10 tests to run before you deposit — so you know if your broker fills orders fairly
Execution speed sounds technical. But the idea is simple: when you click "buy", does your broker fill your order at the price you saw? If not, how far off is it? And how often?
This checklist walks you through 10 practical tests any beginner can run — mostly on a free demo account — before you commit real capital. Tick each box as you go. Use the print button to save a PDF copy.
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Find out whether they use market execution (fills at best available price — slippage possible in either direction) or instant execution (broker may requote you). Both are legal; consistency matters more than type. Check the broker's FAQ or trading conditions page.
Every EU-regulated broker (CySEC, FCA, BaFin) must publish these annually. Look for: average execution speed in milliseconds, fill rate percentage, and the ratio of positive to negative slippage. Find them on the broker's legal/regulatory page. If you can't find them, ask support.
Sign up for the broker's demo. Most EU brokers offer unlimited demo access. You will use this to run the execution tests below at zero cost. Use the same platform (MT4/MT5/cTrader) you plan to trade live.
Place 20 market orders on EUR/USD (the most liquid pair). For each order note: (a) the price shown when you clicked, (b) the actual fill price, (c) time between click and fill. A simple spreadsheet works. Calculate the average difference — that is your demo slippage baseline.
Place 5 orders around an economic release (NFP, ECB rate decision, CPI). Slippage widens at these moments — that is normal. A quality broker keeps it under 2 pips. Note the worst fill you received during your test.
Sum the fill difference (shown price minus fill price) across all 25 trades. Divide by 25. A benchmark: under 0.5 pips average slippage on EUR/USD during normal conditions is acceptable. Above 1 pip on average is worth investigating.
Deposit €50–€100 and repeat the same 20-order test on your live account. Compare the average slippage to your demo result. If live slippage is consistently 0.5+ pips worse, that is a red flag — some brokers apply better conditions to demo accounts to attract deposits.
True cost = spread + commission + average slippage. On a 0.1 lot EUR/USD trade, even 0.3 pips of extra slippage costs $0.30 per trade. Across 100 trades per month that is $30 invisible cost. Compare this total figure across at least two brokers.
Search Forex Peace Army, Trustpilot, and Reddit for your broker's name plus "slippage", "requote", or "execution complaint". One or two complaints are normal. A pattern of the same complaint across dozens of users over several years is a warning sign.
Check the broker's licence number on the CySEC register, FCA register, or BaFin. A valid EU/EEA licence means ESMA protections apply: negative balance protection, 30:1 max leverage on major pairs, and segregated client funds held separately from the broker's own money.
We tested execution quality on demo and live accounts across the most popular CySEC-regulated brokers. Here is a summary of what we found:
| Broker | Regulator | Avg. execution (demo) | Publishes RTS 27/28 | Execution model | Try |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exness | CySEC | ~70 ms | Yes | Market | Open account |
| AvaTrade | CBI / ASIC / CySEC | ~85 ms | Yes | Market | Open account |
| XM | CySEC | ~100 ms | Yes | Market / Instant | View review |
There is no universal standard, but here are practical benchmarks:
If you trade with a longer-term strategy (holding positions for days or weeks), execution slippage of 0.5–1 pip matters very little relative to your expected move. If you are day-trading or scalping, execution quality directly eats into your edge — a single pip of slippage on every trade compounds fast.
For most EU beginners, a mid-tier CySEC broker with consistent 85ms fills and minimal slippage is more than adequate. The checklist above will help you verify that before you deposit.
Execution speed is how fast your broker fills an order from the moment you click 'buy' or 'sell'. Faster execution means the fill price is closer to the price you saw. Delays during volatile markets cause slippage.
Under 100 milliseconds is generally fast. What matters more is consistency — a broker that usually fills in 80ms but occasionally takes 2 seconds during news events is problematic for active traders.
Yes. Under MiFID II, brokers regulated by CySEC, FCA, or BaFin must publish RTS 27 and RTS 28 best-execution reports annually. Look for them in the broker's legal or regulatory section.
Not always. Always test with a small live account before scaling up. If live fills are consistently worse than demo, factor that into your total trading cost.
See execution data, spreads, commissions, and minimum deposits side by side.
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