Market Execution
Order Types & Execution
Market execution fills an order at the next available market price with no requotes, so the fill price may differ slightly from the requested one.
What is market execution?
Market execution is an order execution model in which a broker always fills an order at the best available current price, without pausing to check whether that price still matches what the trader originally requested. There is no requote step — the trade simply happens, even if the fill price ends up a little different from the price shown when the order was submitted.
How it differs from instant execution
Under instant execution, a broker attempts to honor the exact requested price and, if the market has moved, offers a requote for the trader to accept or reject. Market execution skips that step entirely: any difference between the requested and filled price is simply absorbed as slippage, whether it works slightly in the trader’s favor or against it.
Worked example
A trader places a market buy order on EUR/USD at a displayed price of 1.0850. By the time the order reaches the broker’s system a moment later, the price has ticked up to 1.0851. Under market execution, the order fills immediately at 1.0851 — no confirmation prompt, no rejected trade — just a one-pip difference from the originally displayed price.
Why brokers use this model
Market execution is the standard model among brokers offering ECN and STP pricing, where orders are routed straight to external liquidity providers rather than handled by an in-house dealing desk. Because there’s no dealing desk deciding whether to honor a price, there’s nothing to requote — the market simply provides whatever price is currently available.
Why it matters
Market execution generally means faster, less interrupted order placement, which suits active traders, scalpers, and automated strategies that rely on quick, predictable order handling. The trade-off is accepting that the exact fill price is never guaranteed in advance — only that the order will go through. Traders sensitive to a precise entry price may prefer to rely more on limit orders than market orders when using this execution model.
Trading carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors.