Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
Slippage occurs when your order executes at a different price than you requested. During calm markets it's small. During major news, it can be significant.
Why it happens:
- Prices move faster than the system can match orders
- Liquidity thins out, leaving gaps between available prices
- Spreads widen
Types you might see:
- Negative slippage: worse than requested
- Positive slippage: better than requested (it can happen)
- Stop order slippage: stops become market orders once triggered, so they fill at the next available price
Why this matters for your risk:
- A stop with a 10 pip distance may lose 20 or 30 pips during extreme moves
- Pending orders may fill far from your price
- Your planned 1% risk may become 2% or more
How to protect yourself:
1. Avoid holding positions through high-impact news if you're a beginner.
2. Reduce size if you must trade around events.
3. Use limit orders where possible for entries, understanding they may not fill.
4. Check your broker's execution policy and test it during calm times.
5. Record slippage in your journal and compare across brokers.
6. Add a slippage buffer to your backtests.
Slippage isn't evidence of dishonesty by itself. It's a feature of fast markets.
Plan for it, size for it, and avoid unnecessary exposure during the wildest minutes.
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Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
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Re: Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
One practical thing about news slippage: a stop order becomes a market order once triggered, so in a fast spike it fills at whatever's available. A limit order won't slip against you, but it might not fill at all. Neither is safe around NFP, they just fail in different ways.
It’s Fairman 
Re: Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
Hi Fairman,Fairman wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2026 2:28 am Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
Slippage occurs when your order executes at a different price than you requested. During calm markets it's small. During major news, it can be significant.
Why it happens:
- Prices move faster than the system can match orders
- Liquidity thins out, leaving gaps between available prices
- Spreads widen
Types you might see:
- Negative slippage: worse than requested
- Positive slippage: better than requested (it can happen)
- Stop order slippage: stops become market orders once triggered, so they fill at the next available price
Why this matters for your risk:
- A stop with a 10 pip distance may lose 20 or 30 pips during extreme moves
- Pending orders may fill far from your price
- Your planned 1% risk may become 2% or more
How to protect yourself:
1. Avoid holding positions through high-impact news if you're a beginner.
2. Reduce size if you must trade around events.
3. Use limit orders where possible for entries, understanding they may not fill.
4. Check your broker's execution policy and test it during calm times.
5. Record slippage in your journal and compare across brokers.
6. Add a slippage buffer to your backtests.
Slippage isn't evidence of dishonesty by itself. It's a feature of fast markets.
Plan for it, size for it, and avoid unnecessary exposure during the wildest minutes.
yeah, this is interesting topic to be honest.
If you’ve ever been caught in a trade during NFP, CPI, or a surprise rate hike, you’ve probably experienced the sudden gut-punch of seeing your order execute at a completely different price than you requested.
During calm, ranging markets, this difference is usually a fraction of a pip—barely noticeable. But during major news events, that gap can become massive. This is slippage, and it is a fundamental mechanic of how order books function.
Preserve your own money. Scale with the market's money. Exponential growth is the ultimate key.
Re: Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
Why It Happens: The Microstructure
It is tempting to blame your broker when you get a bad fill, but true slippage is simply a feature of fast markets. When high-impact data drops, three things happen simultaneously:
Speed Outpaces Matching: Prices are moving faster than the server algorithms can match buyers and sellers.
Liquidity Evaporates: Institutional limit orders are pulled from the book seconds before the news. This thins out the available liquidity, leaving massive literal gaps between available price levels.
Spreads Widen: Because the order book is completely thinned out, the distance between the highest active bid and lowest active ask expands aggressively.
It is tempting to blame your broker when you get a bad fill, but true slippage is simply a feature of fast markets. When high-impact data drops, three things happen simultaneously:
Speed Outpaces Matching: Prices are moving faster than the server algorithms can match buyers and sellers.
Liquidity Evaporates: Institutional limit orders are pulled from the book seconds before the news. This thins out the available liquidity, leaving massive literal gaps between available price levels.
Spreads Widen: Because the order book is completely thinned out, the distance between the highest active bid and lowest active ask expands aggressively.
Preserve your own money. Scale with the market's money. Exponential growth is the ultimate key.
Re: Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
Types of Slippage
Depending on the direction of the market and the order type you are using, you will generally encounter three scenarios:
Negative Slippage: You get filled at a worse price than you requested.
Positive Slippage: You get filled at a better price than requested. (This does happen, particularly if price gaps favorably over your limit order).
Stop Order Slippage: This is the most dangerous. A stop-loss is just a trigger level. Once price hits your stop, it instantly converts into a Market Order, demanding a fill at the next available price. If the book is empty for the next 20 pips, you eat that entire 20-pip gap.
