Limit orders and the price improvement story

[Amanhasnoname]

A limit order cannot fill at a worse price than requested. That part is true. The part that gets skipped is that a limit order may not fill at all, even when price trades through the level.

Brokers sometimes describe limit fills as 'price improvement', meaning the order filled at a better price than the level. It happens, but it is rare on fast markets and tends to be tiny when it does.

The bigger issue is queue position. At a retail broker, a limit order is typically matched against the broker's own book or a single liquidity pool, not a visible queue. Price can touch the level by half a pip, bounce, and the order stays untouched because the broker's feed never reached it.

For scalpers placing limits at precise levels, that is the real cost. The trade that would have been the best entry of the day simply does not exist.

One workaround is placing the limit a fraction inside the level, accepting a slightly worse entry in exchange for a better chance of getting filled.

How often does price trade through a limit level on your platform without triggering the order?