{"id":12812,"date":"2026-08-12T17:05:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/?p=12812"},"modified":"2026-08-12T17:05:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:05:01","slug":"slippage-in-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/slippage-in-trading\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Slippage in Trading? Definition, Example and How to Avoid It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> Slippage is the gap between the price you asked for and the price your order actually filled at. It happens because price moves in the milliseconds between your click and the broker&#8217;s execution, and because the volume available at your quoted price runs out. Slippage can be negative (a worse fill) or positive (a better one). Market orders and stop orders can slip; limit orders cannot.<\/p>\n<p>Two traders click Buy on EUR\/USD at 1.10250 within the same second. One gets 1.10250. The other gets 1.10270. Nothing went wrong \u2014 the second trader met a market where the price had already moved on. That 2.0-pip difference is slippage, and on one standard lot it costs <strong>$20<\/strong>, which is more than the entire spread on most account types.<\/p>\n<p>This guide covers where slippage comes from, how to measure it in your own trade history, which order types are exposed to it, and the settings that limit it.<\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s Included<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>What slippage means and how it differs from the spread<\/li>\n<li>A worked EUR\/USD example with the exact cost<\/li>\n<li>The five conditions that produce most slippage<\/li>\n<li>Which order types slip and which do not<\/li>\n<li>Eight practical ways to reduce it<\/li>\n<li>How to measure your own slippage in MT4 and MT5<\/li>\n<li>FAQ and key takeaways<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What Is Slippage in Trading?<\/h2>\n<p>Slippage is the difference between the requested price of an order and the price at which it is actually executed. It is measured in pips or points and converted to money using the position size. A fill worse than requested is <strong>negative slippage<\/strong>; a fill better than requested is <strong>positive slippage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Two mechanics produce it. The first is time: between the moment your terminal sends the order and the moment the server matches it, quotes keep updating. The second is depth. A quoted price is only good for a certain volume. If your order is larger than the volume sitting at the top of the book, the remainder fills against the next price levels, and the average fill price drifts away from the quote you saw.<\/p>\n<p>Slippage is not a fee and it is not charged by anyone. It is an execution outcome, which is why it never appears as a line item on your statement the way commission and swap do \u2014 you have to calculate it yourself.<\/p>\n<h2>Slippage vs Spread: Two Different Costs<\/h2>\n<p>The spread is a known cost you accept before you click. Slippage is an unknown cost you discover after the fill. Both reduce the same account balance, but only one of them can be priced in advance.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><\/th>\n<th><strong>Spread<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Slippage<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Known before the trade?<\/td>\n<td>Yes \u2014 visible in Market Watch<\/td>\n<td>No<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Charged by the broker?<\/td>\n<td>Yes, built into bid\/ask<\/td>\n<td>No \u2014 a market outcome<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Can it work in your favour?<\/td>\n<td>No<\/td>\n<td>Yes (positive slippage)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Shows on your statement?<\/td>\n<td>Yes, in the fill price<\/td>\n<td>No, must be calculated<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Worst during news?<\/td>\n<td>Widens<\/td>\n<td>Widens sharply<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The scale matters. On a PrimusPRO account the published EUR\/USD spread starts at <strong>0.3 pips<\/strong>, so a single 2.0-pip slip is roughly <strong>6.7 times<\/strong> the entire spread on that trade. Traders who optimise account type down to the last tenth of a pip and never measure their fills are watching the smaller number. Account-level costs and leverage ratio tiers are set out on the <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/fees-leverage\/\">Fees &amp; Leverage<\/a> page; execution quality has to be measured on your own account.<\/p>\n<p>Spreads quoted here are indicative &#8220;from&#8221; levels, self-reported by FXPrimus and checked as of August 2026 against the published <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/accounts\/\">account pages<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>A Worked Slippage Example on EUR\/USD<\/h2>\n<p>One standard lot of EUR\/USD is 100,000 units, so one pip is worth <strong>$10<\/strong>. Every pip of slippage on that size costs ten dollars, in either direction.<\/p>\n<p>You click Buy at a quoted Ask of 1.10250. The order fills at 1.10270.