Market execution, plainly

A market order executes at the best price available at the exact moment of processing — not at the price you saw when you clicked. In the intervening milliseconds the price may have moved, especially in fast markets or thin liquidity. That shift can be against you or in your favour: positive slippage exists too, and it is applied to you as well.

When it is most likely

  • High-impact news: on an NFP print or a rate decision, price can travel dozens of pips in seconds.
  • Session and weekly opens: the first minutes concentrate queued orders into still-shallow books.
  • Illiquid instruments: exotic pairs and low-activity hours widen the distance between price levels.
  • Large orders: volume that consumes several book levels fills at an average price, not at the best level.

Gaps: when price jumps with no stops in between

A gap is a direct jump between two prices with no trading in between — typical at the Sunday open after weekend news, or the instant after an unexpected data print. Pending orders caught inside the gap execute at the first available price on the other side: that is why a stop-loss can fill further away than configured. It is documented in our Execution Policy, because it is market physics, not fine print.

How to reduce the impact

  • Use limit orders to enter: they guarantee price (or better) in exchange for not guaranteeing execution.
  • Avoid market orders in the seconds around high-impact news.
  • Do not size positions assuming the stop will fill exactly at its level: leave room for the worst case.
  • Consider closing or reducing positions before the weekend when open risk events loom.
  • For execution-sensitive strategies, raw-spread accounts (Zero Spread, ECN PRO) let you measure the real cost more precisely.

What an honest broker can promise

No broker can promise slippage-free execution in a real market — whoever promises it either does not execute at market or is not telling you everything. What you can demand: that slippage be symmetric (positive and negative), that the execution policy be published, and that the execution factors be documented. All three hold here, in writing.