on paper and the same strategy on a server. A ",[52,72,74],{"href":73},"\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 ",[52,77,79],{"href":78},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-average-trade-length","average trade",", the larger the share of the edge that assumption invents.",[10,82,83,84,88],{},"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 ",[52,85,87],{"href":86},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","spread"," and commission rather than instead of them.",[14,90,92],{"id":91},"what-the-data-shows","What the data shows",[10,94,95,96,99,100,103,104,107,108,112],{},"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 ",[35,97,98],{},"median autotrading share is 99%",", and ",[35,101,102],{},"53.9% of accounts are more than 90% automated"," (42.2% are under 10%). Those accounts reach ",[35,105,106],{},"703 distinct broker servers"," — ",[52,109,111],{"href":110},"\u002Fguides\u002Fsame-strategy-different-brokers","the same strategy, sent to seven hundred different matching engines",", with seven hundred different latency profiles.",[10,114,115,116,119,120,123],{},"Holding periods make the exposure worse. On those accounts the ",[35,117,118],{},"median trade lasts 2.4 hours"," and the median account has closed ",[35,121,122],{},"171 trades",": execution cost is charged often, and each trade has little time for price movement to absorb it.",[14,125,127],{"id":126},"where-you-see-it-on-showmytrades","Where you see it on ShowMyTrades",[10,129,130],{},"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.",[132,133,134,175,199],"ul",{},[135,136,137,138,141,142,145,146,152,153,159,160,163,164,163,167,170,171,174],"li",{},"The ",[35,139,140],{},"Terminal"," panel (",[35,143,144],{},"Terminal & Open Charts"," on MT5) reports ",[35,147,148],{},[52,149,151],{"href":150},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-terminal-ping","Ping",", the round-trip time between the terminal and the broker's trade server, and ",[35,154,155],{},[52,156,158],{"href":157},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-packet-retransmission","Retransmission",", the share of network packets that had to be sent again. Under 50 ms ping is excellent; above 200 ms can mean slower execution and more slippage. Consistently high retransmission points to an unreliable network or a distant trade server. The same panel shows ",[35,161,162],{},"Terminal build",", ",[35,165,166],{},"Memory",[35,168,169],{},"Auto trading"," and ",[35,172,173],{},"DLL imports",".",[135,176,137,177,180,181,184,185,170,188,191,192,170,195,198],{},[35,178,179],{},"Closed Trades"," table under ",[35,182,183],{},"Trade History & Balance Progression"," carries ",[35,186,187],{},"Open Price",[35,189,190],{},"Close Price"," per ticket, next to the ",[35,193,194],{},"S\u002FL",[35,196,197],{},"T\u002FP"," columns. Comparing where an exit was set against where it actually landed is the closest reading of slippage available from broker records.",[135,200,201,204,205,208],{},[35,202,203],{},"Worst Trade (Pips)"," in ",[35,206,207],{},"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.",[14,210,212],{"id":211},"common-misunderstandings","Common misunderstandings",[214,215,216,222,228,234],"ol",{},[135,217,218,221],{},[35,219,220],{},"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.",[135,223,224,227],{},[35,225,226],{},"\"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.",[135,229,230,233],{},[35,231,232],{},"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.",[135,235,236,239],{},[35,237,238],{},"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.",[10,241,242,243,174],{},"For how ping, retransmission and the rest of the page fit together, read the ",[52,244,246],{"href":245},"\u002Fguides\u002Freading-a-trading-account-dashboard","guide to reading a trading account dashboard",{"title":28,"searchDepth":248,"depth":248,"links":249},2,[250,251,252,253,254],{"id":16,"depth":248,"text":17},{"id":66,"depth":248,"text":67},{"id":91,"depth":248,"text":92},{"id":126,"depth":248,"text":127},{"id":211,"depth":248,"text":212},"Costs","2026-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","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.",true,"md",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage",[263,264,265,266],"what-is-a-spread","what-is-a-stop-loss","what-is-a-vps","what-is-backtesting",{"title":5,"description":257},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-slippage","Slippage","JLOyPs_NTBij0Irz000OtvybQcW-dMK5fckGo-AXXJo",[272,490,701,873],{"id":273,"title":274,"body":275,"category":255,"date":256,"description":478,"draft":479,"extension":259,"meta":480,"navigation":258,"path":86,"related":481,"seo":486,"stem":487,"term":488,"updated":256,"__hash__":489},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread.md","What