What Is Requoting in Forex and How to Avoid It

Every forex trader has experienced that frustrating moment when their carefully timed trade gets rejected with a message asking them to accept a new, less favorable price. This phenomenon, known as requoting, can significantly impact your trading performance and psychological well-being. Understanding what causes requotes and how to minimize them is essential for developing a successful trading strategy.

Requoting occurs when a broker cannot execute your trade at the requested price due to rapid market movements or other factors. Instead of automatically filling your order at the next available price, the broker presents you with a new quote and asks for your approval. While this might seem like a minor inconvenience, frequent requotes can lead to missed opportunities, increased trading costs, and considerable frustration.

This comprehensive guide explores the technical aspects of requoting, market conditions that trigger these events, and practical strategies to minimize their occurrence. You’ll learn about different broker execution models, technology factors that influence requoting frequency, and regulatory frameworks designed to protect traders. Most importantly, we’ll provide actionable techniques to help you choose the right broker and adjust your trading approach to reduce requoting incidents.

The Technical Definition of Forex Requoting

What Happens During a Requote Event

A requote occurs when there’s a disconnect between the price you see on your trading platform and the price available when your broker attempts to execute the trade. During this process, your trading platform sends an order request to the broker’s server with specific price parameters. The broker then attempts to match your order with available liquidity providers.

If the requested price is no longer available, the broker’s system generates a requote notification instead of executing the trade. This notification displays the current market price and asks whether you want to proceed with the order at the new rate. The entire process typically takes a few seconds, during which market conditions may continue to change.

The Price Mismatch Between Request and Execution

Price mismatches occur due to the time delay between when you click the buy or sell button and when the broker processes your order. Even with high-speed internet connections, there’s always some latency in data transmission. During volatile market periods, currency pair prices can move significantly within milliseconds, creating gaps between expected and available execution prices.

The size of this price mismatch depends on several factors, including market volatility, trading volume, and the speed of your internet connection. During major news releases or economic announcements, price gaps can be substantial, leading to frequent requoting as brokers struggle to keep up with rapid price movements.

Manual vs. Automated Requoting Processes

Traditional dealing desk brokers often use manual requoting processes, where human dealers review order requests and decide whether to execute them at current market prices or issue requotes. This manual intervention can introduce additional delays and increase the likelihood of requoting, especially during busy trading periods.

Modern automated systems attempt to reduce requoting through sophisticated algorithms that instantly compare order requests with available liquidity. However, even automated systems must requote when the price difference exceeds predetermined thresholds or when insufficient liquidity exists at the requested price level.

Market Conditions That Trigger Requotes

High Volatility Periods and Rapid Price Movement

Market volatility is the primary driver of requoting frequency. During highly volatile periods, such as central bank announcements or geopolitical events, currency prices can move several pips within seconds. This rapid movement makes it challenging for brokers to provide accurate real-time quotes, leading to increased requoting as the displayed prices become outdated quickly.

Traders often experience the highest requoting rates during the first few minutes following major economic releases. The initial market reaction to unexpected news can create extreme price swings that overwhelm broker execution systems, resulting in frequent requotes until market conditions stabilize.

Low Liquidity Environments and Thin Order Books

Liquidity plays a crucial role in requoting frequency. During low liquidity periods, such as late Friday afternoons or holiday trading sessions, fewer market participants are actively buying and selling currencies. This reduced activity creates thinner order books with larger bid-ask spreads, making it more difficult for brokers to execute orders at specific price points.

Thin liquidity conditions mean that even small orders can move market prices, causing the quotes displayed on trading platforms to become inaccurate more quickly. Brokers may need to requote orders more frequently as they struggle to find sufficient liquidity at the requested prices.

Major News Release Impact on Requoting Frequency

Economic calendar events have a predictable impact on requoting patterns. High-impact news releases, such as Non-Farm Payrolls, Federal Reserve interest rate decisions, and GDP announcements, typically trigger increased requoting activity in the minutes surrounding the announcement.

Smart traders often avoid entering new positions during these high-risk periods or use alternative order types that are less susceptible to requoting. Understanding the economic calendar and its potential impact on trading conditions helps traders plan their activities around periods of elevated requoting risk.

