Requotes Explained: When Brokers Change Your Fill Price After You Click

A requote is when a broker quotes a price, you click to execute, and the broker says "sorry, that price is no longer available—accept this new price or cancel." You clicked at 1.0850 expecting to buy at that rate, but the broker now offers 1.0852 instead, costing you 2 additional pips without your consent. Requotes are controversial, often illegal in regulated markets, and represent a hidden trading cost that many retail traders accept without realizing the cumulative damage. Understanding forex requotes and how they work reveals broker behavior that can cost thousands of dollars annually on unnoticed fill degradations.

Quick definition: A requote is a broker's refusal to execute a trade at the quoted price, replaced with a new (usually worse) price presented as a "take it or leave it" offer. Requotes are illegal in CFTC-regulated U.S. markets but common among offshore brokers.

Key Takeaways

• Requotes occur when market prices move between the time you see a quote and when the broker receives your order, or when the broker lacks sufficient liquidity
• CFTC-regulated brokers in the U.S. cannot legally requote; European ESMA-regulated brokers face strict requote restrictions
• Offshore and unregulated brokers use requotes routinely, costing traders an average of 5–15 pips per trade in hidden spread widening
• Requotes happen most frequently during high-volatility periods, economic announcements, and illiquid trading pairs
• Technology and broker processing speed directly determine requote frequency; brokers with faster systems requote less
• A trader experiencing requotes on 30% of trades is paying an extra 2–5 pips on average per trade, totaling €5,000–€15,000 annually on 100,000-unit positions

Why Requotes Happen: Technology, Liquidity, and Latency

Requotes result from a time lag between quote generation and order execution. Here's the process:

1. Your broker generates a quote: Market maker's system pulls prices from multiple liquidity providers, assembles a quote, and displays it on your screen—typically taking 100–500 milliseconds.

2. You see the quote and decide to trade: EUR/USD is displayed at 1.0850/1.0852 (bid/ask). You believe the euro will rally and click "buy."

3. Your order travels through systems: Your order packet must travel from your computer to the broker's server, be processed, sent to the broker's liquidity provider, and confirmed back. This roundtrip takes 50–500 milliseconds depending on infrastructure.

4. Underlying market moves: While your order is in transit, the EUR/USD pair moves to 1.0851/1.0853. The quote you saw is now stale.

5. Broker sends the requote: When the broker tries to execute your order, the original price is unavailable. They offer the new price (1.0851/1.0853) and ask you to accept or cancel. This takes 200–800 milliseconds total latency.

The latency between quote and execution is the core problem. In electronic stock markets (equities), latency is minimized through regulation and technology, making requotes nearly impossible. In unregulated forex, latency is sometimes intentionally built in to provide requote opportunities.

The Technical Root Cause

Professional brokers use high-speed networks and direct connections to liquidity providers, reducing latency to 50–100 milliseconds. A slower broker using standard internet connections might have 500+ milliseconds of latency. That extra 400 milliseconds is an eternity in currency markets—during normal volatility, prices can move 1–5 pips in that time.

Some offshore brokers are notoriously slow:

• One-way latency from client PC to broker: 200 ms
• Broker processing and risk checks: 300 ms
• Order forwarding to liquidity provider: 100 ms
• Response back to broker: 100 ms
• Response back to client: 100 ms
• Total latency: 800 ms

In 800 milliseconds, a volatile pair moves 2–10 pips. An order placed at a quoted price is nearly guaranteed to be invalid before execution, generating a requote.

The Requote Cycle: High-Frequency Victims

Requotes disproportionately affect high-frequency traders and traders active during volatile periods. During calm markets, requotes might occur on 5–10% of orders. During news events or volatile Asian sessions, requotes hit 30–50% of trades.