Is a Spread in Forex? Definition and Real Costs",{"type":7,"value":276,"toc":471},[277,280,282,285,291,299,310,324,326,334,337,339,346,353,359,366,372,374,428,430,464],[10,278,279],{},"A spread is the difference between the bid price, at which you can sell, and the ask price, at which you can buy. It is what the broker charges for filling your order, and you pay it on every trade whether that trade wins or loses. On most retail accounts it is the largest single cost of trading and the only one that never appears as a line item on the statement.",[14,281,17],{"id":16},[10,283,284],{},"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.",[19,286,289],{"className":287,"code":288,"language":24},[22],"Spread (pips)   = (Ask − Bid) \u002F Pip size\nCost per trade  = Spread (pips) × Pip value × Lots\n",[26,290,288],{"__ignoreMap":28},[10,292,293,294,298],{},"On a standard lot of EUR\u002FUSD the ",[52,295,297],{"href":296},"\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.",[10,300,301,302,305,306,309],{},"There are two ways brokers price it. ",[35,303,304],{},"Spread-only"," accounts widen the quote and charge nothing else — the cost is buried in your fill price. ",[35,307,308],{},"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.",[10,311,312,313,316,317,320,321,323],{},"Spreads are either ",[35,314,315],{},"fixed"," (constant, usually wider, quoted by a dealing desk) or ",[35,318,319],{},"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 ",[52,322,55],{"href":54}," is most likely to be hit.",[14,325,67],{"id":66},[10,327,328,329,333],{},"Spread scales with turnover, not with skill. A system targeting 5 pips per trade gives away ",[52,330,332],{"href":331},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-cost-percentage","20% of its gross edge"," to a 1-pip spread; a system targeting 200 pips gives away 0.5%. That single ratio decides whether a strategy survives at one broker and dies at another while the logic stays identical.",[10,335,336],{},"It also compounds invisibly. The median account published on ShowMyTrades closes 171 trades. One extra pip of spread across 171 standard lots is $1,710 — money that never shows anywhere except as a slightly worse equity curve.",[14,338,92],{"id":91},[10,340,341,342,345],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), traders have paid ",[35,343,344],{},"$4,782,670 in commissions",". That is only the visible half of execution cost: the spread portion cannot be totalled the same way, because it is priced into the fill rather than charged as a separate line.",[10,347,348],{},[349,350],"img",{"alt":351,"src":352},"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",[10,354,355],{},[356,357,358],"em",{},"Only one of the three arrives with a number attached to it.",[10,360,361,362,365],{},"The scale of that hidden half is easy to bound. Those accounts have traded ",[35,363,364],{},"1,724,575 lots",". On a $10-per-pip instrument, a difference of just 0.2 pips in average spread across that volume is roughly $3.4 million — more than two thirds of all commissions ever recorded on the platform.",[10,367,368,369,371],{},"And the conditions genuinely differ: those accounts connect through ",[35,370,106],{},", and 429 users run accounts at more than one broker precisely to compare them.",[14,373,127],{"id":126},[132,375,376,396,406,422],{},[135,377,378,380,381,163,384,170,387,390,391,395],{},[35,379,207],{}," shows ",[35,382,383],{},"Total Commissions",[35,385,386],{},"Total Lots",[35,388,389],{},"Total Pips",". Divide the first by the second and you have ",[52,392,394],{"href":393},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbroker-cost-audit","that account's real commission per lot"," — a number brokers rarely publish in a comparable form.",[135,397,398,399,401,402,174],{},"The most useful check is ",[35,400,389],{}," against net profit. When an account is positive in pips but flat or negative in money, execution cost is consuming the edge. ",[52,403,405],{"href":404},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftrading-cost-percentage","That gap is the spread and commission