Guide · Risk Management
What Is Slippage in Trading?
The price you expected and the price you actually got aren't always the same number — and the gap between them has a name.
Slippage is the difference between the price you expected a trade to execute at and the price it actually filled at. It happens because a small amount of time always passes between placing an order and it actually executing, and the market can move during that gap.
Slippage tends to show up most during fast-moving prices or thin liquidity — exactly the conditions where the price at the moment you click "buy" may no longer be available by the time your order reaches the exchange. In calm, liquid markets, slippage is usually negligible; during a sharp spike or a liquidity crunch, it can be meaningful.
Slippage can work in either direction — occasionally in your favor, more often against you, since fast-moving conditions that cause slippage are usually also the conditions where many other traders are reacting to the same news at the same time, pushing the price further in one direction as everyone tries to execute at once.
It's a normal part of trading rather than a sign something went wrong, and getting a feel for how much it can vary between calm and volatile conditions is easier to learn on Trade2Spike's real-time simulated prices than to discover for the first time with real capital on the line.