Slippage

Slippage is the difference between the price you expected to get and the price at which your order was actually filled. If you place a market order to buy EUR/USD at 1.0850 and get filled at 1.0852, that's 2 pips of negative slippage. If you get filled at 1.0848, that's positive slippage — you got a better price than expected.

Slippage is most common during high-volatility events (NFP, interest rate decisions), market opens, low-liquidity periods, and when trading exotic pairs or large position sizes. It's a natural consequence of how markets work — by the time your order reaches the liquidity provider, the price may have moved.

You can minimize slippage by trading during high-liquidity hours, using limit orders instead of market orders, choosing brokers with fast execution and deep liquidity, and avoiding trading directly around major news releases. Some slippage is normal and unavoidable, but consistently excessive slippage suggests your broker's execution quality may not be up to standard.