bill",[135,407,137,408,180,410,412,413,416,417,170,419,421],{},[35,409,179],{},[35,411,183],{}," carries a ",[35,414,415],{},"Commission"," column per ticket, alongside ",[35,418,187],{},[35,420,190],{},", so you can see what an individual fill actually cost.",[135,423,137,424,427],{},[35,425,426],{},"account header"," carries the broker badge, with the trade server name in its tooltip, next to the account currency and leverage. That is what makes two accounts running the same strategy comparable at all.",[14,429,212],{"id":211},[214,431,432,438,444,450],{},[135,433,434,437],{},[35,435,436],{},"\"Zero spread\" does not mean free."," Zero- or raw-spread accounts move the cost into commission. Compare the total, not the headline.",[135,439,440,443],{},[35,441,442],{},"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.",[135,445,446,449],{},[35,447,448],{},"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.",[135,451,452,455,456,170,460,463],{},[35,453,454],{},"Spread alone does not rank a broker."," ",[52,457,459],{"href":458},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-swap-in-forex","Swap",[52,461,462],{"href":261},"slippage"," belong in the same comparison, and a tight spread with poor execution is the more expensive deal.",[10,465,466,467,174],{},"To put real numbers on your own instrument and lot size, see the ",[52,468,470],{"href":469},"\u002Fguides\u002Fforex-calculators-guide","guide to forex calculators",{"title":28,"searchDepth":248,"depth":248,"links":472},[473,474,475,476,477],{"id":16,"depth":248,"text":17},{"id":66,"depth":248,"text":67},{"id":91,"depth":248,"text":92},{"id":126,"depth":248,"text":127},{"id":211,"depth":248,"text":212},"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,{},[482,483,484,485],"what-is-a-swap-in-forex","what-is-slippage","what-is-a-regulated-broker","what-is-a-profit-factor",{"title":274,"description":478},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-spread","Spread","_HiS3N0q5xG6kWJPv01Kjk02mu226hR7wa-SzSCJ0_U",{"id":491,"title":492,"body":493,"category":692,"date":256,"description":693,"draft":258,"extension":259,"meta":694,"navigation":258,"path":54,"related":695,"seo":697,"stem":698,"term":699,"updated":256,"__hash__":700},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss.md","What Is a Stop Loss? Types, Limits and Real Numbers",{"type":7,"value":494,"toc":685},[495,498,500,503,529,532,538,546,548,554,567,569,577,583,588,591,599,602,604,646,648,678],[10,496,497],{},"A stop loss is an order placed in advance to close a position at a specified price, capping the loss on that trade. It is a decision made before the trade is open and handed to the broker's server, which is the entire point: it removes the exit from the moment when you will least want to take it. It caps intent, not outcome — the fill can be worse than the level.",[14,499,17],{"id":16},[10,501,502],{},"Four variants cover almost everything in use.",[132,504,505,511,517,523],{},[135,506,507,510],{},[35,508,509],{},"Fixed stop."," A price level attached at entry and held on the broker's server. It survives a power cut, a crashed terminal and a lost connection, because it does not live on your machine.",[135,512,513,516],{},[35,514,515],{},"Trailing stop."," Follows price in the profitable direction and never moves back. It locks in gains and also turns winners into break-even trades in noisy markets. In MetaTrader the built-in version is managed by the terminal, so it only works while the platform runs — which is why EAs trail by modifying the server-side stop instead.",[135,518,519,522],{},[35,520,521],{},"Volatility-based stop."," Distance derived from current range, typically an ATR multiple, rather than a round number. The same 20-pip stop on EUR\u002FUSD and on gold is not the same risk.",[135,524,525,528],{},[35,526,527],{},"Time stop."," Exit after N hours or bars regardless of price. Rare, and underused.",[10,530,531],{},"Sizing follows from the stop, not the other way round:",[19,533,536],{"className":534,"code":535,"language":24},[22],"Position size = (Equity × Risk %) ÷ (Stop distance in pips × Pip value)\n",[26,537,535],{"__ignoreMap":28},[10,539,540,541,545],{},"Choosing a lot size first and then hunting for a stop that fits the margin is the most common way an account acquires an unbounded loss. The ",[52,542,544],{"href":543},"\u002Ftools\u002Fposition-size-calculator","position size calculator"," runs it in the correct order.",[14,547,67],{"id":66},[10,549,550,551,553],{},"A