The Difference Between Requotes and Slippage

How Requotes Force Manual Price Acceptance

Requoting requires active trader participation in the order execution process. When you receive a requote, you must manually decide whether to accept the new price or cancel the order entirely. This decision-making requirement can be particularly problematic during fast-moving markets where prices continue to change while you’re considering the requote.

The manual nature of requoting gives traders control over their execution prices but can also result in missed opportunities. By the time you decide to accept or reject a requote, market conditions may have changed again, potentially leading to additional requotes or even less favorable pricing.

Slippage as Automatic Execution at Different Prices

Slippage represents a different approach to handling price discrepancies during order execution. Instead of stopping the execution process to request trader approval, slippage allows orders to be filled automatically at the next available price. This automatic execution ensures that trades are completed without manual intervention, reducing the risk of missed opportunities.

While slippage eliminates the need for manual price acceptance, it can result in execution at significantly different prices than expected, particularly during volatile market conditions. The key difference is that slippage prioritizes order execution over price precision, while requoting prioritizes price approval over execution speed.

Which Scenario Is More Favorable for Traders

The preference between requoting and slippage depends on individual trading styles and risk tolerance. Short-term traders and scalpers often prefer slippage because it ensures their orders are executed quickly, even if the final price differs slightly from their expectation. The speed of execution is more important than minor price differences for these trading strategies.

Longer-term traders and those using larger position sizes may prefer requoting because it gives them control over execution prices. For these traders, accepting a slightly worse price through slippage could have a more significant impact on overall profitability than missing a trade opportunity due to requoting delays.

Broker Execution Models and Requoting Likelihood

Dealing Desk Brokers and Manual Requoting Practices

Dealing desk brokers operate as market makers, creating their own bid and ask prices based on interbank rates and internal risk management considerations. These brokers often employ manual requoting practices, particularly for larger orders or during volatile market conditions. Human dealers review order requests and may choose to requote rather than automatically execute trades that could expose the broker to significant risk.

The manual intervention inherent in dealing desk operations increases requoting frequency but also provides opportunities for negotiation. Some dealing desk brokers allow traders to contact their dealing room directly to discuss execution prices, though this option is typically reserved for high-volume clients.

No Dealing Desk (NDD) Broker Execution Characteristics

No Dealing Desk brokers aim to pass client orders directly to liquidity providers without manual intervention. This automated approach typically reduces requoting frequency because orders are matched electronically with available liquidity from banks and other financial institutions. However, NDD brokers may still issue requotes when their liquidity providers cannot fill orders at the requested prices.

The technology infrastructure used by NDD brokers plays a crucial role in their requoting rates. Brokers with faster connections to multiple liquidity providers and more sophisticated order routing systems tend to experience fewer requoting incidents than those with limited technological resources.

ECN and STP Broker Requoting Frequency Differences

Electronic Communication Network (ECN) brokers typically have the lowest requoting rates because they provide direct access to interbank market depth. Traders can see actual market liquidity and place orders at prices where liquidity exists, reducing the likelihood of requotes. However, ECN brokers may still requote orders during extremely volatile periods when market depth disappears rapidly.

Straight Through Processing (STP) brokers fall between dealing desk and ECN models in terms of requoting frequency. While they pass orders to liquidity providers automatically, they may not provide the same level of market depth transparency as ECN brokers, potentially leading to more requoting incidents than pure ECN execution.

How Order Types Affect Requoting Risk

Market Orders and Their Requoting Vulnerability

Market orders are the most susceptible to requoting because they request immediate execution at whatever price is currently available. During volatile periods, the “current” price displayed on your platform may already be outdated by the time your order reaches the broker’s server, necessitating a requote to reflect actual market conditions.

The speed at which you enter market orders also affects requoting risk. Orders placed quickly during news releases or other high-volatility events are more likely to encounter requotes than those placed during calm market conditions. Some traders intentionally avoid market orders during predictably volatile periods to minimize requoting frustration.

Limit Orders as Protection Against Requotes

Limit orders specify the exact price at which you’re willing to buy or sell a currency pair. Because these orders include predetermined price parameters, they’re less susceptible to requoting than market orders. If the market moves away from your limit price, the order simply remains unfilled rather than generating a requote.

However, limit orders aren’t completely immune to requoting. In some cases, brokers may requote limit orders if market conditions have changed significantly since the order was placed, particularly if the specified price is no longer available due to liquidity constraints.

Stop Orders and Requoting During Fast Markets

Stop orders can be particularly problematic during fast-moving markets because they convert to market orders when triggered. If a stop order is activated during a volatile period, it may face the same requoting risks as any other market order. The combination of emotional pressure from a losing position and requoting delays can create particularly stressful trading situations.

Some brokers offer guaranteed stop orders that promise execution at the specified price without requoting, though these orders typically come with wider spreads or additional fees. Traders must weigh the cost of guaranteed execution against the potential savings from accepting requoting risk.

Technology Infrastructure Behind Requoting

Server Location and Latency Impact on Requotes

The physical distance between your computer, your broker’s servers, and liquidity providers significantly impacts requoting frequency. Brokers with servers located close to major financial centers and liquidity providers can process orders faster, reducing the time window during which prices can change and necessitate requotes.

Some professional traders use Virtual Private Servers (VPS) located near their broker’s data centers to minimize latency. While this approach can reduce requoting incidents, it’s typically only cost-effective for high-frequency traders or those using automated trading systems where millisecond improvements in execution speed translate to meaningful profit differences.

Trading Platform Architecture Differences

Different trading platforms handle requoting in various ways based on their underlying architecture. Some platforms automatically accept small price differences without issuing requotes, while others requote any price deviation above a minimal threshold. Understanding your platform’s requoting settings allows you to adjust your trading approach accordingly.

Modern platforms often include configurable requoting parameters, allowing traders to specify maximum acceptable price deviations. Orders that exceed these parameters are automatically rejected rather than requoted, helping traders avoid the manual decision-making process during volatile periods.

Internet Connection Quality and Requoting Correlation

Your internet connection quality directly affects requoting frequency through its impact on data transmission speed and reliability. Slow or unstable connections increase the time between order placement and broker receipt, creating more opportunities for market prices to change and trigger requotes.

Traders serious about minimizing requoting should invest in high-quality internet connections with low latency and minimal packet loss. Wired connections typically provide better performance than wireless alternatives, particularly during critical trading periods when consistent connectivity is essential.

Identifying Brokers with Excessive Requoting

Red Flags in Broker Requoting Policies

Broker requoting policies often reveal important information about their execution practices. Brokers that requote frequently may mention “market execution” or “subject to price confirmation” in their terms of service. These phrases suggest that requoting is a normal part of their order execution process rather than an exceptional occurrence.

Transparency in requoting policies is crucial for trader evaluation. Brokers should clearly explain when requotes occur, how they’re handled, and what alternatives are available. Vague or overly complex execution policies may indicate that the broker uses requoting more aggressively than necessary.

Customer Review Analysis for Requoting Complaints

Online trader reviews provide valuable insights into broker requoting practices. Pay particular attention to complaints about execution quality, frequent requotes, and missed trading opportunities. However, consider the context of these reviews, as some traders may not understand the legitimate reasons for requoting during volatile market conditions.

Look for patterns in requoting complaints across multiple review platforms. Isolated complaints about requoting during major news events may be normal, but consistent complaints about requoting during calm market conditions could indicate problematic broker practices.

Testing Broker Execution During Demo Trading

Demo trading provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate broker requoting practices without risking real money. Test the broker’s execution quality during various market conditions, including volatile periods around news releases. Pay attention to requoting frequency, the size of price discrepancies, and how quickly the broker responds to your orders.

Keep detailed records of your demo trading experience, including screenshots of requotes and notes about market conditions when they occurred. This documentation will help you make an informed decision about whether the broker’s execution quality meets your trading requirements.

Time-of-Day Patterns in Requoting Frequency

Trading Session Overlap and Reduced Requotes

Currency market liquidity varies significantly throughout the 24-hour trading day, directly impacting requoting frequency. The highest liquidity typically occurs during trading session overlaps, particularly the London-New York overlap from approximately 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST. During these high-liquidity periods, brokers can more easily execute orders at requested prices, reducing requoting incidents.