Depending on the direction of the market and the order type you are using, you will generally encounter three scenarios:
Negative Slippage: You get filled at a worse price than you requested.
Positive Slippage: You get filled at a better price than requested. (This does happen, particularly if price gaps favorably over your limit order).
Stop Order Slippage: This is the most dangerous. A stop-loss is just a trigger level. Once price hits your stop, it instantly converts into a Market Order, demanding a fill at the next available price. If the book is empty for the next 20 pips, you eat that entire 20-pip gap.
Preserve your own money. Scale with the market's money. Exponential growth is the ultimate key.
Re: Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
The Impact on Your Risk
When you meticulously calculate your position size based on pure price action setups, slippage can completely destroy the math.
A tight 10-pip stop loss might easily suffer a 20 or 30-pip slippage during extreme volatility. Pending breakout orders (buy stops or sell stops) will often trigger and fill incredibly far from your intended entry, ruining your Risk:Reward ratio on the very first tick. Ultimately, that carefully planned 1% account risk can suddenly become a 2%, 3%, or higher loss in a fraction of a second.
When you meticulously calculate your position size based on pure price action setups, slippage can completely destroy the math.
A tight 10-pip stop loss might easily suffer a 20 or 30-pip slippage during extreme volatility. Pending breakout orders (buy stops or sell stops) will often trigger and fill incredibly far from your intended entry, ruining your Risk:Reward ratio on the very first tick. Ultimately, that carefully planned 1% account risk can suddenly become a 2%, 3%, or higher loss in a fraction of a second.
Preserve your own money. Scale with the market's money. Exponential growth is the ultimate key.
Re: Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
6 Ways to Protect Yourself
You cannot eliminate slippage, but you can engineer your trading plan around it.
1.) Avoid holding through high-impact news. If you are a beginner, flat is a valid position. Just step aside during the chaos.
2.) Reduce your position size. If you must trade around events, cut your lot size heavily so a widened stop doesn't violate your maximum risk parameters.
3.) Use Limit Orders where possible. Limit orders for entries ensure you get your price or better. You have to accept that if price never hits your exact limit, you simply won't get filled—but a missed trade is always better than a terrible fill.
4.) Test your broker’s execution policy. Read their execution rules and test their fill speeds on a smaller account during calmer times.
5.) Journal your slippage. Log your requested price versus your actual fill price. Over time, comparing these metrics will tell you if your broker's liquidity pool is actually holding up.
6.) Add a slippage buffer to your backtests. If you are coding automated strategies or custom indicators (e.g., in MQL4/5 or Pine Script), hardcode an artificial slippage penalty into your backtesting model to see if the strategy actually survives real-world trading conditions.
Slippage isn't evidence of dishonesty by itself. It is exactly how a limit order book is supposed to function when volume overwhelms liquidity. Plan for it, size your positions for it, and avoid unnecessary exposure during the wildest minutes of the week.
You cannot eliminate slippage, but you can engineer your trading plan around it.
1.) Avoid holding through high-impact news. If you are a beginner, flat is a valid position. Just step aside during the chaos.
2.) Reduce your position size. If you must trade around events, cut your lot size heavily so a widened stop doesn't violate your maximum risk parameters.
3.) Use Limit Orders where possible. Limit orders for entries ensure you get your price or better. You have to accept that if price never hits your exact limit, you simply won't get filled—but a missed trade is always better than a terrible fill.
4.) Test your broker’s execution policy. Read their execution rules and test their fill speeds on a smaller account during calmer times.
5.) Journal your slippage. Log your requested price versus your actual fill price. Over time, comparing these metrics will tell you if your broker's liquidity pool is actually holding up.
6.) Add a slippage buffer to your backtests. If you are coding automated strategies or custom indicators (e.g., in MQL4/5 or Pine Script), hardcode an artificial slippage penalty into your backtesting model to see if the strategy actually survives real-world trading conditions.
Slippage isn't evidence of dishonesty by itself. It is exactly how a limit order book is supposed to function when volume overwhelms liquidity. Plan for it, size your positions for it, and avoid unnecessary exposure during the wildest minutes of the week.
Preserve your own money. Scale with the market's money. Exponential growth is the ultimate key.
Re: Slippage Around News, What Actually Happens to Your Orders
A practical example of how I handle it now. If I'm in a trade before a high-impact release, I either close it or make sure the stop is far enough from price that a normal spike won't reach it, with smaller size to match. I don't leave tight stops sitting right in the line of fire. For NFP at 1:30pm Lagos in summer, EURUSD can easily move 30 to 50 pips in a minute, and a 10 pip stop can fill several pips worse during that spike. If the trade is already well in profit, I move the stop to lock some of it in rather than to breakeven, which gives the spike some room.
It’s Fairman