stop loss is a trigger, not a price guarantee. Once the level trades, the order becomes a market order and fills at the next available price. In a gap — a Monday reopen, a rate surprise, the Swiss franc in January 2015 — that price can be a long way past the level. The difference is ",[52,552,462],{"href":261},", and it has no ceiling. Only a guaranteed stop loss, sold by some brokers for a fee, fills at the stated price.",[10,555,556,557,561,562,566],{},"The deeper function is behavioural. Without a pre-committed exit, the decision to close a loser is taken while holding it — the worst possible moment. Everything downstream — ",[52,558,560],{"href":559},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-profit-factor","profit factor",", drawdown, whether a ",[52,563,565],{"href":564},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-margin-call","margin call"," ever arrives — is decided there.",[14,568,92],{"id":91},[10,570,571,572,576],{},"Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[52,573,575],{"href":574},"\u002Fguides\u002Fwin-rate-is-not-an-edge","median win rate"," is 68.8% and the median profit factor is 1.28. These describe accounts published here, not traders in general.",[10,578,579],{},[349,580],{"alt":581,"src":582},"Median win rate of 68.8% beside a median profit factor of 1.28 across public ShowMyTrades accounts","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fwin-rate-vs-payoff.svg",[10,584,585],{},[356,586,587],{},"Winning often and earning little is the pattern a pre-committed exit exists to break.",[10,589,590],{},"Read them together, because separately each one flatters. Nearly seven trades in ten close green, yet gross profit is only 1.28 times gross loss. Both hold at once only if losers are substantially larger than winners: at a 68.8% win rate, a 1.28 profit factor implies an average loss roughly 1.7 times the average win. (Two medians of two distributions — an illustration, not one measured account, though the direction is not in doubt.)",[10,592,593,594,598],{},"That is the signature of taking profits early and letting losses run, and it is the pattern a stop loss exists to prevent. It surfaces again in the median ",[52,595,597],{"href":596},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-the-sharpe-ratio","Sharpe ratio"," of 0.05: return per unit of volatility barely above zero. The median account closes 171 trades, so this is not a thin sample.",[10,600,601],{},"Nor is it hand-made. Median autotrading share is 99%, and 53.9% of these accounts run above 90% automation. A missing stop loss there is a missing line of code, applied identically to every trade the system takes.",[14,603,127],{"id":126},[132,605,606,615,624,632,638],{},[135,607,137,608,611,612,614],{},[35,609,610],{},"trades table"," has an ",[35,613,194],{}," column showing the stop price recorded on each position, marked in red when the trade was actually closed by it. Hundreds of rows with an empty S\u002FL column means the account trades without pre-committed exits.",[135,616,617,170,620,623],{},[35,618,619],{},"Avg. Win",[35,621,622],{},"Avg. Loss"," in the advanced statistics. If Avg. Loss is a multiple of Avg. Win, stops are either absent or being moved.",[135,625,626,170,629,631],{},[35,627,628],{},"Worst Trade (P&L)",[35,630,203],{},". The largest single loss the account has taken is the real stop loss, whatever the description claims.",[135,633,634,637],{},[35,635,636],{},"Expectancy",", shown in pips and account currency, is the per-trade average once wins and losses are combined — the number a high win rate cannot flatter.",[135,639,640,645],{},[52,641,642],{"href":78},[35,643,644],{},"Avg. Trade Length",", in the same block, exposes the asymmetry: losers that last days and winners that last minutes.",[14,647,212],{"id":211},[132,649,650,656,666,672],{},[135,651,652,655],{},[35,653,654],{},"\"A stop loss guarantees my maximum loss.\""," It caps the trigger, not the fill. Gaps and thin books fill worse, sometimes far worse.",[135,657,658,661,662,174],{},[35,659,660],{},"\"Wider stops are safer.\""," A wider stop at the same lot size is a larger loss. Distance and size are one decision, not two — see ",[52,663,665],{"href":664},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-position-sizing","position sizing",[135,667,668,671],{},[35,669,670],{},"\"Moving the stop gives the trade room.