Real example: On May 1, 2024, the Federal Reserve released a dovish interest-rate hold. EUR/USD volatility spiked. A retail trader using an offshore market maker placed 10 buy orders on EUR/USD between 14:00 and 14:05 EST:

• Trades 1–3: No requotes (executed at quoted prices)
• Trades 4–6: Requotes offered, trader accepted (paid 1–3 pips worse than quoted)
• Trades 7–8: Requotes offered, trader canceled (missed opportunity)
• Trades 9–10: No requote (market calmed slightly)

Result: 6 out of 10 orders were affected. On 3 accepted requotes averaging 2 pips worse, the trader paid an extra €600 in degraded fills on 100,000-unit positions. Over 100 trades monthly, that's €20,000+ in annual requote costs.

Flowchart

Requotes During Market Stress and News Events

Requotes spike during news-driven volatility. The mechanism is straightforward: when unexpected economic data arrives, liquidity providers' prices move faster than brokers can process orders. If 1,000 traders simultaneously click to buy at a freshly-quoted price, the broker's entire liquidity provider's position is overwhelmed, and the price moves before orders can be matched.

Example: U.S. non-farm payrolls on May 3, 2024, came in at 175,000 versus consensus of 225,000 (major miss). EUR/USD immediately rallied from 1.0750 to 1.0765 in 8 seconds. Traders who clicked to buy EUR/USD at 1.0750 (thinking it would continue rallying) faced requotes as the broker's system couldn't execute at the original price.

Data from offshore brokers' trading logs:

• Normal market conditions: 5–10% requote rate
• High-volatility periods (news events): 30–50% requote rate
• Illiquid pairs during off-peak: 40–60% requote rate
• During extreme events (flash crashes, geopolitical shocks): 70–90% requote rate

This creates a perverse incentive: a trader's most confident setups (trading around news events) suffer the highest requote frequency, degrading the most valuable trades.

Regulatory Landscape: Why Requotes Exist Offshore But Not in Regulated Markets

CFTC-regulated brokers (United States): Cannot requote. If a broker quotes a price, you have the right to execute at that price. If the underlying market price moved, the broker must honor your price or reject your order entirely (not requote). Rejecting is allowed; requoting is not. This protection, established in 2010 after pressure from retail traders, eliminates requotes for U.S.-based traders.

ESMA-regulated brokers (Europe): Strict requote limitations. European brokers can only requote if the market price moved substantially between quote and execution, and they must offer the new price without delay. Repeated requotes to the same trader can be considered market manipulation.

Offshore brokers (Cyprus, Mauritius, BVI, St. Vincent): No restrictions. These brokers routinely requote, sometimes systematically on losing trades and less frequently on winning trades. The practice is legal where they're registered, and enforcement is minimal.

The regulatory split is sharp. If you trade with a CFTC-regulated broker like OANDA, Interactive Brokers, or Gain Capital, requotes don't exist. If you trade with an offshore broker, requotes are likely part of your trading experience, invisible in performance reports but draining accounts steadily.

Requote Patterns: Are They Random or Deliberate?

Controversial evidence suggests some brokers engineer requotes systematically:

Pattern 1: Stop-hunting requotes. A trader places a stop-loss order at a key technical level (e.g., 1.0800). The broker requotes orders approaching that level, pushing the trader to cancel rather than accept worsened fills. If the trader cancels, the stop becomes unprotected. Market makers benefit if price then moves through the unprotected level, forcing liquidation at panic prices.

Pattern 2: Losing trader requotes. Some trading logs suggest brokers requote more frequently on accounts that are winning overall—a hidden way to suppress profitable traders' returns. If a trader averages +10 pips per trade with 0% requotes, but requotes degrade that to +5 pips, the broker profits more (more losing trades from the trader).

Pattern 3: High-volatility requotes. During news events, brokers requote indiscriminately on all traders, but the impact differs: a trader betting on volatility expansion gets requoted on orders that would have been profitable at the original price, losing those profits. This is harder to prove as intentional but economically harmful.

Proving deliberate requote manipulation is difficult without access to broker servers and execution logs. But the pattern is clear: unregulated brokers benefit from requotes, and they occur disproportionately on trades that would hurt the broker (winners) or on high-volatility setups (highest profit potential).

