You see a price, you hit sell, and the fill comes back a shade worse than the screen said. That gap is slippage in futures trading, and it grows with order size, so a $100,000 order rarely fills theYou see a price, you hit sell, and the fill comes back a shade worse than the screen said. That gap is slippage in futures trading, and it grows with order size, so a $100,000 order rarely fills the
Learn/Trading Guide/Trading Concepts/Why Does a $100K Order Fill Worse Than $10K? Slippage in Futures Trading Explained
Why Does a $100K Order Fill Worse Than $10K? Slippage in Futures Trading Explained
You see a price, you hit sell, and the fill comes back a shade worse than the screen said.
That gap is slippage in futures trading, and it grows with order size, so a $100,000 order rarely fills the way a $10,000 order does.
This guide shows how much, using TokenInsight's August 2026 measurements of MEXC's stock futures and MEXC's October 28, 2026 order-book comparison.
Key Takeaways
- Slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the average price your order filled at, and it is not a fee.
- A market order eats resting orders level by level, so a $100,000 order reaches deeper into the book than a $10,000 order.
- Measured against the mid price, slippage already includes the effect of the bid-ask spread, so do not add the spread on top.
- Median slippage is the typical fill, P90 is the fill one order in ten is worse than, and P90 matters more the bigger you trade.
- In TokenInsight's August 2026 five-exchange sample (weekdays, July 29 to August 6, 2026), MEXC had the lowest median slippage on three of five stock futures at both $10,000 and $100,000, and did not lead the other two.
- In MEXC's own comparison against four other major centralized exchanges, averaged over three days to October 28, 2026, a $100,000 AAPL order showed $1.66 of simulated one-way slippage cost against $14.27 on the best other book.
What is slippage in futures trading?
Slippage in futures trading is the gap between the price you expected when you placed an order and the average price it filled at, and it has two causes: the price moving in the moment before the fill, and an order big enough to eat through several price levels of the book.
MEXC's Futures market order FAQ uses the same definition and names both causes.
Take a made-up book with a best bid of $99.99 and a best ask of $100.01, so the mid price is $100.00.
A market order to buy starts filling at the ask, $100.01, not the mid price.
Why does order size change slippage?
Order size changes slippage because a market order fills against whatever rests in the book, level by level, from the best ask for a buy or the best bid for a sell, so a small order can be filled by the first level or two while a large order must reach further out.
The orders at the best bid and ask are the touch, the only ones that fill at the price you saw; the size behind them is the near-touch depth.
A $10,000 order on a liquid contract usually clears inside the touch; a $100,000 order keeps walking, and each extra level drags the average fill further out.
Slippage runs both ways: a fill better than the quote is positive slippage, a worse one negative.
How is the spread different from slippage?
The spread is the gap between the best bid and the best ask at one moment, while slippage is the gap between your average fill and the reference price you measure it from, so the spread describes the book before you trade and slippage describes what your order paid.
On the $99.99 to $100.01 book, the bid-ask spread is two cents, and a market buy filled at $100.01 shows one cent of slippage against the $100.00 mid price, half the spread.
A mid-price reading already holds the spread, so adding it again counts it twice, while a best-bid or best-ask reading leaves it out.
Check which one a report used.
What is average two-sided slippage?
Average two-sided slippage is the simulated slippage of a buy and of a sell of the same size, added together and divided by two, so one figure describes both sides of the book instead of only the side that looks better at that moment.
Two-sided slippage = (buy slippage + sell slippage) ÷ 2.
The figure is still a simulated snapshot, not the cost of a real open or close.
How do you calculate slippage on a market order?
To calculate slippage on a market sell, subtract your average fill from the reference price, the best bid you saw or the mid price, then divide by that reference price; for a buy, subtract the reference price from your fill, and the result is a percentage, so orders of different sizes compare.
On the book above, a market sell averaging $99.95 against the $100.00 mid price shows a $0.05 gap, or 0.05%.
In dollars, slippage cost = order size × slippage in basis points ÷ 10,000, where one basis point is 0.01%.
In MEXC's own comparison of order-book snapshots against four other major centralized exchanges, averaged over three days to October 28, 2026, simulated slippage is the average of a buy and a sell against the snapshot mid-price, excluding fees and funding; each MEXC figure is set against the best of the four on that asset and size, and every figure is one side, so a round trip is twice it.
In that October 28, 2026 comparison, a $100,000 AAPL order showed $1.66 of simulated one-way slippage cost on MEXC against $14.27 on the best of the four other books.
$14.27 minus $1.66 is $12.61, an 88% saving.
That comparison and every 2026 third-party rank, including where MEXC did not lead, sit on MEXC's liquidity scoreboard across the 2026 reports.
What do median and P90 slippage tell you?
Median slippage tells you the typical fill, the level half of the sampled orders slipped less than, while P90 slippage tells you the tail, the level one order in ten slipped more than, so the median is a normal day and P90 the bad one.
A venue can post a tight median because most fills land near the quote, then hurt you on the one order in ten that meets a thin book.
Read both, and weight the P90 more the bigger you trade.
How much slippage do stock futures actually show?
MEXC's stock futures showed median slippage of 0.0008% to 0.0024% on $10,000 simulated sell orders and 0.0112% to 0.0170% at $100,000 on the three contracts it led, measured by TokenInsight across five centralized exchanges on weekdays from July 29 to August 6, 2026.
The figures come from TokenInsight's equity perpetuals report of August 26, 2026.
MEXC led SPCX, SOXL and SK hynix at both sizes, and its $100,000 P90s on those three were also the lowest in TokenInsight's five-exchange sample for July 29 to August 6, 2026.
