Forex trading stories gives some traders the info that they need to make a large amount of cash with daytrading or scalping techiques, but for others it just seems to cause a giant wreck. take a look at your broker’s T&Cs if you want to trade around reports reports. Some will instantly close your currency trades on occasions of high volatility. Others will not allow you to open a new trade.
Many brokers will increase the spread at these times and you may not be told by how much. Higher spread can mean that you finish up losing on a trade where you presumed you made a profit, so it is very important to take this into account. The higher spread can be anywhere up to 5 times the ordinary spread for that currency pair.
Slippage happens when you don’t get the price that you saw on your screen. It is commoner with some brokers than others because it depends on their enterprize model and whether they have to cover the danger represented by your trade. With some market makers you can experience major slippage even in relatively stable times. The same is applicable to stop and limit orders : you’re much less likely to get the price you were expecting at these times. This could mean a system that worked well on back tests has very different ends up in real time.