MT4 requotes, MT5 slippage and disconnects, what causes them?
The short answer
See whether MetaTrader 4 (MT4) requotes, MetaTrader 5 (MT5) slippage and disconnects start at your broker or on your network. Check your broker’s execution mode and spread before your connection. Traders Proxy helps only around a dropped connection or lost data.
Requotes and slippage start with the price, disconnects start with the connection
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) send your order at the price on your screen. If your broker does not accept that price, a requote comes back. If it fills the order at another price, the gap is slippage.
Why it matters. Each has a different cause, so each needs a different fix. Blaming the wrong one wastes your time and money.
You set how far from your price you accept a fill. In MT5 that is Deviation, and in MT4 an EA sets the order’s slippage value. A wider setting brings fewer requotes and more slipped fills.
So that setting is a trade-off you choose, not a fault. The table pairs each symptom with its usual cause and first check.
| Symptom | What it is | Where it usually starts | First check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Requote | Your broker declines your price and offers new ones | The price moved, or your broker’s execution mode | Your deviation setting and the symbol’s execution mode |
| Slippage | A fill at a different price from the one you asked for | Price movement while the order is handled | A log of asked and filled prices |
| Disconnect | The connection to your broker’s server drops | Your network, the path to your broker, or the server | The time of each drop, and whether other devices drop too |
Both platforms can show requotes. Your broker chooses the execution mode for each symbol, such as on request or by market. So what you meet depends on the symbol as well as the platform.
A slower connection gives the price more time to move before your broker handles the order. So your connection is one suspect, alongside the mode and the spread. Latency vs slippage explains the link.
Rule out your broker and the spread before you blame your network
The first two checks are about your broker. Doing them first saves you fixing a connection that was never the problem.
Rule them out in this order
- 01
Check your broker’s execution mode
Your broker sets it for each symbol, and a quoted-price mode can return a requote. In market mode your broker sets the fill price. So a different price there is the mode at work, not your connection.
Your broker’s support can tell you which mode your symbol uses.
- 02
Check the spread at your fill
Note the spread when you send the order. Spreads change through the session, and MetaQuotes notes that a spread can change within one minute in real tick data. A wide spread costs you on its own, before any slippage.
- 03
Compare a second broker
Send the same small order to a second broker at the same moment, if you have one. Both orders leave over your connection, so a gap between them points at the broker, not your network. A difference is worth raising with that broker.
- 04
Read your own connection
Run the test from the latency and jitter guide in a quiet hour and a busy one. Note when each drop happens in your platform’s journal. If drops line up with busy hours, your connection is the suspect worth fixing.
Your platform can look connected after the connection has died
A connection can look open at one end after the other end has gone. You find out only when one side next tries to send (the standard calls this half-open).
Standard settings do not check a quiet connection on their own. The optional check is off unless a program turns it on.
What it means for you. Your chart can sit on old prices while it still looks connected. You may only find out when you next send an order.
A drop leaves your stops in place but stops a trailing stop moving
Stop-loss and take-profit orders sit on your broker’s server, so they stay in place. Trailing stops run in your platform, so they need it connected.
Without the platform, only the stop level that the trailing stop last set will still trigger. That is why a drop matters most to a position that relies on one.
Log your fills, because memory can’t judge them
Execution quality is the average gap between the price you asked for and the price you got. Nobody can judge it from memory, so log it.
Log your fills
- 01
Note the price you asked for
Write down the price on the ticket, and the time, when you send each order. Your report may show only the fill, so this is the half you must keep yourself.
- 02
Read the fill
In MT4, right-click the Account History tab and choose Save as Report. In MT5, right-click the History tab and choose Report. This gives you the price and time of every fill.
- 03
Work out the gap
For a buy, subtract the fill from the price you asked for. For a sell, subtract the price you asked for from the fill. A negative result is a worse fill.
- 04
Split and average
Average the gaps by session, and keep trades near a news release in a group of their own. Mixed together, news trades hide what normal trading costs you. One odd fill decides nothing, so keep logging.
- 05
Line up your delay checks
Run your delay check at the same times. If your worst gaps match your widest readings, suspect your connection. If not, look at the spread and your broker’s mode.
This made-up log shows the arithmetic, so you can copy the method with your own trades.
| Trade | Side | Price asked | Price filled | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buy | 1.10000 | 1.10012 | −1.2 |
| 2 | Sell | 1.10050 | 1.10041 | −0.9 |
| 3 | Buy | 1.10020 | 1.10020 | 0.0 |
| 4 | Sell | 1.09980 | 1.09985 | +0.5 |
| 5 | Buy | 1.10030 | 1.10038 | −0.8 |
The average gap is −0.48 pip. Every price is made up to show the arithmetic, and none describes a real broker.
Five trades are far too few to trust. There is no magic number, so keep logging until the average stops swinging with each new trade.
Testing a strategy instead? Read why backtests differ from live trading.
When your connection drops, our server helps your platform get back in
Around a drop, our server does four things, and each has a limit. The table shows what each means for you, and where it stops.
