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Measured data

One Click, Several Events in a Row · Tanzania

Pressing the button starts a sequence rather than completing one. What happens between the press and the confirmation, and why the gap is a stage and not a fault.

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100+ instruments  ·  Founded 2008

An order is not an instant. Pressing the button hands an instruction to the platform, which sends it; the server receives it, executes it against the market and returns a confirmation. Each of those is a separate event with its own place in time, and the sequence carries on after the finger has left the button. A gap between the press and the confirmation is the sequence running, not the platform hanging.

Why this is measured with trades

Execution quality is one of the account features Exness highlights, and it cannot be judged from quotes alone — only a real order shows the latency, the fill price and whether the platform rejects size. The probe opens and immediately closes positions of increasing size and records what actually happened.

Execution speed and fill quality vary with market conditions, liquidity and position size.

Measured round-trips by instrument and size

InstrumentLot sizeAvg executionSlowest fillAvg slippage (signed)Better / zero / worse fillsRejects
EUR/USD0.01151 ms187 ms-0.3 pts1 / 2 / 00
EUR/USD0.1151 ms172 ms-0.3 pts1 / 2 / 00
EUR/USD1146 ms172 ms-0.3 pts1 / 2 / 00
GBP/USD0.01141 ms156 ms+0.7 pts0 / 1 / 20
GBP/USD0.1130 ms140 ms+0.0 pts0 / 3 / 00
GBP/USD1135 ms156 ms+0.3 pts0 / 2 / 10
XAU/USD (Gold)0.01141 ms172 ms+0.0 pts0 / 3 / 00
XAU/USD (Gold)0.1151 ms172 ms+80.0 pts1 / 1 / 10
XAU/USD (Gold)1130 ms141 ms-72.3 pts2 / 1 / 00

Across 27 measured round-trips the average fill took 130–151 ms depending on instrument and size, with 0 rejected orders in total. Negative slippage means the fill was better than the quoted price at the moment the order was sent.

Slippage in points, signed: negative = filled better than quoted, positive = worse. ‘Rejects’ counts orders the platform refused at that size.

How this was measured

  • Real market orders (buy, then immediate close) placed in an Exness MetaTrader 5 terminal.
  • Latency timed in-terminal from order send to broker confirmation.
  • Sizes stepped 0.01 → 1.00 lot to expose size-dependent slippage.
  • Fills depend on market liquidity, account and conditions, and can differ.

Measured in-terminal on Exness’s own MetaTrader 5 pricing feed and symbol specifications, refreshed on a schedule. All figures are indicative and change with market conditions.

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Four events wearing one name

The word order is used for all four stages at once, which is where most of the confusion starts. There is the moment the platform accepts what was typed, the moment it leaves the device, the moment the server acts on it and the moment a confirmation comes back.

Only the first of those happens where the finger is. The other three happen elsewhere and continue whether or not the screen is still being watched, which is why letting go of the button is not a decision point in the process.

The confirmation reports, it does not create

A position comes into existence when the order is executed, not when the message about it appears. The confirmation is a report travelling back, and like anything travelling back it arrives after the thing it describes has already happened.

So the account history, rather than the screen, is the thing that settles whether an order exists. The screen is a good approximation and it is usually fast; it is still a copy of something written somewhere else.

Pressing again starts a second sequence

A second press does not resend the first instruction, retry it or replace it. It begins a new sequence from the first stage, and the earlier one is still somewhere in its own progression, unaware that a successor exists.

That is the practical reason a quiet moment is worth sitting through. Two presses can produce two positions, because nothing about the second one cancels the first, and both will be reported in the record.

What happens between the press and the confirmation

  1. The platform accepts the instruction and stops treating it as something that can still be edited.
  2. The instruction leaves the device and is on its way to the server.
  3. The server receives it, and at that point it stops being an intention and becomes an order.
  4. The order is executed against the market at what is available at that moment.
  5. A confirmation travels back and the position appears in the account record.

Only the first stage happens on the device. The account record is written at the fourth, before anything is displayed.

Frequently asked questions

Is an order a single moment?
No. It is a sequence: sent, received, executed, confirmed. Each stage happens at a different instant, and the account record is written near the end of it.
The button was released and nothing appeared — has it failed?
Not necessarily. A gap between the press and the confirmation is the sequence in progress. The account history, not the button, settles whether an order exists.
Does pressing again repeat the same order?
No. It starts a second sequence. Two presses can produce two positions, because the second one never cancels the first.
At which point does an instruction stop belonging to the device?
The moment it is sent. From then on it is being handled on the broker side, and closing the platform does not recall it.
What is the difference between an intention and an order?
An intention is a filled-in ticket on a screen. It becomes an order when the server receives it, and only then can it appear in the account.
Does the confirmation create the position or report it?
It reports it. The position is created when the order is executed; the confirmation is the message that the execution happened.

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