How it works
You click buy at the displayed ask price. Between your click and the broker’s confirmation, the underlying market moves. On an ECN, this becomes slippage: you get filled at whatever the new price is. On a market-maker venue, the broker sometimes pulls the original quote and offers you a new one. You see a popup asking you to confirm the new price. By the time you respond, the market may have moved again.
Example
You click buy on EUR/USD at 1.0856 right before NFP release. The market gaps. Broker pops a requote at 1.0862, 6 pips worse. You have 5 seconds to accept or reject. Accept and you start the trade 6 pips in the red. Reject and you miss the move entirely. Either path is bad.
When requotes happen
- High-impact news releases (NFP, CPI, central bank decisions)
- Market open and close, especially Sunday open
- Low-liquidity exotic pairs at any time
- When your order is large relative to the visible book
Why it matters
A broker that requotes regularly is using requote as a one-sided option against you: they fill when the price moves in their favour and refuse when it moves in yours. Modern best-execution venues either fill at the next available price (slippage, both directions) or reject cleanly. Requotes are a tell that the broker is keeping the better-edge side of the trade. ECN routing eliminates them by design.
