Requote
Also called Re-quote, Requoting, Price requote
A requote is when your broker cannot fill your order at the price you clicked and offers you a new price instead. You can accept that price or cancel the order.
Accept a worse requote without checking and your stop is further away, so the same trade risks more money than you planned.
Why your broker sends a requote
Prices can change between the moment you click and the moment your order reaches the broker. Under instant execution, the broker tries to fill you at the exact price you saw. If that price has gone by, it does not fill you at a different price on its own. It sends a requote and lets you choose. On a buy, a higher requote is worse. On a sell, a lower one is worse.
Requotes come up most often when prices move fast. Examples are news releases, the minutes around a session open, and thin markets. They are more common on dealing desk accounts, where the broker takes the other side of your trade. There, the broker sets the price it is willing to fill at, so it can send back a new price when the market moves. Under market execution, you get no requote at all. Your order fills at the next available price, and the difference is called slippage.
Requote, slippage or rejected order: telling them apart
Traders often mix these three up. They are different events, and each one needs a different response.
| Event | What you see | Who decides the final price | Trade opened? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Requote | A pop-up with a new price | You (accept or reject) | Only if you accept |
| Slippage | A filled trade at a different price | The market | Yes, automatically |
| Rejected order ("off quotes") | An error with no new price | Not applicable: the order is refused | No |
How a requote shifts your entry and your risk
The figures here are an illustrative example. You want to buy 1 standard lot (100,000 units) of EUR/USD at 1.1000. Your stop loss is at 1.0980. One pip on this pair is worth $10 at that size, so you planned to risk 20 pips, or $200.
The broker requotes you at 1.1003. The chart below shows the entry moving away from your stop.
The calculation below shows what accepting that price costs you.
The extra $30 is not a fee. It is a worse entry price. Your target is also 3 pips harder to reach, and if the stop is hit you lose 15% more than you planned.
Decision rule: before you accept, compare the requote gap to your stop distance. In the example, 3 pips is 15% of a 20-pip stop. As an example threshold, if the gap is more than about a tenth of your stop, resize or reject. You have three choices:
- Keep the stop at 1.0980 and cut the lot size (reject, then resend the order at the smaller size) so 23 pips still costs $200: $200 ÷ (23 × $10) ≈ 0.87 lots.
- Move the stop up 3 pips to 1.0983, so the stop distance stays 20 pips and the risk stays $200.
- Reject the requote and wait.
Requotes when you close a trade
Requotes do not only happen when you open a trade. Under instant execution, clicking Close in a fast market can also bring a requote. The trade stays open while the pop-up waits for you, so the loss keeps running while you decide.
Rule: if you are closing to cut a loss, accept at once. Do not reject a closing requote hoping for a better price. If you reject, the trade is still open and you have to send the close again at whatever the price is by then.
Setting your price tolerance in the order window
Most trading platforms have a field in the order window labelled something like deviation, maximum slippage or price tolerance. It sets how far the price can move from your click before you get a requote. Within that range, the order fills automatically.
A wider tolerance means fewer requotes, but you may get worse fills without being asked. With a tolerance of zero, any price change at all, even 1 point, triggers a requote, which can mean you miss trades in a fast market. If the order window shows no such field, your account probably uses market execution.
Checks before you trade where requotes happen
- Find out which execution type your account uses: instant or market.
- Set your tolerance no wider than the decision-rule threshold: about a tenth of your usual stop distance.
- Avoid clicking market orders in the seconds around major news if you cannot accept a different price.
- Use limit orders when your exact entry level matters. Stop orders become market orders when they trigger and can still fill at a worse price.
- Keep a log of how often you get requotes and how big they are. If you get them often in calm markets, raise it with your broker.
- If you use an automated strategy, check that it handles requotes. Otherwise it may retry the order again and again at worse prices.
FAQ
Can a requote ever give me a better price?
Yes. If the price moved in your favour, the new price can be better than the one you clicked. Treat it the same way: check it against your plan before you accept.
Why do I get requotes on a demo account but not on my live account, or the other way round?
Demo and live accounts can use different execution types and different price feeds. Test your execution on the account you actually trade with.
How long do I have to accept a requote?
Usually only a few seconds. If you let it expire, no trade is opened, and you place the order again at the current price.