Traders who can adjust their trading schedules to coincide with high-liquidity periods often experience fewer requoting problems. The abundance of market participants during session overlaps creates deeper order books and tighter spreads, making it easier for brokers to match orders with available liquidity at specified prices.

Low Volume Hours and Increased Requoting Risk

Trading during low-volume hours, such as the Asian session for USD pairs or late Friday afternoons, increases requoting risk due to reduced market liquidity. Fewer active participants mean larger bid-ask spreads and less available liquidity at any given price level, making it more challenging for brokers to execute orders without requoting.

Weekend gaps and trading session transitions also create periods of elevated requoting risk. Brokers may struggle to provide accurate quotes during these transition periods as liquidity providers adjust their pricing and risk parameters for the upcoming or concluding trading session.

Economic Calendar Events and Requoting Spikes

Economic calendar events create predictable patterns in requoting frequency. High-impact releases typically trigger increased requoting activity beginning approximately 15 minutes before the announcement and continuing for 30-60 minutes afterward. The exact timing and duration of increased requoting depend on the significance of the economic data and market expectations.

Experienced traders often avoid placing new orders during these high-risk periods or use alternative strategies less susceptible to requoting. Understanding the economic calendar and its impact on execution quality allows traders to plan their activities around periods of elevated requoting risk.

Currency Pair Liquidity and Requoting Correlation

Major Pairs and Minimal Requoting Occurrences

Major currency pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY typically experience the lowest requoting rates due to their high liquidity and tight spreads. The abundance of market participants trading these pairs creates deep order books with minimal price gaps, making it easier for brokers to execute orders at requested prices without requoting.

The institutional interest in major pairs also contributes to their stable execution characteristics. Banks, hedge funds, and other large financial institutions actively trade these pairs throughout the trading day, providing consistent liquidity that reduces the likelihood of requoting incidents.

Exotic Pairs and Higher Requoting Probability

Exotic currency pairs, such as USD/TRY, EUR/ZAR, or GBP/MXN, experience higher requoting rates due to their limited liquidity and wider spreads. Fewer market participants trade these pairs, creating thinner order books where small orders can significantly impact prices and trigger requoting.

The increased volatility often associated with exotic pairs compounds their requoting risk. Political instability, economic uncertainty, and lower trading volumes in emerging market currencies create conditions where prices can gap significantly, making accurate real-time quoting more challenging for brokers.

Cross Currency Pair Requoting Characteristics

Cross currency pairs, which don’t include the US dollar, fall between major and exotic pairs in terms of requoting frequency. Pairs like EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, and GBP/JPY generally have adequate liquidity during European and Asian trading sessions but may experience increased requoting during low-volume periods.

The synthetic nature of many cross pairs, where brokers calculate prices based on the component major pairs, can also contribute to requoting incidents. If either component pair experiences rapid price movement, the calculated cross rate may become temporarily inaccurate, necessitating requotes to reflect current market conditions.

Advanced Order Execution Settings to Minimize Requotes

Maximum Deviation Settings on Trading Platforms

Most modern trading platforms include maximum deviation settings that allow traders to specify acceptable price differences without triggering requotes. These settings automatically accept price changes within predetermined parameters while rejecting orders that exceed the specified deviation limits.

Optimizing deviation settings requires balancing execution certainty with price accuracy. Setting deviation limits too narrow increases requoting frequency, while overly wide limits may result in execution at unfavorable prices. Traders should experiment with different settings based on their trading style, typical market conditions, and risk tolerance.

Fill or Kill Order Options

Fill or Kill (FOK) orders provide an alternative to traditional requoting by automatically canceling orders that cannot be filled immediately at the specified price. This order type eliminates the manual decision-making process associated with requoting but may result in missed trading opportunities during volatile periods.

FOK orders work best for traders who prefer certainty over execution flexibility. If price precision is more important than ensuring trade execution, FOK orders can eliminate the frustration associated with frequent requoting while maintaining control over execution prices.

Immediate or Cancel Execution Parameters

Immediate or Cancel (IOC) orders allow partial fills at the specified price while canceling any remaining portion that cannot be executed immediately. This approach can reduce requoting incidents while ensuring some portion of the desired position is established at the target price.

