Execution & Slippage Explained

What is Execution?

Execution is what happens when you place a trade. When you click "buy" or "sell," your order travels from your platform to the broker's system, where it's matched and filled. The quality of that execution—the exact price, the speed, how quickly it happens—directly impacts your profitability.

There are two models: market maker (dealer) and raw execution. At Milton Prime, we use raw execution.

How a Trade Gets Filled

With raw execution, your order goes directly to the market:

1. You place a buy order through MT5 at a specific price.
2. The order is routed to our liquidity providers (banks, ECNs, and market makers).
3. Your order is filled at the best available price in the market.
4. You receive an execution receipt showing the exact fill price, time, and all costs.

Understanding Slippage

Slippage is the difference between your intended entry price and your actual entry price. If you see EUR/USD quoted at 1.0950 and you click buy, but it fills at 1.0951, you've experienced 1 pip of slippage.

Slippage happens because market prices move constantly. Between the moment you click "buy" and the moment your order reaches the market, the price may have shifted. With raw execution, slippage is typically minimal because your orders go straight to the market without dealer delays.

What to Watch For

Slippage varies by market conditions and liquidity. During calm, liquid hours (e.g., 8 AM–5 PM New York time), slippage is usually zero to 0.5 pips. During low-liquidity periods or major news events, slippage can increase to 2–5 pips or more.

Execution speed also affects slippage. Faster execution typically means less slippage because your order reaches the market sooner.

Execution Speed

How fast is an order executed? With raw execution, typical latency is under 100 milliseconds from click to fill. Faster execution reduces the window for price movement and thus reduces slippage.

Milton Prime's infrastructure is optimized for speed, keeping execution times competitive with other raw execution brokers.

Reject Rate

Sometimes market conditions are so volatile that a price quote expires before your order can be filled. This is a reject, and it's normal during extreme market moves.

High-frequency traders who trade during volatile times may experience higher reject rates. Milton Prime publishes our reject statistics so you can assess this risk upfront.

What is Slippage?

Let's define slippage more precisely: slippage is the cost you incur due to unfavorable price movement between when you request a fill and when you receive it.

If you intend to enter at 1.0950 but the market has moved to 1.0952 by the time your order fills, you've lost 2 pips to slippage. This is real money in your pocket—or out of it, depending on the direction.

Some brokers hide poor execution behind vague language. At Milton Prime, every execution receipt clearly shows your intended price, actual fill price, and the slippage in pips.

How Milton Prime Approaches Execution

We target zero slippage and provide evidence for it:

• Trade receipts for every execution, showing intended vs. actual price.
• Speed optimization for sub-100ms execution times.
• Low reject rates and published statistics so you know what to expect.
• Direct market access with no dealer markup or unnecessary delays.

We can't guarantee zero slippage—market volatility is real—but we can publish evidence showing our slippage performance and let you verify it against other brokers.