What is slippage in trading?

What Is Slippage in Trading?

Slippage is when your order fills at a different price than you expected. For a market buy, you might expect the last traded price but get a worse price because your order consumed several price levels. Slippage is common with large orders or in thin markets. You can often set a "max slippage" (e.g. 0.5%): if the fill would be worse, the order is cancelled. Limit orders avoid slippage by capping the worst price but may not fill. In volatile or illiquid crypto, expect some slippage on market orders.