Isak wrote:
Sorry I didn't make this clear, but I'm not placing any orders directly to the market, only conditional orders to be triggered by Dukascopy servers, so it can't have anything to do with my round-trip time. I can understand why a STOP order will slip against me a little on average because of its asymmetry and the market not being entirely continuous, but I don't understand why a (small) STOP order on a Live account slips on average 0.9 pips more than the same STOP order on Demo. The only reason for such a difference that I can think of is if there isn't enough volume on that tick to fill my order, but that can't be the case because it happens even when the order is very small.
I'll try again soon enough - maybe I just had a long unlucky spell when I tried to start.
OK, well I never use Conditional Limit orders. Instead, I use ECN Limit orders.
So I don't know how the Conditionals respond; remember, they will submit Market orders when triggered.
I can only say for Limit ECN orders that there is very high precision and negligible slippage, as
these are already on the ECN and do not become Market orders.
STOP orders always become Market orders, and usually they are Market orders during unfavorable
conditions, as they may be "Chasing" the market to get OUT (or to get IN).... So these will result in slippage on
execution in a Live market, most likely. As for DEMO, well.... it's only DEMO, so the fills are
not "real". So, again, I'd suggest using BID/OFFER orders maybe to improve some things, if
applicable to your situation, but anything which is "conditional", and which requires the submission
of a Market order when the condition occurs, will suffer from the inaccuracies inherent in Market orders.
If you are so concerned about this small "slippage" of what you say may be 0.9 pips or so...
then it seems to me you are probably a "scalper". As a scalper you have to be concerned with
the order types which will give you better outcomes. More than order types, you could also
consider multiple entries into your positions, thus giving you a price advantage through averaging,
or maybe you've already considered those things. Scalping is a completely different universe
from ordinary trading as far as precision is concerned.
Even your estimates of "slippage" are affected by the latency between your client and the servers,
so the closer you can get in latency terms to the server, the better will be your estimates of what
slippage you get. Again, if you BUY into a falling market, Slippage is your Friend !! You'll get a
better price. It becomes "Reverse Slippage" and works in your favor. Most people don't think about that.
A Conditional STOP order is almost always working in Unfavorable conditions, as it is "chasing"
a market, using a Market order and so in a "real" fill scenario, the "micro market" has already
made it impossible for you to get a good price, and you are again chasing your way OUT, or chasing
your way IN if you're using Stop orders to get in..... either way.
HyperScalper