Speed of Order Execution

Speed of execution for an order is a very important aspect of any on-line trade operation.

Whilst speed is naturally important for managers of large funds and for traders who trade on a long-term basis, it is extremely important to us – traders whose profit depends on seconds or even fractions of a second.

Not long ago, orders could only be conducted by telephone. Today, some brokerage companies still insist that trades above a certain size, e.g. $1,000,000 for single trading position, are placed by telephone.

Nowadays, most companies have switched to so-called “instant execution” of orders. This means that the time taken for the operation (the period between when you issue an order to the broker to open or close a trade position and the actual opening or closing of the trade) is typically 2-5 seconds, though this time period depends very much on the quality of your Internet connection.

So, we’ve looked at almost all aspects required for trading and now we need to move on to learn about forecasting market behaviour.

Why forecast? Well, you certainly wouldn’t drive your car while blindfolded so why would you think about trading that way?