\""," Moving a stop away from price converts a defined loss into an undefined one. This single habit produces the Avg. Loss to Avg. Win gap above.",[135,673,674,677],{},[35,675,676],{},"\"My win rate is high enough that I do not need stops.\""," Backwards. The median account here already wins 68.8% of its trades and still only reaches a 1.28 profit factor.",[10,679,680,681,174],{},"For what to watch on your own record over time, see ",[52,682,684],{"href":683},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftracking-trading-performance","the guide to tracking trading performance",{"title":28,"searchDepth":248,"depth":248,"links":686},[687,688,689,690,691],{"id":16,"depth":248,"text":17},{"id":66,"depth":248,"text":67},{"id":91,"depth":248,"text":92},{"id":126,"depth":248,"text":127},{"id":211,"depth":248,"text":212},"Risk","A stop loss is a pre-committed exit order that closes a losing trade at a set price. Types, why it is not a guarantee, and what thousands of real accounts show.",{},[696,485,483],"what-is-position-sizing",{"title":492,"description":693},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-stop-loss","Stop Loss","AAYa1iiPaOMw4kuu8v5SZJKK5hmXtrG8EOOybDzr9vg",{"id":702,"title":703,"body":704,"category":863,"date":256,"description":864,"draft":258,"extension":259,"meta":865,"navigation":258,"path":866,"related":867,"seo":869,"stem":870,"term":871,"updated":256,"__hash__":872},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps.md","What Is a VPS in Trading? Why Uptime Decides Results",{"type":7,"value":705,"toc":856},[706,714,716,719,725,728,731,737,739,745,748,750,762,765,767,801,814,822,824,850],[10,707,708,709,713],{},"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 ",[52,710,712],{"href":711},"\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.",[14,715,17],{"id":16},[10,717,718],{},"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.",[19,720,723],{"className":721,"code":722,"language":24},[22],"Ping = terminal → trade server → terminal, round trip\n",[26,724,722],{"__ignoreMap":28},[10,726,727],{},"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.",[10,729,730],{},"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.",[10,732,733,734,736],{},"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 ",[52,735,462],{"href":261},", and no amount of strategy tuning trades around it.",[14,738,67],{"id":66},[10,740,741,742,744],{},"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 ",[52,743,74],{"href":73}," results overstate live performance: a backtest never disconnects, never misses a bar, and always fills at the modelled price.",[10,746,747],{},"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.",[14,749,92],{"id":91},[10,751,752,753,99,755,757,758,761],{},"Automation is the norm on our platform, not the exception. Across the public accounts on ShowMyTrades with trading history (August 2026), the ",[35,754,98],{},[35,756,102],{},". The distribution is barbell-shaped: another ",[35,759,760],{},"42.2% are under 10% automated",", with very little in between. Traders are either fully hands-off or fully manual.",[10,763,764],{},"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.",[14,766,127],{"id":126},[10,768,137,769,771,772,776,777,779,780,163,782,784,785,170,787,789,790,163,793,796,797,800],{},[35,770,144],{}," module on the account page reports the live state of the machine the strategy runs on: ",[52,773,774],{"href":150},[35,775,151],{}," to the trade server, ",[35,778,158],{}," (the share of network packets that had to be sent again), ",[35,781,162],{},[35,783,166],{}," of the host machine, and whether ",[35,786,169],{},[35,788,173],{}," are allowed. A connection badge reads ",[356,791,792],{},"Connected",[356,794,795],{},"No trade server"," or ",[356,798,799],{},"Offline",", next to how long ago the terminal last reported, and the header counts how many of your terminals are online.",[10,802,803,804,810,811,174],{},"Below it, the open charts table lists each chart with its symbol, timeframe, ",[52,805,807],{"href":806},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-an-expert-advisor",[35,808,809],{},"Expert Advisor"," 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 ",[356,812,813],{},"99% autotrading",[10,815,816,817,821],{},"This is also what a ",[52,818,820],{"href":819},"\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.",[14,823,212],{"id":211},[132,825,826,832,838,844],{},[135,827,828,831],{},[35,829,830],{},"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.",[135,833,834,837],{},[35,835,836],{},"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.",[135,839,840,843],{},[35,841,842],{},"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.",[135,845,846,849],{},[35,847,848],{},"\"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.",[10,851,852,853,174],{},"To read the rest of an account page with the same scepticism: ",[52,854,855],{"href":245},"how to read a trading account dashboard",{"title":28,"searchDepth":248,"depth":248,"links":857},[858,859,860,861,862],{"id":16,"depth":248,"text":17},{"id":66,"depth":248,"text":67},{"id":91,"depth":248,"text":92},{"id":126,"depth":248,"text":127},{"id":211,"depth":248,"text":212},"Platforms","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.",{},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps",[868,483,266],"what-is-a-verified-track-record",{"title":703,"description":864},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-vps","VPS","I4TIf563St5m6tF3Pb_5h1pPDQHp1v7OdG4YiQx2XLQ",{"id":874,"title":875,"body":876,"category":1080,"date":256,"description":1081,"draft":479,"extension":259,"meta":1082,"navigation":258,"path":73,"related":1083,"seo":1085,"stem":1086,"term":1087,"updated":256,"__hash__":1088},"glossary\u002F5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting.md","What Is Backtesting? Definition, Limits and Live Data",{"type":7,"value":877,"toc":1073},[878,881,883,886,892,895,921,929,931,934,937,939,950,970,981,986,991,993,1001,1024,1034,1036,1066],[10,879,880],{},"Backtesting is the simulation of a trading strategy against historical price data to estimate how it would have performed. It produces an equity curve, a profit factor and a drawdown figure without a single order ever reaching a broker. Those outputs are a hypothesis about the strategy, not a record of it.",[14,882,17],{"id":16},[10,884,885],{},"The tester replays historical bars or ticks, applies the strategy's entry and exit rules to each one, and records a simulated fill. Everything that separates the simulation from reality lives in the cost and fill model:",[19,887,890],{"className":888,"code":889,"language":24},[22],"Net result per trade = Gross P&L − spread − commission − swap − slippage\n\nSpread cost  = spread (in price) × contract size × lots\nSwap         = swap rate × lots × nights held\n",[26,891,889],{"__ignoreMap":28},[10,893,894],{},"Three settings decide how honest the output is:",[132,896,897,903,912],{},[135,898,899,902],{},[35,900,901],{},"Modelling quality."," MT4 and MT5 report it as a percentage. \"Every tick\" interpolates from 1-minute bars unless you supply real tick data; \"control points\" and \"open prices only\" are approximations that flatter intrabar strategies badly.",[135,904,905,908,909,911],{},[35,906,907],{},"Spread assumption."," Most testers default to a fixed spread. Live spread widens at the rollover, on news and at the session open — exactly the moments many systems trade. A ",[52,910,87],{"href":86}," modelled at 0.8 pips and paid at 4.0 pips is a different strategy.",[135,913,914,917,918,920],{},[35,915,916],{},"Slippage and fill logic."," The tester assumes your order is filled at the requested price. ",[52,919,269],{"href":261},", rejected orders, requotes and partial fills do not exist in it.",[10,922,923,924,928],{},"There is a fourth problem the software does not report: the parameter set itself survived a search. If you ran 400 variants and kept the best one, the result you are reading was selected by hindsight. That is ",[52,925,927],{"href":926},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-curve-fitting","curve fitting",", and it is the single largest gap between tested and live performance.",[14,930,67],{"id":66},[10,932,933],{},"A backtest is the cheapest way to reject a bad idea and the most expensive way to confirm a good one. It can establish that a rule set is mechanically coherent, that it survives a rough cost assumption, and that its drawdown profile is something you could sit through. It cannot establish that the edge exists, because every input it uses is a reconstruction and every parameter it uses was chosen after the data was seen.",[10,935,936],{},"Anyone deciding where to put money should treat a backtest as a screening tool with a veto, never as evidence.",[14,938,92],{"id":91},[10,940,941,942,945,946,949],{},"ShowMyTrades publishes ",[35,943,944],{},"10,000+ accounts"," as public pages, resting on ",[35,947,948],{},"15,436,464 synchronised trades"," (August 2026). Not one of them