IOC orders are particularly useful for larger position sizes where partial execution is acceptable. Traders can use these orders to establish initial positions during volatile periods without facing the all-or-nothing decision-making associated with traditional requoting scenarios.

The Cost Impact of Frequent Requoting

Missed Trading Opportunities Due to Requotes

The most significant cost of frequent requoting is missed trading opportunities. While you’re deciding whether to accept a requoted price, market conditions may continue to evolve, potentially eliminating profitable entry or exit points. This opportunity cost can be substantial, particularly for short-term trading strategies that rely on quick market movements.

Time-sensitive trading strategies, such as news trading or breakout systems, are particularly vulnerable to requoting delays. The few seconds required to process and respond to requotes can mean the difference between catching a profitable move and missing it entirely.

Psychological Frustration and Decision-Making Impairment

Frequent requoting creates psychological stress that can impair trading decision-making. The frustration of repeatedly encountering requotes can lead to impulsive decisions, such as accepting unfavorable prices or abandoning valid trading setups altogether. This emotional impact often extends beyond individual requoting incidents, affecting overall trading confidence and performance.

The mental fatigue associated with constant requoting decisions can also reduce trading effectiveness. Making multiple price acceptance decisions throughout a trading session depletes mental resources that could be better allocated to market analysis and strategic planning.

Cumulative Effect on Trading Performance Metrics

The cumulative impact of requoting on trading performance extends beyond individual missed opportunities. Consistently receiving worse execution prices through accepted requotes gradually erodes trading profitability, particularly for strategies with small average profits per trade.

Requoting can also distort performance metrics by introducing execution uncertainty into backtesting and forward testing results. Strategies that appear profitable in testing may become marginal or unprofitable when implemented with a broker that frequently requotes orders.

Regulatory Perspective on Broker Requoting Practices

CFTC and NFA Guidelines on Order Execution

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and National Futures Association (NFA) have established guidelines requiring US-regulated brokers to provide best execution for customer orders. While these regulations don’t explicitly prohibit requoting, they require brokers to execute orders at the best available prices and maintain transparent execution policies.

US-regulated brokers must document their order execution procedures and provide clients with information about execution quality. This regulatory oversight helps ensure that requoting is used appropriately rather than as a tool to disadvantage clients during favorable market movements.

FCA Requirements for UK-Based Brokers

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires UK-regulated brokers to provide fair treatment to customers and maintain adequate systems for order execution. FCA-regulated brokers must demonstrate that their requoting practices serve legitimate business purposes rather than simply improving broker profitability at client expense.

The FCA’s emphasis on treating customers fairly extends to execution quality and transparency. Brokers must clearly explain their requoting policies and provide mechanisms for clients to raise concerns about execution practices that may not meet regulatory standards.

ASIC and CySEC Requoting Regulations

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) have implemented similar requirements for transparent and fair order execution. These regulations require brokers to maintain appropriate technology infrastructure and risk management systems that minimize unnecessary requoting.

Both regulators emphasize the importance of client disclosure regarding execution practices. Brokers must clearly explain when and why requoting may occur, helping traders make informed decisions about broker selection based on their execution requirements and risk tolerance.

Alternative Execution Methods to Bypass Requotes

Instant Execution vs. Market Execution Models

Understanding the difference between instant execution and market execution models helps traders choose brokers and platforms that align with their requoting tolerance. Instant execution models attempt to fill orders at displayed prices, issuing requotes when those prices are no longer available.

Market execution models prioritize order fulfillment over price precision, automatically executing orders at the best available prices without requoting. While this approach eliminates requoting delays, it introduces slippage risk that some traders may find less desirable than requoting transparency.

Using Pending Orders Instead of Market Orders

Pending orders, including limit orders, stop orders, and stop-limit orders, can significantly reduce requoting incidents by eliminating the timing mismatch between order placement and execution. These orders remain in the system until market conditions reach specified parameters, reducing the likelihood of price changes between order submission and execution.

Strategic use of pending orders requires different market analysis approaches compared to market orders. Traders must anticipate price movements and set appropriate entry and exit levels in advance rather than reacting to immediate market conditions.