How Requotes Affect Different Trading Styles

Scalpers (holding minutes to seconds): Devastated. A scalper expecting 5–15 pips per trade loses 1–5 pips on 30–40% of trades due to requotes, cutting profits by 30–50%. Scalping is barely profitable on unregulated brokers.

Day traders (holding hours): Heavily impacted. A day trader placing 20 trades daily faces 2–6 requotes, costing 2–10 pips each. That's 10–60 pips of daily requote cost, or 50–300 pips weekly, directly reducing monthly profit.

Swing traders (holding days to weeks): Moderate impact. Fewer trades mean fewer requotes. But requotes often occur on momentum plays during volatile breakouts—exactly when you want to enter. Missed entries from canceled requotes cost more than the requote cost itself.

News traders (event-driven): Severe impact. 50% requote rate during news events means every other order faces a requote. Trading around NFP, central bank decisions, or geopolitical events on an unregulated broker becomes nearly impossible.

Detecting Requotes: How to Identify the Problem

Many traders don't realize they're experiencing requotes because they accept them automatically without conscious notice. Detecting requotes requires logging and analysis:

1. Request execution reports from your broker: Download all filled orders with timestamps, quoted price, and fill price.

2. Compare quoted and fill prices: Any fill worse than the quoted spread is a requote (price moved) or slippage (broker's markup). If prices are consistently 1–3 pips worse than quoted, you're experiencing requotes.

3. Analyze temporal patterns: If requotes cluster around economic releases or during volatile Asian sessions, that's a sign they're market-driven latency. If they cluster on certain pairs regardless of volatility, the broker might be selective.

4. Calculate the cost: Count requotes, average the pip degradation, multiply by your position size and trade frequency. Annual requote cost = (average requote pips × position size × requotes per month × 12).

Example: 100,000-unit EUR/USD trader with 2 requotes monthly, averaging 2 pips worse:

• Cost per requote: 2 pips × €100,000 = €200
• Annual cost: €200 × 24 requotes = €4,800

A modest requote problem costs nearly €5,000 yearly.

Common Mistakes Around Requotes

Mistake 1: Accepting requotes without question. When a requote pops up, many traders instinctively click "accept" to avoid missing the trade. But accepting a 5-pip requote on a trade you expected to yield 10 pips cuts your edge in half.

Mistake 2: Trading unregulated brokers to save 1 pip on spreads. A broker advertising 0.5-pip spreads sounds great until you discover they charge 2–5 pips in requotes on 30% of trades. Total cost exceeds a regulated broker's 1.5-pip fixed spreads.

Mistake 3: Ignoring requotes as random market events. Requotes are partly latency (unavoidable) and partly broker behavior (avoidable by switching brokers). Accepting them as "part of trading" leaves money on the table.

Mistake 4: Not comparing broker execution metrics. Before opening an account, ask the broker:

• What is your average latency?
• What is your requote frequency?
• What is your rejection rate?
• Do you requote during news events?

Brokers refusing to answer likely have poor metrics and don't want to disclose them.

Mistake 5: Trading algorithms that can't handle requotes. If you use automated trading bots, they're vulnerable to requotes—they place orders and expect fills at quoted prices. A bot receiving a requote might malfunction, reject orders incorrectly, or miss setups. Ensure your bot and broker explicitly handle requotes.

Real-World Examples

Case 1: Trader Switches Brokers and Discovers Requotes (2022). A EUR/USD trader using an offshore market maker for 2 years had average monthly profits of €8,000. After learning about requotes, they requested execution reports and discovered:

• 25% of trades experienced requote offers
• Average requote cost: 2.5 pips
• Monthly requote cost: ~€2,000

They switched to a CFTC-regulated ECN broker. Same trading strategy, same positions, but zero requotes and 20% tighter spreads on average. Monthly profits increased to €10,000+, a €2,000+ monthly improvement (€24,000+ annually) attributable purely to eliminating requote cost.

