What does ‘at best’ in forex mean?
In the context of forex trading, ‘at best’ refers to the execution of a trade at the most favorable available price. When placing an order with the ‘at best’ instruction, traders are essentially allowing the broker to execute the trade at the best possible price in the market at that moment.
This means that the actual execution price may be better or worse than the displayed price at the time of order placement. Traders use the ‘at best’ option to ensure swift execution and to take advantage of potential price movements.
Example for ‘at best’ in forex
Let’s say you are a forex trader and you want to buy the EUR/USD currency pair at a specific price of 1.2000. However, due to market volatility, the price quickly moves higher to 1.2010, and your order gets executed “at best”. This means that instead of buying at your desired price of 1.2000, you end up buying at the best available price of 1.2010.
In this case, you paid more for the currency than you had hoped for, as the market moved against you.
On the other hand, in case you want to sell the GBP/USD currency pair at a specific price of 1.4000. The market is currently trading at 1.3990, but due to favorable market conditions, the price quickly drops to 1.3980. Your order gets executed “at best”, meaning you end up selling at the best available price of 1.3980.
In this case, you sold the currency pair at a better price than you had initially anticipated, resulting in a higher profit for you.