Spread and Latency: The Two Numbers That Decide Your Result
Spread is what your broker charges you. Latency is what your connection charges you. Both come out of every trade before the trade has done anything.
Por One Shoot AI Team
A correctly installed system on a badly chosen broker will underperform a mediocre system on a good one. Two numbers decide it, and both are set before you place a single trade.
1. Spread — what the broker charges
Spread is deducted from every order at the moment it opens. On a Standard or Cent account it is materially wider on every instrument, all day, and no EA setting compensates for it. A Raw or ECN account is not a preference here — it is a requirement.
| Market | Recommended | Still workable | Turn it off |
|---|---|---|---|
| XAUUSD | 8 – 16 points | 17 – 25 points | 30 points + |
| NAS100 | 60 – 90 points | 91 – 120 points | 150 points + |
| BTCUSD | up to 1200 points | 1201 – 1500 points | 1600 points + |
To measure it, right-click the Market Watch panel in MT5 and tick Spread. Watch the column across London and New York, away from the rollover and the news calendar, and write down the value it sits at.
2. Latency — what your connection charges
Slippage is the gap between the price your order was placed at and the price it actually filled at. It has two causes: a slow broker, and a slow connection. The second one is entirely yours to fix.
| Latency | Rating | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – 2 ms | Best | Same data centre as your broker. This is the target. |
| 3 – 10 ms | Recommended | Nearest data centre in the region. Excellent in practice. |
| 11 – 30 ms | Acceptable | Same continent, different city. A small tax on every fill. |
| 30 ms + | Fix it | Wrong region. Move the VPS. |
Finding your broker's data centre
Two ways, both about two minutes. Read the trade server name in MetaTrader 5 — names like LiveNY4, LiveLD4 or LiveTY3 name the region outright. If your broker uses a plain name like Live07, use the MQL5 latency checker: it measures the ping from each access point to your broker, and the lowest one is your answer.
After the VPS is delivered
- 1Connect over Remote Desktop with the credentials your provider emailed.
- 2Install MetaTrader 5 from your broker's own website, on the VPS itself.
- 3Log into your live account and check the ping in the bottom-right corner.
- 4Install the EA there — on the VPS, not on your home PC.
- 5Close the Remote Desktop window. Never shut the VPS down.
Minimum specification: Windows Server, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB SSD. Leave MT5 open and logged in 24/7, do not run other heavy software on it, and re-check the ping after any broker server change.
Recommended brokers and VPS
The Raw / ECN accounts and the low-latency provider the system is designed to run on, with the spread bands for all three markets.
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Advertencia de riesgo
Operar con instrumentos apalancados conlleva un riesgo sustancial de pérdida y no es adecuado para todos los inversores. El rendimiento pasado no garantiza resultados futuros. One Shoot AI es una herramienta de trading, no asesoramiento financiero — usted sigue siendo responsable del capital de su cuenta y de la configuración que elija.