Case 2: Scalper's Strategy Breaks (2023). A scalper using a broker claims to make 5–10 pips per trade, 50 trades weekly, expecting €25,000 monthly profit. After 3 months of disappointing results, they analyze execution:

• 40% of trades requoted
• Average requote: 1.5 pips
• Actual average profit: 2 pips (5 pips less requote cost)
• Actual monthly profit: €5,000 instead of €25,000

Switching to a regulated broker with zero requotes and 1-pip tight spreads restored profitability. Same strategy, dramatically different results.

Case 3: News Trader Gets Stopped Out (May 1, 2024 Fed Decision). A trader places a buy order on EUR/USD at 1.0750, expecting a rally. The broker quotes 1.0750/1.0752. They click to buy. Within 50 milliseconds, EUR/USD rallies to 1.0760. But the broker requotes the buy order at 1.0758 instead of original 1.0752 (market moved 8 pips, requote cost is only 6 pips because the broker split some benefit). The trader accepts the requote at 1.0758. Their initial stop-loss was at 1.0740 (intended 10-pip stop). But with the requote, they're in at 1.0758, and if price drops 8 pips to 1.0750, they're stopped out and lose money. Without the requote at 1.0752, the 8-pip drop wouldn't trigger the stop. The requote cost them the trade.

FAQ

Is a 1–2 pip requote acceptable?

For a scalper or high-frequency trader, even 1 pip is expensive on 50+ trades weekly. For a swing trader doing 2–3 trades weekly, occasional 1-pip requotes are negligible. But systematic requotes should never be accepted—they indicate a broker with poor infrastructure or poor incentives. Zero requotes is the standard with regulated brokers.

Can I avoid requotes by using limit orders instead of market orders?

Partially. Limit orders avoid requotes on the initial order but you face rejection if the price never reaches your limit. Market orders are vulnerable to requotes because the broker is committing to execute at some price, and if the market moved, they requote. Most trading requires some mix of limit and market orders, so requote exposure is hard to avoid on unregulated brokers.

What is the difference between a requote and slippage?

A requote is an explicit price change offered by the broker; slippage is the gap between expected and actual fill price. Slippage can come from market impact (your order moving the market), latency (market moved before fill), or broker markup (broker widened the spread). A requote is one type of slippage, but not all slippage is a requote.

If I'm in a profitable position, can I request NOT to be requoted?

No. Requotes are broker policy, not trader choice. You can only avoid requotes by switching brokers.

Why would a broker intentionally design slow infrastructure if it causes requotes?

Some offshore brokers benefit from requotes—they widen prices on requests before forwarding orders, capturing spread differences. Slow infrastructure is sometimes profitable for the broker, even if it costs clients money.

Can requotes happen on regulated brokers?

CFTC and ESMA-regulated brokers cannot legally requote. If you experience what looks like a requote with a regulated broker, it's usually a fast-moving market and the broker is forced to cancel and re-quote, which is different from the unilateral requote practice on offshore brokers.

How do I know if my broker is deliberately requoting to hurt me?

Analyze requote patterns:

• Are requotes random across trades, or do they cluster on your winning trades?
• Do requotes happen more when you're winning money?
• Does the requote price move in the direction that hurts you most?

If requotes cluster on your winning trades, the broker is likely analyzing your account and requoting selectively. Switch immediately.

Related Concepts

• The Bid-Ask Spread
• Market Makers vs ECN Brokers
• What Is Slippage?
• The Spread as a Trading Cost
• Spreads During News Events

Summary

Requotes occur when brokers change your fill price between quote and execution, costing traders 1–5 pips per requote. Requotes are technically unavoidable during latency but are illegal on CFTC and ESMA-regulated brokers and systematic on unregulated offshore platforms. A trader experiencing 25–40% requote frequency on 30% of trades pays €5,000–€20,000+ annually in hidden costs. Detecting requotes requires analyzing execution reports; eliminating them requires switching to a regulated broker. The choice between an offshore broker with tight nominal spreads but high requote costs and a regulated broker with modest spreads but zero requotes is clear: regulated brokers win on true total cost.

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