How many seconds to get your order executed?

[ieonqutav]

Hey all,

I was trying to google for some broker comparison on an execution speed basis, but no success. Of course it depends on the market behavior, but on average, how long you wait to get your order done?

Does a demo account fool you in order execution time? Some people say that demo accounts are all about fake liquidity.

Any comment about actual experience would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[N Rothschild]

depends on the market

 

[ieonqutav]

Ok, forgot to tell... I was talking about Forex, say EURUSD and GBPUSD.

If an order takes 30 seconds after you click the button (Alpari? Forex Club?), you may lose dozens of pips (more times than win). Randomness at this point seems undesirable, even if you plan to close the position 2 days later.

 

[Trader333]

How many seconds to get your order executed?

Usually less than 1 using DMA but rarely more than 2


Paul

 

[N Rothschild]

your talking milliseconds for a fill on those currencys at peak times

 

[arabianights]

even in the real markets this question is impossible to answer, but the best answer is that it takes longest when you really need the quickest fill

Around serious news releases one is quite often trading in a black hole

 

[shadowninja]

Typically, Alpari has a 1-3 second delay. Alpari Demo is instant... and they state this when you sign up.

That notwithstanding, everybody really is out to get you.

 

[GammaJammer]

even in the real markets this question is impossible to answer...........

With all due respect Arabian me old chum that's not strictly true (in fact it's total buttocks). FX ecns at institutional level (which I am assuming is what you mean when you say the 'real' market usually have published roundtrip times. And I monitor my own execution speeds to make sure there's no latency in our system over and above what's absolutely necessary. I do this in several ways;

1) By ensuring that I have the appropriate bandwidth available to my traders. This entails liaising with the ecns themselves to discuss optimum pipeline size, type and amount of pricing displayed etc.

2) By ensuring that my trading system itself (i.e. the system that takes the price feeds from the various ecns and aggregates it) is correctly configured.

3) By ensuring that we have the best compromise in terms of price and speed in choice of data carrier.

4) By ensuring that (with the aid of the IT guys) we conduct regular 'ping' tests, to test both the raw speed / latency of our data, and also the actual route it is taking (how many 'hops' and where they are landing) to ensure that we're not doing anything daft. If I'm perfectly honest, this last step is 99% the IT department, and 1% GJ remembering to make sure we do it every so often. Main point I'm trying to make is that the higher end this stuff is very much part of the landscape.

No real benefit to my post over and above a bit of background info I suppose, apart from one thing - I do know that there are bits of software available, afaik as freeware, that will allow other traders, including many here, to trace data routes etc themselves. No idea of names etc, but I am totally sure some here will know what I'm talking about. What benefit one would gain from it when dealing with a retail broker is questionable (as I assume you don't have a myriad options available to you in terms of connection) but if it's of some help then great. If I remember the name of the shareware program I'll post it. There's doubtless more than one, but I think there's one very good shareware program out there that has a good graphical representation of what's going on.

Ok - I'm waffling now - can the T2W members who actually know about this stuff step in now please

GJ

 

[arabianights]

whoopsy, didn't notice this was fx old chap!

Stepping away from such, Eurex and LIFFE may claim to have published execution times (although afaik they don't) but they are liars, fecund liars

P.S. With my computer scientist hat on I can however state that there is no way that an ECN can 100% guarantee any execution time whatsoever, even 100 years...

 

[GammaJammer]

Sorry old bean - didn't mean to appear rude. You must think me a dreadful cad. And a bounder to boot.

Basically even the FX ecns don't 100% guarantee execution times, but what I'm saying is that if you do enough trades you can get a decent handle on average roundtrip times over a good sample size. But there are always factors beyond your control that can make individual trades take more or less time. The most important thing is your own average latency and speed relative to your peers. And even then, unless you're a high ferquency trader it's pretty moot to be honest. All the work that I described as being part of what I do, is the absolute tip of the iceberg compared to the algo shops and the legths they go to to shave off a millisecond here and there. I'm a rank amatuer in comparison.

GJ

 

[Mr. Charts]

interactivebrokers
FX milliseconds
Stocks under half a second

Richard

 

[GammaJammer]

Their claim Richard? Or is that verified somehow?

Just curious

GJ

 

[TomTom]

Global Futures using Xtrader instant
Futurs Betting instant with no requotes ( trade at market is a slight priemium )

 

[N Rothschild]

how can it possibly be instant, the latency to an american exchnage from the uk is going to be about 150ms as it is, less for forex obviously

 

[Trader333]

Most people would consider 150ms as instant from a purely human perspective but as you say there must be some latency.


Paul

 

[arabianights]

Sorry old bean - didn't mean to appear rude. You must think me a dreadful cad. And a bounder to boot.

Basically even the FX ecns don't 100% guarantee execution times, but what I'm saying is that if you do enough trades you can get a decent handle on average roundtrip times over a good sample size. But there are always factors beyond your control that can make individual trades take more or less time. The most important thing is your own average latency and speed relative to your peers. And even then, unless you're a high ferquency trader it's pretty moot to be honest. All the work that I described as being part of what I do, is the absolute tip of the iceberg compared to the algo shops and the legths they go to to shave off a millisecond here and there. I'm a rank amatuer in comparison.

GJ

Shall we discuss this further at one of my clubs old chap?