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Item<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Value<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Requested price<\/td>\n<td>1.10250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fill price<\/td>\n<td>1.10270<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Difference<\/td>\n<td>2.0 pips (20 points on a 5-decimal quote)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cost at 1.00 lot<\/td>\n<td><strong>$20<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cost at 0.20 lot<\/td>\n<td><strong>$4<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Now apply the same idea to a stop loss, where the damage is structural rather than cosmetic. Say you run a $5,000 account and risk 1% per trade, which is <strong>$50<\/strong>. With a 25-pip stop, that sizes the position at <strong>0.20 lots<\/strong>. If the market gaps through your stop and it fills 10 pips lower, the trade closes 35 pips against you: <strong>$70<\/strong>, or <strong>1.4%<\/strong> of the account. Your risk model said 1%. The market charged 1.4%.<\/p>\n<p>Repeat that a few dozen times and the compounding assumptions behind the position sizing stop holding. Use the <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/resources\/pip-calculator\/\">pip calculator<\/a> to check the money value of a slip on the instrument and lot size you actually trade \u2014 the figure on gold is far larger, since a standard XAU\/USD contract of 100 ounces turns a 50-cent slip into <strong>$50<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Frequency matters as much as magnitude. An active trader placing 10 trades a day over 250 trading days makes 2,500 trades. At an average of 0.3 pips of negative slippage on 0.10 lots, that is $0.30 per trade \u2014 <strong>$750 a year<\/strong>. At one standard lot per trade, the same average costs <strong>$7,500<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>What Causes Slippage?<\/h2>\n<p>Slippage concentrates in five conditions: thin liquidity, high volatility, scheduled news, weekend gaps, and slow connections. Any one of them widens the gap between quote and fill; two together can produce a fill nowhere near the screen price.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thin liquidity.<\/strong> Fewer resting orders means less volume at each price level. The late New York and early Asian hours, exotic pairs, and small-cap stock CFDs all show this pattern.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Volatility.<\/strong> Fast markets reprice several times per second. The quote your terminal drew is already historical by the time the request reaches the server.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scheduled news.<\/strong> NFP, CPI, FOMC and ECB decisions compress a day of repricing into a few seconds, and market makers pull quotes rather than get run over. Check release times on the <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/resources\/economic-calendar\/\">economic calendar<\/a> before sizing up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weekend and session gaps.<\/strong> Markets close Friday and reopen Sunday at whatever price the first quote produces. A stop sitting in that range is executed at the reopening price, not at the stop level.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Latency.<\/strong> A slow home connection, a laptop running twenty browser tabs, or an EA hosted far from the broker&#8217;s server all add milliseconds. Milliseconds are the unit slippage is denominated in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Order size<\/strong> compounds all five. A 0.10-lot order finds resting liquidity almost anywhere. A 10-lot order in a quiet hour has to walk down the book to fill.<\/p>\n<h2>Which Order Types Slip and Which Do Not<\/h2>\n<p>Order type decides your exposure. A limit order specifies a price boundary the broker cannot cross; a market or stop order specifies urgency and accepts whatever price is available.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Order type<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Slippage exposure<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Trade-off<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Market order<\/td>\n<td>Yes, both directions<\/td>\n<td>Fills quickly, price uncertain<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Buy Stop \/ Sell Stop<\/td>\n<td>Yes, usually negative<\/td>\n<td>Fills, but the price can be worse<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Buy Limit \/ Sell Limit<\/td>\n<td>None<\/td>\n<td>Price certain, fill not certain<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Stop Limit<\/td>\n<td>Capped<\/td>\n<td>Combines a stop trigger with a price ceiling<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Stop Loss attached to a position<\/td>\n<td>Yes<\/td>\n<td>Becomes a market order once triggered<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<p>MetaTrader&#8217;s own documentation is explicit about the mechanism. Limit orders execute at the specified price or better, so no slippage occurs \u2014 but their execution is not certain, since the broker can reject the order if the price moves too far in the opposite direction. Stop orders behave in the mirror image: when a stop order triggers, a market order request is sent, and it can be filled at the specified price or worse. Stop Limit orders exist precisely because some traders want a stop trigger while limiting slippage.<\/p>\n<p>That last row is the one most beginners miss. A stop loss is protection against being wrong, not a contract on price. Once triggered it becomes a market order and takes the market price.<\/p>\n<h2>How Execution Mode Changes What You Can Control<\/h2>\n<p>Your control over slippage depends on the execution mode your account uses. Instant Execution lets you cap the acceptable price movement; Market Execution does not, because sending the order is itself consent to the fill price.<\/p>\n<p>Under Instant Execution, MetaTrader sends your prices with the order. If the price moves further than the value in the &#8220;Deviation&#8221; field while the order is being processed, the server can decline it and offer new prices \u2014 a requote \u2014 which you then accept or reject. A larger Deviation value makes a requote less likely, because fills inside that range go through without notification.