is simulated: every trade in that count was filled by a broker and read back from it.",[10,951,952,953,956,957,959,960,963,964,959,966,969],{},"That published population is overwhelmingly automated — median autotrading share ",[35,954,955],{},"99%",", with 53.9% of accounts running above 90% automation and 42.2% below 10%. The automated portion consists, in the main, of strategies that were backtested before they were funded. Across the whole published set the median ",[52,958,560],{"href":559}," is ",[35,961,962],{},"1.28"," and the median ",[52,965,597],{"href":596},[35,967,968],{},"0.05",". Those are the figures the tester reports were competing against.",[10,971,972,973,976,977,980],{},"Costs are the line a simulation most often understates, and here they are billed rather than assumed: ",[35,974,975],{},"$4,782,670"," charged in commission and ",[35,978,979],{},"$862,547"," in swap, with 86.3% of the accounts that carry any swap paying it net negative. A backtest set to zero swap on a strategy that holds positions overnight is not slightly optimistic; it is missing a recurring charge.",[10,982,983],{},[349,984],{"alt":985,"src":352},"Spread, commission and swap as three separate cost lines: $4,782,670 charged in commission and $862,547 in swap across public ShowMyTrades accounts",[10,987,988],{},[356,989,990],{},"A tester with a fixed spread and no swap has left out two of the three.",[14,992,127],{"id":126},[10,994,995,996,1000],{},"Nowhere, deliberately. ShowMyTrades does not host backtests, upload simulations or accept a strategy report as a ",[52,997,999],{"href":998},"\u002Fglossary\u002Fwhat-is-a-track-record","track record",". Every account page is synced read-only from the broker, which is why the numbers above describe executed trades rather than modelled ones.",[10,1002,1003,1004,170,1006,1009,1010,1012,1013,170,1015,1017,1018,1020,1021,1023],{},"The modules that expose what a backtest hides are: ",[35,1005,383],{},[35,1007,1008],{},"Total Swap Paid"," in the Advanced Statistics block, the real cost of the strategy in account currency; the ",[35,1011,140],{}," panel, which reports ",[35,1014,151],{},[35,1016,158],{}," to the trade server, the conditions your fills were actually obtained under; and ",[35,1019,183],{},", whose ",[35,1022,179],{}," tab lists each executed order at the price it was genuinely filled at rather than the price a tester would have granted it.",[10,1025,137,1026,1029,1030,1033],{},[35,1027,1028],{},"Track Record Verified"," badge, held by 65 accounts, and ",[35,1031,1032],{},"Trading Privileges Verified",", held by 264, mark the records where that broker-to-page chain has been checked rather than asserted.",[14,1035,212],{"id":211},[132,1037,1038,1044,1054,1060],{},[135,1039,1040,1043],{},[35,1041,1042],{},"\"It used every tick, so it is accurate.\""," Tick modelling improves the price path, not the fill. Your broker's spread, execution and rejections are still absent.",[135,1045,1046,455,1049,1053],{},[35,1047,1048],{},"\"It was tested over ten years.\"",[52,1050,1052],{"href":1051},"\u002Fguides\u002Fhow-much-history-a-track-record-needs","Length is not independence",". A decade that contained one dominant regime is one observation, not 2,500.",[135,1055,1056,1059],{},[35,1057,1058],{},"\"Only three parameters were optimised.\""," Three parameters at twenty values each is 8,000 experiments. The winner of 8,000 experiments is partly lucky by construction.",[135,1061,1062,1065],{},[35,1063,1064],{},"\"The demo forward test confirmed it.\""," Demo servers fill optimistically and never reject. A demo result is a second simulation, not a first live test.",[10,1067,1068,1069,174],{},"Before you trust any performance figure, tested or live, work through ",[52,1070,1072],{"href":1071},"\u002Fguides\u002Fverifying-trading-performance-claims","how to verify trading performance claims",{"title":28,"searchDepth":248,"depth":248,"links":1074},[1075,1076,1077,1078,1079],{"id":16,"depth":248,"text":17},{"id":66,"depth":248,"text":67},{"id":91,"depth":248,"text":92},{"id":126,"depth":248,"text":127},{"id":211,"depth":248,"text":212},"Strategy","Backtesting simulates a trading strategy on historical price data. What it can prove, what it cannot, and why live broker-synced results almost always differ.",{},[1084,868,483],"what-is-curve-fitting",{"title":875,"description":1081},"5.glossary\u002Fwhat-is-backtesting","Backtesting","he7JKboqSnysaWcJ_U_Uz3xPVvizet9GFQbrgkBSinQ",1787415690564]