Each platform’s maker decides which of its connections use its proxy setting.
| Situation | What our server does | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Data is lost between our server and your broker | Recovers it inside your broker’s city on a short local connection, not all the way from your computer | Help with data lost between you and our server, which is recovered between you and our server |
| Your device drops off | Notices quickly and frees its place, so your platform can reconnect instead of hanging | Keep a connection that sends nothing at all for a long time. Our server closes it |
| Your device comes back | Lets it straight back in, even when our server is busy, if it comes from the same network soon after. You aren’t left waiting at a busy moment | Lift your plan’s device limit |
| Many platforms reconnect after a market move | Lets the first connections straight in and admits the rest in a steady stream, not all at once | Promise a reconnect time. This is per server |
Ping is the time data takes there and back. We don’t promise lower ping. Distance sets the minimum.
Traders Proxy does not change your broker’s spread or its execution mode. So if your log points at either, we are not the fix. How Traders Proxy works shows where our server sits.
A backtest runs on your own machine, so no internet link can lose a piece of data during a news release. In live trading, one lost piece holds up every price update and order behind it. Everything waits while your computer sends it again across the world.
You cannot paste four values into your platform while your chart is already frozen in a live trade. Set it up today while the market is calm. Then time it on your own screen during the next release.
Common questions about requotes and disconnects
Frequently asked questions
Will my broker mind a proxy?
Check your broker’s terms. If your broker prohibits proxies, don’t use one. Traders Proxy doesn’t change what your broker allows.
Does MT5 have requotes?
It can, because your broker sets each symbol’s execution mode. In a quoted-price mode, a requote comes back when your broker doesn’t accept the price. In market mode, your broker decides the price.
Does Traders Proxy change my requotes or slippage?
No. They start with the price and your broker’s execution rules, which we don’t touch. Our server opens a local connection in your broker’s city, recovers lost data there, and keeps broker addresses warm in memory.
What is a good execution quality?
We know of no standard figure with a source, so we quote none. Log your own fills, and compare like with like on the same symbol, session and order size.
Can I use Traders Proxy on my phone?
On Android, use an app that sends chosen apps through a proxy, such as AdGuard, and select only your trading app. Then MT4 and MT5 go through Traders Proxy. Your phone counts as one of your plan’s devices, and iPhone is untested.
Do I need a VPS?
Only to keep a platform running while your computer is off. A VPS does that and Traders Proxy does not. See Traders Proxy or a VPS for when each fits.
Field reports · Verified forum threads
Real forum reports, what our system does, and where it stops.
Every quote below links to the forum thread or vendor guide where it appeared. Underneath each quote, see which parts of our system work together on it and where our server stops.
MQL5.com bans addresses or whole hosting subnets so downloads, MQL5 login and Market fail
“everything was working yesterday ... I cannot even get to the website download.mql5.com as I get connection refused. I have tried 3 different computers.”
Why a proxy can backfire here. No claim about address reputation.
Where it stops. Our server address is shared by people on a Traders Proxy plan in that city. If MQL5.com blocks a hosting range, Market downloads can fail.
cTrader Desktop says 'Connection error' while cTrader Web and the phone app log in fine
“I then downloaded ctrader from the ctrader website directly and it log in perfecly fine but the FTMO branded Ctrader Desktop Verson downloanded from the FTMO website is giving an error.”
Why a proxy does not change this. Traders Proxy doesn't repair login problems caused by Windows updates or an out-of-date platform. Update the platform first.
Where it stops. Do not sell the proxy as a fix for 'Desktop won't log in but Web works'.
cTrader slow or awkward for local-machine or tooling reasons, not network (UI stalls, Mac over remote desktop, Windows-only CLI, Open API apps)
“You might not have enough memory to support the use of cTrader, Windows 10 on Boot Camp and Mac OXs all together.”
Why a proxy does not change this. Traders Proxy doesn't change your computer's speed or the tools your platform offers.
Where it stops. Do not use these threads as proof for any site claim (two of the four cited links do not carry the quoted text).
Terminal stays disconnected until 'Rescan servers' or a restart and switches to a slower access point
“we have had a small number of clients who are experiencing random MT4 disconnects that do not reconnect until the MT4 terminal is restarted.”
Why a proxy does not change this. If one of your broker's servers doesn't answer, our server gives up on it quickly and tells your platform straight away, so it can try another.
- Unanswered broker server gives up fast and reportsBoundary
Where it stops. What your platform tries next after a failed server is up to the platform. We cannot revive a terminal that has stopped trying to reconnect.
Sources
- MetaQuotes, MT4 help, Types of ExecutionChecked
- MetaQuotes, MT5 help, Basic principles of trading operationsChecked
- MetaQuotes, MT5 help, Executing trades (deviation, requotes, trailing stop)Checked
- MetaQuotes, MT5 help, Real and Generated TicksChecked
- MQL4 reference, OrderSend (the slippage value)Checked
- MetaQuotes, MT4 help, Trailing StopChecked
- MetaQuotes, MT4 help, Account HistoryChecked
- MetaQuotes, MT5 help, Trading ReportChecked
- MetaQuotes, MT4 help, Journal tabChecked
- IETF standard 9293, standard rules for ordered data deliveryChecked
- AdGuard knowledge base, outbound proxy for AndroidChecked