Why a VPS does not reduce slippage when you trade by hand
The short answer
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) puts MetaTrader 4 (MT4) or MetaTrader 5 (MT5) near your broker, yet orders still slip. Market moves, broker execution mode and Remote Desktop clicks all add delay. A VPS is built for expert advisors, not to stop slippage.
Your orders still miss your price, even on a VPS near your broker.
You click Buy or Close through Remote Desktop as a fast candle moves. Your VPS sits in your broker’s city, yet your order fills away from your price.
If you trade by hand through a remote screen, the next release can slip the same way. This page shows why, so you don’t pay for a bigger VPS.
A VPS changes only one of the three things behind a worse price.
Slippage is the gap between the price you asked for and the price you got. Three things can open it, namely the market, your broker, and the path your order takes.
A VPS shortens one of those. The connection between your platform and your broker. It doesn’t change how the market moves, and it doesn’t change your broker’s execution mode.
If you trade by hand, there is a fourth thing. You see and click through a remote desktop. Your clicks and screen updates still travel between your own computer and the VPS.
Why it matters. The VPS’s short connection starts only after your click reaches it.
For an Expert Advisor (EA), a VPS works well. The code runs on the VPS without anyone clicking.
Three checks show whether the market, your broker or your connection is the cause.
Do them before you change anything, so you fix the right cause.
Three checks on your slippage
- 01
Save your trade history
In MT4, right-click the Account History tab and choose Save as Report. In MT5, right-click the History tab and choose Report.
- 02
Compare news with quiet times
Work out the gap between the price you asked for and the price you got on each trade. Slippage on quiet trades too points to something constant, such as your broker or your connection. Slippage only near news points to the market first.
One news release proves little. Keep the log over several.
- 03
Check your broker’s execution mode
In MT4, right-click the symbol in Market Watch and choose Specification. Read the Execution line to see whether your broker sets Instant Execution, Request or Market for that symbol. Slippage during news explains each mode.
A VPS moves your whole platform, while Traders Proxy leaves it on your own screen.
A VPS moves your platform to another computer. You reach it through a remote desktop, and it keeps running when your own computer is off.
Traders Proxy keeps your platform on your own computer, with your charts, hotkeys and monitors as they are. It works while your platform is running on your computer.
Traders Proxy changes where lost data is sent again from, not the price you get.
Here is what changes with us, so you can compare it with your VPS. With Traders Proxy, you paste four values into your platform’s proxy setting.
Choose your broker’s city in your dashboard so our server there makes its own, separate connection to your broker. Any packet lost on that leg is recovered locally inside that city.
Nagle’s algorithm is off so small order packets leave as they arrive, and our server keeps the queue of unsent data short on both of its connections.
It will not change your slippage, the market spread, fills, requotes or local Expert Advisor locks. We don’t promise lower ping. Distance sets the minimum. If your broker prohibits proxies, don’t use one.
You cannot set up a proxy in the middle of a live trade. Paste the four values while the market is calm, before the next release.
Tip. When a VPS is the better tool
If an EA must run while your computer is off, you need a VPS. Stop-loss and take-profit orders sit on your broker’s server. They work with your computer off either way.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I get slippage when my VPS shows a short connection to my broker?
That figure covers only the connection from the VPS to your broker. It leaves out the market, your broker’s execution mode and the connection from your screen to the VPS.
Does Traders Proxy keep MetaTrader running when my computer is off?
No. Traders Proxy only works with a platform running on your computer. When you shut the computer down, your platform closes.
Can I run several monitors on a VPS?
Yes, but a remote desktop sends your screens to you across the internet. High resolutions can make the picture and the cursor lag. Check how it feels before you rely on it.
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.
Manual trading on a Windows VPS adds a remote-desktop step that 0 ms hides
“a trader has a trading robot developed by his or her efforts or ordered from programmers; a trader has an Expert Advisor purchased from the Market; a trader has subscribed to a Signal. All these cases require constant connection to a trade server and uninterrupted power supply.”
How local trading avoids it. Your platform stays on your own computer and monitors, so clicks and hotkeys never wait on a remote-desktop window.
- Platform stays on your own computerPrimary
Where it stops. We add a step between your computer and your broker, and we do not promise lower ping. Distance between you and your broker still counts.
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.
EAs on several terminals or brokers with one rented terminal per account and a DLL ban
“If a program launched on a Virtual terminal tries to call a function from any DLL, this EX4/EX5 program is immediately stopped due to a critical error. Any DLL calls are forbidden.”
Why a proxy does not change this. Traders Proxy is for people who run their platform on their own computer. It does not run robots for you.
Where it stops. Does not run an EA while your computer is off. Not a hosting service.
MetaTrader's own proxy setting fails on some builds or setups
“Option "Enable proxy server" enables proxy server support and activates the "Proxy..." button. Server — enter here the IP address and port number of the server separated by a colon. To the right of this field, select the type of proxy server: HTTP, SOCKS4 or SOCKS5. In HTTP mode, NTLM authentication is also supported”
Why a proxy can backfire here. Use SOCKS5 or HTTP, whichever your platform offers.
- Built-in
SOCKS5loginBoundary - Built-in
HTTPproxy loginBoundary
Where it stops. Use the platform's own Test button. If it fails, the fault is in the platform's proxy support. Not SOCKS4. IPv4 only.