Requotes in Forex Trading Explained
What a requote is in forex trading, why it happens, how it differs from slippage, and what it signals about a broker's execution model.
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A requote happens when you submit a forex order and your broker, instead of filling it, sends back a message saying the price you requested is no longer available, along with a new price for you to accept or reject. Unlike slippage, which fills your order automatically at a different price without asking, a requote stops the trade entirely and puts the decision back in your hands before anything executes.
Why requotes happen
A requote typically happens because the price moved between the moment you clicked and the moment your broker’s system processed the order, and the broker’s execution model requires confirming the new price with you rather than filling automatically at whatever the market has moved to. This is most likely during fast-moving conditions — around major news releases, sudden volatility spikes, or periods of thin liquidity — for exactly the same underlying reason that slippage becomes more likely in those same conditions: the price genuinely did move in the gap between your click and the broker’s processing of it.
Requotes vs slippage
These two concepts are often confused, but they’re handled in opposite ways by the broker’s system. Slippage fills your order automatically at the new price, whatever it turns out to be, without pausing to ask. A requote halts the order and requires you to actively accept the new price before the trade goes through, or reject it and walk away with no trade at all. Both can be triggered by the same underlying cause — price moving in the gap between your click and the fill — but they produce very different experiences: one gets you into the trade right away at a possibly different price, the other leaves you waiting for a decision while the market keeps moving.
Why requotes matter to a trader
A requote means you didn’t get the trade at the price you wanted, and you now have to decide, often in a hurry, whether the new price is still acceptable. In fast-moving conditions, by the time you respond to a requote, the price shown in it may itself already be out of date, leading to another requote, or to a trade executing at a price several steps removed from where you originally intended to enter. Frequent requoting, especially outside of genuinely extreme market conditions, can be frustrating and can mean missing moves entirely while waiting on repeated price confirmations.
Why some brokers requote and others don’t
Requoting is more associated with certain dealing models than others. A broker that requotes is choosing to confirm a new price with the client rather than simply filling the trade with slippage, often because of how its own pricing and risk management is structured behind the scenes. Many brokers, particularly those built around direct, automated connections to external liquidity providers, are designed to fill orders with slippage rather than requote, on the reasoning that getting the trade done quickly, even at a slightly different price, generally serves the client better than repeatedly pausing for confirmation. Neither approach is inherently dishonest, but how frequently a broker requotes, and under what conditions, says something real about its execution model and technology.
What to watch for
Occasional requotes during genuinely volatile moments, such as a major scheduled news release, are a normal feature of how markets and execution systems work and not, by themselves, a red flag. Requotes that happen routinely in ordinary, calm market conditions are more worth paying attention to, since they suggest something about how that broker’s pricing or execution is set up rather than simply reflecting real market movement. If execution reliability matters to how you trade, it’s worth checking how a broker’s execution model and requoting behavior are described before opening an account — a broker finder can help narrow down regulated brokers by the execution characteristics that matter most to you.