Execution speed has become an obsession in forex trading, but most people are measuring the wrong stuff. Everyone talks about milliseconds like they’re competing in the Olympics, when what actually matters is getting filled at the price they clicked on. Consistency beats pure speed every single time.
They’ll see brokers advertising sub-millisecond execution times, which sounds impressive until they realize those brokers are measuring from their server to the liquidity provider, not from the trader’s click to the fill. Marketing departments love throwing around numbers that have nothing to do with what actually happens when someone trades. How fast orders get filled depends on the trader’s internet, how well the platform works, and whatever craziness is happening in the markets at that moment.
What kills traders isn’t slow fills, it’s unpredictable ones. A trader might click buy on GBP/USD at 1.2650 during a quiet session and get filled instantly. Same broker, same pair, but now it’s during the London open and suddenly the fill comes at 1.2653 with no explanation. That three pip slippage just wiped out the expected profit margin.
Order rejection has gotten sneaky too. Instead of outright rejecting orders, some platforms will show “processing” for several seconds while the market moves, then fill at a worse price. Technically not a rejection, but effectively the same result. Good brokers either fill at the requested price or reject the order immediately so the trader can try again.
Platform architecture matters way more than most people realize. Some brokers run everything through their dealing desk, which just adds more steps and slows things down. Others claim they have direct market access that shoots orders straight to liquidity providers. Sounds straightforward, but every company does it differently. A forex broker saying they offer DMA might still be running orders through risk management systems that create delays.
The tech infrastructure shows who is serious and who is cutting corners. Good firms spend big money on multiple data centers, backup connections, and getting their servers close to the major trading hubs. Others run everything from a single server room and hope nothing goes wrong. Guess which ones perform better when markets get volatile.
Testing execution during busy periods reveals the truth about broker quality. Friday afternoon before NFP, Brexit vote aftermath, central bank surprise announcements, these are the moments that expose weaknesses. Demo accounts usually run on completely different systems that have nothing to do with what happens when real money is on the line, so those perfect practice results are basically meaningless.
Speed matters way more if someone is doing quick trades. Position traders can wait a few extra seconds for fills without caring much, but scalpers need everything to happen instantly or their whole approach falls apart. Unfortunately, most retail platforms aren’t built for high-frequency trading. The infrastructure costs would make retail spreads uneconomical.
Geographic location affects execution speed more than people think. Trading from London gives a trader an advantage over someone in Australia trying to trade European sessions. Physics matters, signal travel time is real, and no amount of marketing can overcome the speed of light. Smart traders consider this when choosing session times and brokers.
Some execution delays are actually protective. Good risk management systems prevent traders from entering positions during extreme volatility or with insufficient margin. These “delays” can save accounts from blown trades, even though they feel frustrating at the moment. Not all speed optimization benefits the trader.
Mobile execution has gotten way better lately, but it’s still not as good as trading on a computer. Smartphone processing power, wireless connection quality, and app optimization all impact fill speeds. Many brokers prioritize mobile development now since most clients trade on phones, but execution quality often suffers compared to proper trading stations.
How good the price feeds are makes a huge difference in how fast execution feels. When traders get delayed or filtered prices, it looks like orders are taking forever even when they’re not. They see a price, click trade, but the broker was already working with newer data. Appears like slow execution when it’s really a data feed issue. Quality brokers provide unfiltered, real-time pricing.
Regulatory requirements in the UK add processing overhead that affects execution times. Best execution obligations, transaction reporting, risk warnings, all of these compliance measures introduce small delays. Offshore brokers might give faster fills because they skip all the regulatory steps, but then traders are dealing with completely different problems.
Bigger trades get slower fills because there’s just not enough liquidity in one place. Retail brokers can handle small orders pretty quickly, but when someone tries to move a serious size, they have to hunt around multiple sources and that takes time. Smart big traders usually break up large positions across different brokers to avoid the delays and not move markets against themselves.
Of course, having the world’s fastest execution won’t save anyone if their trading approach is garbage. Lots of people blame slow fills for losses that really happened because they managed risk poorly or expected unrealistic results. A forex broker with okay execution but great education probably helps most people way more than super-fast fills with zero support.