What is slippage in automated trading?
Slippage is the difference between the expected/reference execution price and the price actually obtained. It can be positive or negative and becomes especially important for market orders, fast markets and latency-sensitive systems.
What this means in practice
Slippage is the difference between the expected/reference execution price and the price actually obtained. It can be positive or negative and becomes especially important for market orders, fast markets and latency-sensitive systems. This page is specifically about “What is slippage in automated trading?”, so each scenario below is explained by its own mechanism instead of sharing one generic diagnosis.
Real-world scenarios
Scenario A — Fast news move
Inspect the mechanism named by “Scenario A — Fast news move” directly. Record its input, the state immediately before it and the first observable output that differs from the intended result. For Scenario A — Fast news move on question 61, use that evidence specifically to answer “What is slippage in automated trading?”; keep it separate from the evidence for the other scenarios on this page.
Scenario B — Thin liquidity
Inspect the mechanism named by “Scenario B — Thin liquidity” directly. Record its input, the state immediately before it and the first observable output that differs from the intended result. For Scenario B — Thin liquidity on question 61, use that evidence specifically to answer “What is slippage in automated trading?”; keep it separate from the evidence for the other scenarios on this page.
Scenario C — Positive slippage
Inspect the mechanism named by “Scenario C — Positive slippage” directly. Record its input, the state immediately before it and the first observable output that differs from the intended result. For Scenario C — Positive slippage on question 61, use that evidence specifically to answer “What is slippage in automated trading?”; keep it separate from the evidence for the other scenarios on this page.
What to check
- intended signal/action
- last stage that definitely succeeded
- first stage that differs from intent
- final cTrader state after the event
Practical rule
For “What is slippage in automated trading?”, change only the first layer whose evidence no longer matches the intended action. Preserve signal identity, timestamps and final cTrader state, and reproduce execution-affecting changes on demo before live use.
Decision summary
Direct answer: Slippage is the difference between the expected/reference execution price and the price actually obtained. It can be positive or negative and becomes especially important for market orders, fast markets and latency-sensitive systems.
Next action: Match the observed evidence to one scenario above, test that mechanism independently on demo and keep the result traceable with one signal ID.
Primary sources
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