Broker Execution Speed: What 30 ms Really Means and How to Measure It
Where order latency comes from, what colocation and Equinix LD4 are, how to measure real execution time from your MetaTrader report, and when speed actually matters.
Execution speed is the time between sending an order and having it confirmed. It includes the trip to the broker's server, processing on their side and, if the account is routed externally, the round trip to a liquidity provider.
What makes up the delay
- Your connection to the server. The dominant factor. Bangkok to a London server can easily be 200–250 ms; Frankfurt to London, 10–15 ms.
- Broker-side processing. Usually single-digit milliseconds.
- The bridge to liquidity. A few more milliseconds when the server sits in the same data centre.
When a broker advertises "30 ms execution" it almost always refers to the third item. Your personal result depends mostly on the first.
How to check it
Open your MetaTrader trade history and enable the placement and execution time columns. The difference per trade is your actual latency. Gather at least a month, and look separately at trades around news — that is where brokers actually differ.
When speed matters
- Scalping and HFT-like strategies. Every 100 ms is worth several tenths of a pip.
- News trading. Price covers dozens of pips in the first seconds.
- Arbitrage. Here latency is the strategy.
For swing and intraday trading with 30-pip targets, the difference between 30 and 150 ms changes nothing. Spread and execution quality matter far more.
How to reduce it
The only method that works is a VPS in the same data centre as your broker's trading server. That removes your own ping from the equation.
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Frequently asked questions
What counts as good execution speed?
Under 50 ms is fast, 50–150 ms is normal for a retail account, and above 300 ms is noticeable when scalping or trading news. Broker-quoted figures are usually measured inside their data centre, not from your computer.
What is LD4?
An Equinix data centre in London where most liquidity providers and brokers physically host their servers. The closer a trading server sits to it, the lower the latency.
How do I measure latency myself?
MetaTrader reports show both order placement and execution time. The gap between them is your real latency. Collect a month of it rather than judging one trade.
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- $50
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- Commission
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- Min. deposit
- $100
- Spread
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- Commission
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72% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs