Gap Level Regulation is used to limit slippage for pending orders and is applied when the price of your pending order falls inside a price gap due to volatility or other factors.
Gap Level Regulation applies to the following account types: Standard Cent, Standard, Pro, Standard Plus, Raw Spread, and Zero accounts.
- What is Gap Level?
- When is Gap Level Regulation applied?
- Which accounts and instrument groups is Gap Level Regulation applied to?
Gap Level values for common currency pairs
Examples of Gap Level Regulation
What is Gap Level?
Gap Level represents the difference in pips between the requested price of a pending order and the first market price after a gap.
Different trading instruments have different Gap Level values. (Refer to the table below for Gap Level values.)
When is Gap Level Regulation applied?
Gap Level Regulation is applied when the requested price specified in your pending order falls within the gap. According to this regulation, if the difference in pips between the first market price (after the gap) and the requested price of your order is equal to or exceeds a certain number of pips (Gap Level) for a particular instrument, your order will be executed at the first market price after the gap. If the difference is less than the Gap Level, your order will be executed at your requested price.
Which accounts and instrument groups is Gap Level Regulation applied to?
Gap Level Regulation is applied to the following instruments:
- all currency pairs with suffix -c (Standard Cent account)
- all currency pairs with suffix -m (Standard account) including Crypto, Energies, Stocks and Indices.
- all currency pairs with suffix -z (Zero account) including Crypto, Energies, Stocks and Indices.
- all currency pairs with no suffix (Pro account, Raw Spread, and Standard Plus) Crypto, Energies, Stocks and Indices.
Gap Level values for some common currency pairs:
| Trading instrument | Gap Level (in pips) |
|---|---|
| USDCHF | 10 |
| USDJPY | 8 |
| USDCAD | 10 |
| GBPJPY | 15 |
| GBPUSD | 7 |
| GBPCHF | 12 |
| GBPAUD | 10 |
| GBPNZD | 24 |
| GBPCAD | 15 |
| EURAUD | 12 |
| EURUSD | 8 |
| EURJPY | 10 |
| EURGBP | 8 |
| EURCHF | 10 |
| EURNZD | 24 |
| EURCAD | 8 |
| AUDUSD | 10 |
| AUDJPY | 8 |
| AUDNZD | 8 |
| AUDCAD | 8 |
| CADJPY | 8 |
| CADCHF | 8 |
| NZDUSD | 16 |
| NZDCAD | 8 |
| NZDJPY | 8 |
| XAGUSD | 40 |
| XAUUSD | 3 x spread** |
| BTCUSD | 3 x spread** |
*Gap Level values are subject to change. Changes affect new and existing pending orders.
**Spread used is at the time of order execution. Please see Example 2 below.
For Zero trading accounts: XAUUSD has a gap value of 3 x spread even though this account features zero spread on most instruments most of the time. Trading accounts that charge transaction costs not only through spread but also through a separate commission operation are subject to a spread-based gap level calculation that uses “real spread” (calculated: spread cost + one-side commission cost = real spread). Real spread is used to evaluate spread-based gap level value. As a result, Pro and Zero account gap levels will be the same as ‘Pro spread cost’, which is equal to ‘Zero spread cost + Zero one-side commission’; so the real spread used for gap level calculation is the same for Pro and Zero accounts. See below for an example of this.
Examples of Gap Level Regulation
Example 1:
You place a Buy Stop order for EURUSD at the price 1.30560 under a Pro account. Then, a price gap appears. The last Ask price before the gap was 1.30550, and the first Ask price right after the gap was 1.30620. To determine the price that your Buy Stop order will be executed at, you need to find the difference in pips between the first Ask price after the gap and the price you specified in your order:
(1.30620 - 1.30560) = 0.00060 = 6 pips.
Now, check the table to find the Gap Level value for the instrument you are trading - in this case EURUSD, which is 8 pips.
Since 6<8, as per the Gap Level Regulation, your Buy Stop order will be executed at the price you specified in your order, 1.30560. This means that your order will be executed at a price which is 6 pips more profitable than the current market price.
Example 2:
Imagine you placed a Stop Loss on a Buy XAUUSD order at 1817.635 under a Pro account. A price gap appeared and the last Bid price before the gap was 1817.730, and the first Bid price after the gap was 1814.730. The Ask price at this time is 1815.030.
Spread = (Ask Price - Bid Price) / Pip Size
= (1815.030 - 1814.730) / 0.01
= 30 pips
Therefore, the gap level value for XAUUSD at the moment will be 3 x 30 = 90 pips
To find the price that your Buy order will be closed at, you need to check the difference in pips between the first Bid price after the gap and the price you specified in your order:
(1817.635 — 1814.730) / 0.01 =290.5 pips.
Since 290.5 > 90, as per the Gap Level Regulation, your Buy order will be executed at a Stop Loss of 1814.730.
This example applies to gap level calculations for BTCUSD as well.
Zero account example:
Example 3 (Zero account):
You place a Buy Limit on a Buy XAUUSDz order at 1780.000 under a Zero account. A price gap appears and the last Ask price before the gap was 1784.090, and the first Ask price after the gap was 1778.590. The Bid price at this time is 1778.590 (zero spread).
One-side commission per lot is 8 USD.
Gap level = (3 x "real spread") / Pip size = (3 x (spread cost + one side commission)) / (lots x contract size x pip size) = (3 x (0+8)) / (1 x 100 x 0.01) = 24 / 1 = 24 pips.
To find the price that your Buy order will be opened at, you need to check the difference in pips between the first Ask price after the gap and the price you specified in your order:
(1780.000 — 1778.590) / 0.01 = 141 pips.
Since 141 > 24, as per the Gap Level Regulation, your Buy order will be opened at 1778.590.