Trading Forex and need to understand how to effectively cope with forex order slippage? Read on for everything you need to know.

What Is Slippage In Forex Trading?

Slippage is the term used in the forex market to describe the difference between the bid price at which you expect to fill your order, and the actual price that you end up paying. Slippage most often occurs during periods of high market volatility when market conditions are such that orders cannot be executed at the price quoted. When this happens, your order will be filled at the next available price, which may be higher or lower than you had anticipated. Understanding how forex slippage occurs can enable a trader to minimize negative slippage, while potentially maximizing positive slippage.

Minimising Slippage When Trading Forex

When slippage occurs, it is usually negative, meaning you pay more for the security than you wanted to, but it can also be positive. When slippage is positive, it means you paid less for the trade than you expected therefore got a better price.

Slippage can also happen if you place an order with a market maker that doesn’t have enough stock to fill your order. Slippage can impact your returns, so it’s important to be aware of it when trading stocks or other securities. There are a few things you can do to minimize the impact of slippage, including using stop-loss orders to limit their exposure and placing orders during less volatile times.

• Stop loss orders are instructions to your broker to exit a trade if it reaches a certain price. By using stop loss orders, you can limit your losses if the market moves against you. High liquid markets such as Forex enable you to take advantage of market swings to enter and exit trades rapidly, limiting your exposure to the market, but also increasing the risk that your stop-loss order may not be executed at the price you expect if the market moves quickly against you.
• Another way to reduce the impact of slippage is to place your orders during less volatile times. The forex market is open 24 hours a day, but not all hours are equal. The best times to trade are usually when the market is most active, which is typically during business hours in the major financial centres.

Reasons Expected Price Changes When Placing A Market Order

Slippage is a common phenomenon in the forex market, and it’s important to be aware of it when trading. Slippage can impact your returns, so it’s important to use stop-loss orders and to place trades during less volatile times.

If you’re placing an order during a time when the market is more volatile, there’s a greater chance that your order will be filled at a price that’s different from the exact price originally quoted. To offset this risk, you can place a limit order, which allows you to specify the maximum price you’re willing to pay, or the minimum price you’re willing to accept.

A limit order ensures that you won’t pay more than you’re comfortable with, but it also means that your order may not be filled if the market doesn’t move in your favour. In a fast-moving market, you may also miss out on some profits if the market moves too quickly for your limit order to be filled.

If you’re worried about market volatility, you can also place a stop-loss order with your broker. A stop-loss order is an instruction to sell a security when it reaches a certain price. This type of order can help you limit your losses if the market moves against you, but it can also prevent you from making money if the market moves to a more favourable price.

Reasons For Slippage In Forex Market

• Technology
• Lack of liquidity
• Big Position Order
• Night Orders
• Manipulated prices

Slippage is simply the difference between the expected price of a trade and the price at which the trade is actually executed. In the forex market, slippage typically occurs during periods of high volatility, when market orders are used, or when a large order is placed on a lightly traded currency pair. Slippage can also occur if a broker does not have enough liquidity to fill a trader’s order at the desired price.

Technology

In the foreign exchange market, there is no centralized exchange where all trading activity takes place. Instead, trading is conducted through a network of banks, brokers, and other financial institutions. As a result, prices can vary from one institution to another. Technology plays an important role in this process, as it enables institutions to connect and share pricing information in real-time. 

As the forex price feeds come from multiple sources, technology provides the price, and therefore, there could be variations from feed to feed, affecting price movements. So, an identical price movement across exchanges is not possible in forex trading, resulting in slippage

Lack Of Liquidity Or Demand

A common reason for order slippage in the Forex market is due to the lack of liquidity or demand for a currency pair. When there are more buyers than sellers in the market, prices will move up quickly and you may see some slippage on your orders. The same is true when there are more sellers than buyers and prices are falling quickly.

Big Position Order 

Another reason that slippage may occur is when a large order is placed. If you’re trying to buy or sell a large amount of currency, it may be difficult to find enough liquidity in the market to fill your entire order at the desired price. As a result, your order may be filled at different prices, resulting in slippage. In this instance, the price will likely go up which will create a higher average price than what you initially requested.

Night Orders

Another time you may experience slippage is if you place an order in the middle of the night. The Forex market is open 24 hours a day, but that doesn’t mean that there will always be enough liquidity to fill your order. If you place an order during a time when the market is less active, it’s more likely that you’ll see some slippage.

Manipulated Prices

Although rare, and now illegal now that regulators are prevalent in the industry, in some cases, brokers may manipulate prices to cause slippage. This usually happens during times of high volatility when there are a lot of market orders. By creating a large amount of slippage, brokers can increase their profits. If you suspect that your broker is manipulating prices, you should look for another broker. A regulated broker has been approved by a government regulatory body to operate within the industry. For a broker to gain regulation, they must adhere to very strict guidelines set out by the regulating authority.