API Trading and Direct Market Access Benefits

Application Programming Interface (API) trading and direct market access (DMA) can substantially reduce requoting through faster order transmission and processing. These advanced execution methods minimize latency between order decisions and broker receipt, reducing the time window during which prices can change and trigger requotes.

Professional and institutional traders often use API connections to achieve execution speeds measured in milliseconds rather than seconds. While this technology requires technical expertise and may involve additional costs, it can virtually eliminate requoting for traders who require the fastest possible execution.

Documenting and Reporting Excessive Requoting

Creating Evidence Records of Requoting Incidents

Maintaining detailed records of requoting incidents provides valuable evidence for broker evaluation and potential regulatory complaints. Document each requote with screenshots showing the original order, requoted price, market conditions at the time, and your response to the requote situation.

Include timestamps, currency pairs, order sizes, and market volatility indicators in your requoting records. This comprehensive documentation helps establish patterns of excessive or inappropriate requoting that may warrant broker complaints or regulatory attention.

Broker Complaint Procedures for Execution Issues

Most reputable brokers maintain formal complaint procedures for execution quality issues, including excessive requoting. Start with your broker’s customer service department, providing detailed documentation of requoting problems and requesting explanations for the incidents.

If initial broker responses are unsatisfactory, escalate complaints through formal channels outlined in your broker agreement. Many brokers have dedicated compliance departments that handle execution quality complaints and can provide more detailed explanations of their requoting policies and practices.

When to Escalate to Regulatory Authorities

Consider escalating requoting complaints to regulatory authorities when broker responses are inadequate or when you suspect deliberate manipulation of execution practices. Regulators take execution quality seriously and can investigate whether broker practices comply with applicable regulations.

Before contacting regulators, ensure you have comprehensive documentation of the requoting issues and evidence of your attempts to resolve the problems directly with the broker. Regulatory investigations require substantial evidence to support claims of inappropriate execution practices.

Strategic Trading Adjustments for Requote-Prone Environments

Avoiding High-Impact News Trading With Requote Risk

Traders operating in requote-prone environments should carefully consider the timing of their trading activities relative to high-impact news releases. The increased volatility and reduced liquidity surrounding major economic announcements create ideal conditions for frequent requoting.

Alternative approaches during news periods include using pending orders placed before announcements, avoiding trading entirely during high-volatility windows, or focusing on currency pairs less affected by specific economic releases. These adjustments can help maintain trading effectiveness while minimizing requoting frustration.

Position Entry Timing to Minimize Requoting

Strategic timing of position entries can significantly reduce requoting encounters. Focus on entering positions during high-liquidity periods when spreads are tight and market depth is substantial. Avoid entering positions during market transitions, low-volume periods, or immediately before scheduled economic releases.

Consider using staged entry approaches that spread larger positions across multiple smaller orders placed at different times. This technique reduces the market impact of individual orders and decreases the likelihood of requoting due to insufficient liquidity at any single price level.

Portfolio Allocation Considering Broker Execution Quality

Factor broker execution quality, including requoting frequency, into your overall portfolio allocation decisions. If your current broker frequently requotes certain currency pairs or during specific market conditions, consider reducing exposure to those situations or diversifying across multiple brokers with different execution characteristics.

Some traders maintain accounts with multiple brokers specifically to optimize execution quality for different trading strategies or market conditions. While this approach increases account management complexity, it can provide flexibility to choose the most appropriate execution environment for each trading opportunity.

Mastering Forex Execution: Your Path Forward

Requoting represents a significant challenge in forex trading that requires both understanding and strategic response. The key to managing requoting lies in recognizing its causes, choosing appropriate brokers and execution methods, and adjusting your trading approach to minimize its impact on your performance.

The forex market’s continuous evolution toward faster, more transparent execution models offers hope for traders frustrated by frequent requoting. As technology improves and regulatory oversight increases, brokers are increasingly motivated to provide better execution quality to remain competitive.

Your next step should be evaluating your current broker’s execution quality using the criteria outlined in this guide. Document any requoting patterns you experience, test alternative brokers through demo accounts, and consider adjusting your trading methods to work more effectively within your broker’s execution framework. Remember that successful forex trading requires adapting to market realities rather than fighting against them—and requoting, while frustrating, is simply another market reality that skilled traders learn to navigate effectively.