In the same five-exchange sample for July 29 to August 6, 2026, MEXC placed third on INTC and second on SNDK at $100,000, so it did not lead those two.
Stock future | $10,000 median | $10,000 P90 | $100,000 median | $100,000 P90 | MEXC led the sample? |
SPCX | 0.00% | 0.01% | 0.01% | 0.02% | Yes, both sizes |
SOXL | 0.00% | 0.01% | 0.01% | 0.03% | Yes, both sizes |
SK hynix | 0.00% | 0.01% | 0.02% | 0.02% | Yes, both sizes |
INTC | 0.01% | 0.02% | 0.02% | 0.05% | No |
SNDK | 0.00% | 0.01% | 0.02% | 0.05% | No |
MEXC's October 28, 2026 comparison adds a second set: eight of the twenty sampled stock futures at $100,000, one side, with MEXC's simulated cost lower on all eight.
Stock future | MEXC | Best of 4 other exchanges | MEXC pays less by | Saving |
AAPL | $1.66 | $14.27 | $12.61 | 88% |
MSFT | $6.80 | $21.45 | $14.65 | 68% |
TSLA | $3.92 | $14.13 | $10.21 | 72% |
AMD | $9.91 | $19.39 | $9.48 | 49% |
SPY | $1.00 | $3.90 | $2.89 | 74% |
SPCX | $3.44 | $9.47 | $6.03 | 64% |
NVDA | $4.28 | $9.18 | $4.91 | 53% |
QQQ | $1.03 | $6.12 | $5.09 | 83% |
The two sets differ in source and window, third-party simulated sells to August 6, 2026 versus MEXC's two-sided comparison to October 28, 2026, so one cannot be converted into the other.
Both are snapshots; neither promises the same saving on the next trade.
What else affects your fill?
Slippage is not the only quality of a fill: fill rate is how much of the order traded, execution speed is whether it completed in time, and market impact and resilience are how far your order pushed the price and how fast resting liquidity came back afterward.
Factor | What it measures |
Fill rate | Share of the order that filled |
Execution speed | Whether the order completed in time |
Market impact and resilience | How far the order moved the price, and how fast liquidity returned |
What does "what you see is what you get" mean in an order book?
"What you see is what you get" in an order book means the price on your screen is the price your order fills at, which only holds when enough resting orders sit at the best bid or ask to absorb your whole order before the price moves.
On weekdays from July 29 to August 6, 2026, MEXC held a cumulative median depth of $0.52 million within 0.01% of the mid price across the five sampled stock futures, first in TokenInsight's five-exchange sample, with $2.81 million within 0.05% and $5.99 million within 0.10%, second at both.
Depth close to the touch keeps a small order inside the quote, so learn how depth charts show near-price depth before trading size.
How do you reduce slippage on MEXC?
You can reduce slippage on MEXC with a limit order, a split order, a look at the depth chart, the right take-profit and stop-loss mode, and by avoiding thin hours; none of the five adds a fee, and each trades speed for price control.
- Use a limit order: a limit order fills at your price or better, but it may not fill at all.
- Split large orders: MEXC's market order FAQ warns that an oversized market order may fill only partly, with the rest canceled, so use smaller orders or limit orders on thin pairs.
- Check the depth chart first, to see how much rests near the current price before sending size.
- Pick the right TP/SL mode: MEXC's take-profit and stop-loss FAQ notes that market TP/SL fills fast but can slip, while limit TP/SL holds your price but may not fill. Price Protection, in MEXC's futures preferences guide, rejects a triggered TP/SL order when the last price sits too far from the fair price.
- Mind the clock: stock futures thin out when the underlying stock market is closed, so read how liquidity changes when Wall Street is closed before you trade off-hours.
Slippage is one line of your total cost, and the guide to fees, slippage and total trading cost adds fees and funding over a round trip.
FAQ
What is slippage in crypto?
Slippage in crypto is the gap between the price you expected when you placed an order and the price it filled at.
What causes slippage in trading?
Slippage comes from the price moving before your order fills, or from an order big enough to eat through several levels.
Is slippage a fee?
Slippage is not a fee; it is a price difference baked into your average fill, on top of the venue's trading fee.
How much slippage is normal on stock futures?
In TokenInsight's August 2026 five-exchange sample, every exchange kept median slippage below 0.02% on $10,000 sells, and MEXC's $100,000 medians ran from 0.0112% to 0.0218%.
Is slippage worse on weekends?
Slippage can be worse on a weekend because the underlying stock market is closed and activity thins, and MEXC's trading hours vary by contract.
What is P90 slippage?
P90 slippage is the 90th-percentile reading in a sample, the level one order in ten slipped more than, so it measures tail risk.
What is two-sided slippage?
Two-sided slippage averages the simulated slippage of a buy and a sell of the same size into one figure, so a comparison cannot pick the kinder side.
What is the difference between spread and slippage?
The spread is the gap between the best bid and best ask before you trade, while slippage is the gap between your average fill and the reference price.
Does a limit order have slippage?
A limit order does not slip, since it fills at your price or better, but it can go unfilled.
Conclusion
The screen price is a promise the order book has to keep, and the bigger your order, the harder that promise gets.
MEXC's stock futures kept it on three of five contracts at both sizes in TokenInsight's five-exchange sample for July 29 to August 6, 2026, and on the eight popular stock futures shown at $100,000 in MEXC's October 28, 2026 comparison.
Check the depth chart, size your order to it, and test the live book first.
Trading crypto assets is high-risk; prices can be highly volatile and you may lose everything you put in. No security measure removes all risk, and MEXC does not promise principal protection or absolute security. This article is not investment advice.
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This article is provided by MEXC Learn Team for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets involve significant risk. Please conduct independent research or consult a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of MEXC or its affiliates.
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