Risk warning: Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.

Glossary

Slippage explained

Slippage is not a fee on the ticket. It is the gap between the quote you clicked and the fill you received when the market was already moving.

Term
Slippage
Also
Fill gap, requote
Use
Education only — not a trade signal
DefinedTerm · Slippage
The difference between the price you expected and the price at which the order actually filled.
What
The difference between the price you expected and the price at which the order actually filled.
Not
A recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any instrument.
Next
Read the related tools, then size risk in pounds — not in hope.
Free
The whole glossary is public. No account required.
Definition

The working meaning

A market order says “fill me at the next available price.” In a quiet tape that is usually the bid or offer you saw. Around a data print, a gap, or a thin book, the next available price can be several pips worse — or, rarely, better.

Limit orders avoid negative slippage by refusing a worse price, but they may not fill at all. Guaranteed stops, where a provider offers them, cap the damage for a premium. A normal stop-loss is still a market order once triggered, so it can slip too.

At high leverage a few pips of slippage is not a rounding error. It is part of the cost of trading into news and session opens. Size the position as if the fill will be worse than the screenshot.

Keep going

Other terms in this set

Drawdown

How far an account or equity curve has fallen from its highest point, usually shown as a percentage.

Order Block

A chart zone some traders treat as leftover institutional buying or selling, used as a possible future reaction area.

Swap Rates

The overnight interest credited or charged when a leveraged position is held past the provider’s rollover time.