<\/p>\n<p>Under Market Execution \u2014 the mode most ECN and raw-spread accounts run on \u2014 the broker sets the execution price without further discussion, and sending the order means agreeing to that price in advance. The Deviation field has no effect here. The controls that remain are order type, timing, and size.<\/p>\n<p>Deviation is set in points, not pips. On a 5-decimal EUR\/USD quote, 10 points equal 1 pip, so a Deviation of 20 means 2 pips. Setting it to 3 when you meant 3 pips gives you 0.3 pips of tolerance and a requote on almost every order.<\/p>\n<h2>Eight Ways to Reduce Slippage<\/h2>\n<p>No setting removes slippage; the goal is fewer large negative fills. These eight measures address the causes above in order of how much they typically change the outcome.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Use limit orders for entries.<\/strong> If the entry is discretionary rather than urgent, a Buy Limit or Sell Limit removes entry slippage entirely.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid the first minutes after high-impact releases.<\/strong> Spreads and slippage peak together on NFP, CPI and central bank decisions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trade liquid hours.<\/strong> The London\u2013New York overlap has the deepest book on majors; the Asian session on EUR\/GBP does not.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Set Deviation deliberately<\/strong> on Instant Execution accounts \u2014 in points, and sized to your instrument&#8217;s normal tick movement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Split large orders.<\/strong> Two 5-lot orders often fill closer to the quote than one 10-lot order in a thin hour.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use Stop Limit orders<\/strong> where you need a breakout trigger but refuse a fill beyond a set price. Accept that the order may not fill at all.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reduce latency.<\/strong> A wired connection, a lean terminal, and a VPS near the broker&#8217;s server all shave milliseconds off the round trip.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Size stops around volatility, not convenience.<\/strong> A stop placed just beyond an obvious round number sits where liquidity thins out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of these apply on a strategy that must be in the market at a specific second. In that case slippage is a cost of the strategy and belongs in the expectancy calculation rather than on a list of problems to solve.<\/p>\n<h2>How to Measure Slippage in MT4 and MT5<\/h2>\n<p>Measuring slippage means comparing the price you intended with the price recorded on the deal. Both platforms store enough detail to do this trade by trade.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/platforms\/metatrader-5-platform-mt5\/\">MT5<\/a>, open the Toolbox and switch the History tab to the tree view of trading operations. Each order shows the request and the resulting deal separately, so the difference between the two is the slippage on that fill. In <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/platforms\/metatrader-4-platform-mt4\/\">MT4<\/a>, compare the price in the journal entry for the order request with the open price in Account History.<\/p>\n<p>Two habits make the measurement useful rather than anecdotal:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Record slippage <strong>per instrument and per session<\/strong>, not as one account-wide average. Gold at 15:30 GMT and EUR\/USD at 09:00 GMT are different execution environments.<\/li>\n<li>Track positive slippage as well. If your fills are worse than requested nine times out of ten, that is a pattern worth raising with support. If the distribution is roughly symmetrical with occasional large negatives around news, that is a normal market.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Run this on a <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/accounts\/demo-account\/\">PrimusDEMO<\/a> account first to learn where the numbers live in the interface, then repeat it on live fills \u2014 demo execution does not reproduce real liquidity conditions, so the numbers themselves will not transfer.<\/p>\n<h2>Is Slippage Always Bad?<\/h2>\n<p>No. Positive slippage \u2014 a fill better than requested \u2014 occurs whenever price moves in your favour during execution, and on symmetrical execution it should appear roughly as often as the negative kind on normal-volatility fills. Selling EUR\/USD with a request at 1.10250 and a fill at 1.10265 puts <strong>$15 per lot<\/strong> in your pocket rather than taking it out.<\/p>\n<p>Where the distribution becomes lopsided is around news and gaps, because those events move price in one direction very fast, and the orders sitting in the path \u2014 mostly stop losses \u2014 are all filled on the wrong side of it. This is why slippage feels like a purely negative phenomenon to traders who hold through releases and neutral to traders who do not.<\/p>\n<h2>FAQ<\/h2>\n<h3>Is slippage the same as a requote?<\/h3>\n<p>No. Slippage means your order was executed at a different price. A requote means it was not executed at all \u2014 the server declined the price and offered a new one, which you can accept or reject. Requotes are only possible under Instant Execution.<\/p>\n<h3>Can a broker eliminate slippage?<\/h3>\n<p>No. Slippage originates in market movement and available volume, not in broker policy. Faster infrastructure and deeper liquidity reduce its size, and limit orders remove it on entries, but no broker can promise a fixed fill on a market order.