What is trading latency?
The short answer
Trading latency is how long your order takes to reach your broker. While it travels, the price can move, and lost data makes it wait longer. This page shows what sets it, with simple maths, and how to check yours.
Latency is the time your order travels, while the price keeps moving.
When you click Buy, your order crosses the internet to your broker. The time that takes is called latency. Why it matters, the price on your screen can change before your order arrives.
It is counted in milliseconds, which are thousandths of a second. Ping is a tool that times how long data takes to go there and back, a number you can check yourself. Ping, latency and uneven delays shows how the words differ.
Some of the delay is yours to fix, and some is not.
Your order passes through several stages on its way to your broker. Each stage adds some delay. This table shows which ones you can change, so you don’t chase a delay nobody can fix.
| Stage | What adds delay | Can you change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Your computer | Your platform and computer prepare the order | Yes, on your own setup |
| Your own line | Your router, home network and internet provider | Yes, by fixing or changing them |
| The distance across the internet | The length of cable and the networks between your provider and your broker | Only by moving your platform nearer your broker’s server. A proxy does not. |
| Busy networks on the internet | Data waits in line when a router on the path is busy, so the same order can take longer at busy hours | Not on the shared internet. On your own line, yes. |
| Your broker | The time its systems take to handle what arrives, which is not network delay | No. Your broker controls this. |
The first two stages are yours to fix, so check them first. A VPS shortens the distance by putting your platform nearer your broker’s server, and you then trade over a remote desktop. Traders Proxy or a trading VPS sets the two side by side.
Distance sets a minimum wait, and lost data adds to it.
These two facts show where your order loses time. One is about distance. The other is about what happens when a piece of your order is lost.
The maths of ping
01
Your broker’s distance sets a minimum time for every order
Light in a cable travels about 200 km every millisecond. Your order goes there and back, so every 1,000 km adds at least 10 ms.
What it means for youPhysical distance dictates your latency floor. Fibre travel times remain constant regardless of routing tools.
minimum there and back (ms) = distance (km) ÷ 100
02
One lost piece of data makes everything wait
When a packet drops, your platform pauses while requesting a retransmission across the full distance. Consecutive drops double this waiting penalty. Incoming price ticks stall during the exact seconds volatility peaks.
wait 1× → 2× → 4× → 8×
03
Our server in your broker’s city recovers lost data locally
Our server in your broker’s city opens the final connection to your broker. On a quiet connection, a repeat loss doesn’t double the wait.
What it means for youWhen a piece is lost near your broker, our server recovers lost data inside that city instead of from your computer.
distance set by physics · recovery in your broker’s city is ours
Try your own distance
Singapore to London is about 10,850 km in a straight line, so at least 108 ms there and back. No order can reach your broker and hear back in less. Real routes are longer.
We don’t promise lower ping because distance sets the minimum. Local recovery in your broker’s city covers only the connection between our server and your broker. The repeat-loss fix covers the first few tries on a quiet connection, after the first repeat try.
For example, take a trader in Singapore with a broker in London. In a straight line that is about 10,850 km.
Light in glass covers about 200 km every millisecond. There and back is twice the distance, so data needs at least 108 milliseconds. Real cables bend and detour, so real times are longer.
For that trader, no setting can bring an order and its reply under that minimum.
Now lose one piece of data. Your platform waits about as long as data takes to go there and back, then sends it again. At that distance the first wait is at least 108 milliseconds.
During that wait, your chart and your next order are held up.
If the second copy is lost too, the wait is at least double that. After a third loss it is at least four times the first wait. That is how one bad moment turns into a long wait or an order timeout.
The numbers are an example worked from distance alone. They are a minimum, not a forecast of your own delay. Pick your own two cities in the panel to see yours.
A delay gives the price time to move before your order lands.
Your order reaches your broker later than you sent it, and prices can move in that time. What happens next depends on your broker’s execution mode. MetaQuotes says the broker sets it for each instrument (MetaTrader 4 help).
Depending on that mode, the same delay can end in a new price, a requote or no change. The latency vs slippage page shows how the two ideas differ.
Our server recovers lost data inside your broker’s city, not shorten the distance.
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.
A server in your broker’s city cannot shorten the distance. We don’t promise lower ping. Distance sets the minimum.
Instead, our server in your broker’s city opens a separate local connection to your broker’s trade server.
If data drops on that local link, our server recovers it inside that city. Trading ports go first when a server is busy, and broker addresses stay warm in memory.
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.
The connection from you to our server is unchanged, and distance still sets its minimum. If our server in your broker’s city is unreachable, your platform shows an error and your dashboard asks before using another city. If your broker prohibits proxies, don’t use one.
Timing your own delay shows whether distance or a busy path holds you up.
Ping your broker’s server at the hours you trade. Your lowest reading is the minimum that distance sets.
Readings above it point to data waiting in line on a busy network. So a big spread means busy hours, not distance, add your delay.
The guide to checking ping to your broker walks through it. Our connection check times a chart load without us and then with us. That lets you judge by your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Is latency the same as ping?
Not quite. Ping times a small piece of test data going there and back. Latency is the delay your platform’s own data meets, so treat ping as a guide, not your order time.
Is latency the same as internet speed?
No. A speed figure says how much data moves each second, not how long one piece takes. So a bigger plan does not shorten the wait on each order.
Is latency the same as jitter?
No. Latency is the delay itself, and jitter means uneven delays. A price arrives late one moment and on time the next, so a chart jumps. The ping, latency and jitter page works through an example.
What is a good latency for trading?
There is no agreed cut-off, so we quote none. What suits you depends on how you trade. Measure yours at the hours you trade and compare it with your own results.
Can a VPS shorten the delay?
Yes, if it sits nearer your broker’s server, because distance sets the minimum delay. You then trade over a remote desktop. A VPS also keeps a platform running while your computer is off, which suits an unattended robot.
Why does my latency change during the day?
Data waits in line when a network is busy, and that adds delay. Readings above your lowest one point to a busy moment, so log the hours you trade.
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.
cTrader behind an office, school or corporate network (the case the proxy setting was made for)
“You should talk with your local network administrator.”
What our system reduces. cTrader for Windows has a proxy setting and Traders Proxy supports it over HTTP.
- Built-in
HTTPproxy loginPrimary
Where it stops. cTrader for Windows supports an HTTP proxy login in Settings > Connection. Your local network must still allow the connection to our server.
Country and ISP level blocking of MetaQuotes services (Pakistan, specific networks)
“Yes , website is not opening without proxy , however i am able to ping the domain.”
What our system reduces. If a network blocks your broker's address, your platform connects to our server instead.
- Own separate connection to your brokerPrimary
Where it stops. Works only if your network lets you reach our server and does not block proxy traffic.
MQL5 VPS location can't be chosen and its ping 'jumped'
“Please don't mix up your concepts. 2ms may be for the Ping response time, or in other words, the latency of the network communication. However, there is much more that the server has to do besides the network response”
How local trading avoids it. Pick a server city in your dashboard and switch whenever you like.
- City switchingPrimary
Where it stops. Pick a server city in your dashboard and paste the new server value into your platform. Switching city changes the address your broker sees.
The rented Windows VPS itself freezes, spikes, crashes or goes down
“Yeah, they went down completely due to a data center issue. It is so frustrating when you have live trades running. I moved away from them after a similar scare.”
How local trading avoids it. There's no rented Windows machine in your setup to freeze or go down. Your platform runs on your own computer.
- Platform stays on your own computerPrimary
- Services restart themselves after a crashSupporting
Where it stops. Your platform runs on your own computer, so there is no remote desktop to freeze. If a service on our server restarts, live connections reconnect.