Spread Widening and Slippage During News

Spread widening and slippage are two practical risks that intensify sharply around major news releases, and understanding them is important for anyone considering trading through scheduled events.

The spread is the gap between the price at which you can buy and the price at which you can sell an asset at a given moment. Under normal conditions this gap is usually narrow, but liquidity providers often widen spreads sharply in the seconds around high-impact news, as uncertainty about the "correct" price increases temporarily.

• Slippage occurs when an order is filled at a different price than expected, which becomes more likely and often more severe during fast-moving, low-liquidity conditions right after a release.
• Stop-loss orders are not always guaranteed to execute at the exact price specified during periods of high volatility, since prices can gap or move rapidly past a specified level.
• Some brokers or platforms may temporarily adjust margin requirements or trading conditions around known high-impact events.