<\/p>\n<h3>Does slippage affect a stop loss?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. A triggered stop loss becomes a market order and fills at the next available price. In fast markets or weekend gaps that price can be well beyond the stop level, which is why realised losses sometimes exceed the planned risk.<\/p>\n<h3>How much slippage is normal?<\/h3>\n<p>On majors during liquid hours, fractions of a pip is typical. Around high-impact news, several pips is common and double-digit slips happen. Judge your own fills against the instrument and session rather than against a universal number.<\/p>\n<h3>Does a bigger lot size cause more slippage?<\/h3>\n<p>Usually yes. Larger orders consume the volume resting at the top of the book and fill the remainder at worse levels, so the average fill price moves away from the quote. The effect is strongest in thin hours and on less liquid instruments.<\/p>\n<h3>Which account type gets less slippage?<\/h3>\n<p>Slippage is driven by market conditions, not account tier, so no account type removes it. Account choice changes the spread and commission you pay \u2014 see PrimusCLASSIC, PrimusPRO and PrimusZERO for those published differences.<\/p>\n<h3>Can slippage put my account below zero?<\/h3>\n<p>A severe gap can move an account into negative equity. Negative Balance Protection exists for that scenario \u2014 FXPrimus clients cannot lose more than they deposit. Details are on the client protection page.<\/p>\n<h3>Should I widen Deviation to avoid requotes?<\/h3>\n<p>Only with a number you can afford. A wide Deviation converts requotes into silent fills at worse prices. On Market Execution accounts the setting does nothing at all, so the trade-off does not arise.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>The trading cost that hides behind the spread is slippage \u2014 smaller than it on an average trade, several times larger than it on the trades that matter. It is produced by time and depth, worsens with volatility and thin liquidity, and lands hardest on stop losses during news and weekend gaps.<\/p>\n<p>The practical response is not to hunt for a broker that eliminates it, since none can. It is to choose order types deliberately, avoid the minutes when repricing is fastest, size positions with room for a bad fill, and measure your own fills often enough to know what normal looks like on your instruments.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Slippage measures the gap between the requested and executed price, in pips, converted to money by position size.<\/li>\n<li>On EUR\/USD at one standard lot, every pip of slippage is <strong>$10<\/strong> \u2014 a 2.0-pip slip costs <strong>$20<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>A 10-pip slip on a 25-pip stop turns a planned 1% risk into a <strong>1.4%<\/strong> loss.<\/li>\n<li>Limit orders cannot slip; market orders, stop orders and triggered stop losses can.<\/li>\n<li>The Deviation setting only works under Instant Execution, and is measured in points \u2014 10 points is 1 pip on a 5-decimal quote.<\/li>\n<li>Positive slippage is real and roughly balances the negative kind outside news events.<\/li>\n<li>Measure slippage per instrument and per session in the platform&#8217;s trade history rather than as one account-wide average.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Trade with FXPrimus<\/h2>\n<p>FXPrimus offers MT4, MT5 and WebTrader across 1,000+ instruments, with account types ranging from PrimusCLASSIC (from $15, zero commission) to PrimusZERO (raw pricing, commission-based) and a leverage ratio of up to 1:2000 on eligible CLASSIC equity tiers. Test your order types and Deviation settings on a free <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/accounts\/demo-account\/\">PrimusDEMO<\/a> account, then continue through the <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/category\/academy\/beginners\/\">Beginner&#8217;s Academy<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/category\/academy\/beginners\/technical\/\">technical analysis hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong>Risk warning:<\/strong> Trading forex and CFDs involves a significant risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. CFDs are complex products traded on margin, and a high leverage ratio such as 1:2000 amplifies losses as well as gains. Spreads, commissions and account conditions referenced here are indicative, self-reported by FXPrimus, checked as of August 2026 per the published account pages, and subject to change without notice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, legal advice or tax advice. Review the full terms and conditions on the FXPrimus website before opening an account. Negative Balance Protection means FXPrimus clients cannot lose more than they deposit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>External references: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metatrader5.com\/en\/terminal\/help\/trading\/performing_deals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MetaTrader 5 Help \u2014 Executing Trades<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metatrader5.com\/en\/terminal\/help\/trading\/general_concept\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MetaTrader 5 Help \u2014 Basic Principles<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Slippage in trading explained: what causes it, a worked EUR\/USD example, which order types slip, and eight practical ways to reduce it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12814,"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12812\/revisions\/12814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fxprimus.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}