A few seconds of clock drift is nothing. That is the myth

[Shadow Trader]

A computer clock that is off by three or four seconds sounds harmless. For scalping it is not, and it hides well because nothing looks broken.

Take a news release scheduled for a specific second. A local clock running slow by several seconds means a manual countdown or an automated trigger fires late. A clock running fast fires early, before the data is out.

Any EA that uses the local time for a session filter or a news window inherits the same error. Log timestamps also stop lining up with the broker's records, so reviewing a fill against server history becomes confusing when the two disagree by seconds.

Drift happens because computer clocks are not precise, and the built-in sync in some systems only runs occasionally. Virtual servers can drift more, especially after being paused or moved.

Syncing the clock more often against a reliable time source, and checking the offset before the session, takes a minute and removes a whole class of doubt.

How often does your machine sync its clock, and have you ever caught a visible offset on a VPS?