Trading knowledge libraryWhat Is SlippageMarket Basics
Market Basics
What Is Slippage
Slippage is the difference between the price you clicked and the price your order was actually filled at. This paper shows you why the two can differ, why it runs in your favour as often as against you on a fair broker, which of the three order types can slip and which cannot, and where to read your own slippage on your platform.
Slippage is the difference between the price you clicked and the price your order was filled at. On 3 September 2026 the euro against the dollar opened at 1.15872. The ask — the price you buy at — was 1.15881, because the spread, the gap between the buying and selling prices, was 0.9 pips; a pip is the fourth decimal place of the price. Click buy at 1.15881 and the fill comes back at 1.15884. The three points between them — a point is the last digit of the price, a tenth of a pip — is slippage. You did not do anything wrong, and neither did the broker. The price moved in the time between your click and the fill.
That time is why it exists. An order is not filled at the instant you click. It travels to the broker, the broker checks it, and only then is it matched against a price — a fraction of a second in a calm market, longer when the market is busy. In that fraction of a second the price is free to move, and the fill is wherever the price is when the order arrives, not where it was when you clicked.
