Controlling Market Orders with Slippage Settings: The Complete Guide

When placing a market order, many traders experience slippage, which results in execution at a different price than expected. Gate.io’s slippage setting feature allows you to specify the maximum acceptable price difference in amount or percentage when submitting a market order, ensuring that the order only executes within your desired price range. This feature is available for spot trading, spot margin trading, and futures trading.

Basic Mechanism of Slippage Settings

If slippage settings are disabled, market orders are executed as regular market orders, with no restrictions on price fluctuations. When slippage settings are enabled, market orders gain a functionality similar to limit orders, executing only if the market price remains within the specified price range.

There are two methods to set slippage: one by amount and the other by percentage. Regardless of the method chosen, the market depth is automatically displayed, allowing you to preview the likelihood of full order execution beforehand.

Setting by Amount: Example of Slippage Configuration

When setting slippage by amount, you specify the deviation from the best ask (for buy orders) or best bid (for sell orders).

For buy orders: Limit price = Best ask + specified amount
For sell orders: Limit price = Best bid − specified amount

Let’s look at an example. Suppose in ETH/USDT trading, the best ask is 2,100 USDT and the best bid is 2,000 USDT. If you set slippage to 0.1 USDT, then the limit price for a buy order becomes 2,100.1 USDT (2,100 + 0.1), and for a sell order, it becomes 1,999.9 USDT (2,000 − 0.1).

This means a buy order will only execute if the market price is 2,100.1 USDT or lower, and a sell order will only execute if the market price is 1,999.9 USDT or higher. Orders outside this range are automatically canceled.

Note that when setting slippage by amount, the specified value is denominated in the settlement currency. Currently, only amount-based settings are supported for BTC and ETH; percentage-based settings are not available for these.

Setting by Percentage

With percentage-based slippage, you allow a deviation from the best ask or bid price by a certain percentage.

For buy orders: Limit price = Best ask × (1 + specified percentage)
For sell orders: Limit price = Best bid × (1 − specified percentage)

Using the same example, if you set slippage to 0.5%, the buy order’s limit price becomes 2,110.5 USDT [2,100 × (1 + 0.5%)], and the sell order’s limit price becomes 1,990 USDT [2,000 × (1 − 0.5%)].

Thus, a buy order will only execute if the market price is 2,110.5 USDT or lower, and a sell order only if the market price is 1,990 USDT or higher. Orders outside this range are canceled.

An important note: actual execution depends on order size and market depth (order book liquidity). Full execution is not always guaranteed. If market depth is insufficient, only the portion within the slippage tolerance will be filled, and the rest will be canceled.

Key Benefits of Slippage Settings

Using slippage settings offers several trading advantages.

In particular, for less liquid futures contracts, it helps limit excessive price swings while enabling efficient market order execution. Compared to limit orders based on best ask and bid, slippage settings provide faster execution and more flexible options.

Additionally, it enhances risk management by protecting traders from extreme price surges or drops associated with market orders, offering peace of mind in volatile market conditions.

How to Use Slippage Settings from Order to Confirmation

Order Placement Steps

Step 1: Select your desired trading pair on the trading page. On the right panel, choose the trading direction, select “Market,” and enter the order amount or quantity as usual.

Step 2: Check the “Slippage Setting” checkbox. Click the dropdown menu to toggle between “Amount-based” and “Percentage-based” settings. Changing this setting will display the market depth and allow you to preview the likelihood of full order fill.

Step 3: Click “Sell” or “Buy,” review the order details in the confirmation window, then click “Sell” or “Buy” again to submit the order.

How to Confirm Orders

Orders with slippage settings can be checked in multiple places. Hover over the order in the “Order History” section at the bottom of the trading page to see detailed slippage info. You can also access your order history via the “Orders” button at the top right of the navigation bar.

By default, slippage settings are disabled, but once configured, they are saved automatically and will be applied on your next trading session. Note that OCO orders, conditional orders, and trailing stop orders do not support slippage settings. For futures trading, “Market Close” orders can also have slippage enabled, allowing you to specify amount or percentage just like during order placement.