Platforms & AutomationFill Speed
Execution Speed
How quickly a broker accepts and fills a submitted order, commonly advertised as an average time in milliseconds.
What Execution Speed means
Execution speed measures the interval between a broker receiving an order and returning a confirmed fill. It is a broker-side metric and therefore distinct from network latency, although the two combine into the total experience of the trader. Brokers advertise averages, often in the range of 20 to 100 milliseconds, and some publish independently verified execution statistics covering the share of orders filled at the requested price, the share improved and the share rejected or requoted.
Speed matters because a quote is only valid while it lasts. The longer a broker holds an order before confirming, the more the market can move, and the more likely the trader receives a different price or a rejection. A broker that applies a deliberate delay before accepting orders, sometimes described as a last look window, can decline trades that have moved against it while filling those that have not, which shifts the distribution of outcomes against the client in a way an average speed figure conceals.
Judging a broker on advertised speed alone is unwise. The number is an average across all instruments and conditions, and the conditions that matter most, such as a central bank statement or the first seconds of a data release, are exactly where averages break down. More informative measures are the rejection rate, the requote rate, average slippage split into positive and negative, and whether slippage is symmetric. A trader can gather all of these from their own statement over a few hundred trades.
Worked example
Two brokers both advertise 40 ms execution, but one fills 96 percent of orders at the requested price with symmetric slippage while the other rejects 7 percent during news and slips negatively four times as often as positively.
Related terms
- LatencyThe delay between a trading decision or price update and the moment it reaches its destination, measured in milliseconds.
- SlippageThe difference between the price a trader expected on an order and the price at which it was actually executed.
- RequoteA broker's response offering a new price when the price the trader clicked is no longer available.
- Market ExecutionAn execution model in which orders are always filled at the best available price, with no requotes.
- Best ExecutionThe regulatory duty to take all sufficient steps to obtain the best possible result for a client when executing orders.
Frequently asked questions
What does Execution Speed mean in forex trading?
How quickly a broker accepts and fills a submitted order, commonly advertised as an average time in milliseconds.
How does Execution Speed work in practice?
Speed matters because a quote is only valid while it lasts. The longer a broker holds an order before confirming, the more the market can move, and the more likely the trader receives a different price or a rejection. A broker that applies a deliberate delay before accepting orders, sometimes described as a last look window, can decline trades that have moved against it while filling those that have not, which shifts the distribution of outcomes against the client in a way an average speed figure conceals.
What is an example of Execution Speed?
Two brokers both advertise 40 ms execution, but one fills 96 percent of orders at the requested price with symmetric slippage while the other rejects 7 percent during news and slips negatively four times as often as positively.
Trade with a regulated broker
Understanding the terminology is the cheap part. The expensive part is choosing a counterparty whose execution, financing and withdrawal behaviour match what the marketing implies. Every broker below has been reviewed with a funded live account, and each review states which legal entity and which regulator applies to the account you would actually open.
Check the licence on the regulator's own register before you deposit — our regulators directory explains what each authority enforces, from leverage caps to compensation limits.