Latency is the time an order takes to travel from your terminal to your broker's trade server and back. Distance is the biggest factor you control, so the main step is simple: run your terminal in the location closest to your broker's servers. Here is how to choose a location and measure the result.
What latency matters
Two different connections are involved:
- Your device → the VPS (Remote Desktop): affects how smooth the screen feels. It has no effect on order execution.
- The VPS → your broker's trade server: this is where your orders travel. This is the number to keep low.
1. Find where your broker's servers are
- Check your broker's website or help pages; many state the data centre city of their trade servers.
- Ask the broker's support team which city your account's trade server (for example
BrokerName-Live3) is hosted in. - Common hubs for trading servers include London, New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, but always confirm with your broker.
2. Choose the nearest server location
Pick the one closest to your broker's trade server, not the one closest to you.
Tip: If you trade with several brokers in different regions, consider one server per region rather than one server far from all of them.
3. Measure from the VPS
Run these on the VPS itself, in your RDP session.
MetaTrader's own reading: the bottom-right corner of the terminal shows the connection status and the ping to the trade server in milliseconds. Click it to see the list of your broker's servers and their pings, and switch to the fastest one.
ping: if you know the trade server's hostname or IP address (your broker can tell you), run:
ping -n 20 trade.example-broker.comLook at the Average at the end. Some brokers block ping; if every request times out, rely on the MetaTrader reading instead.
Test-NetConnection: checks the path to the trade server's port when ping is blocked (MetaTrader commonly uses port 443; your broker can confirm):
Test-NetConnection trade.example-broker.com -Port 443tracert: shows each hop between the VPS and the broker. Useful to send to support if latency suddenly jumps:
tracert trade.example-broker.com4. Keep the terminal itself responsive
A busy server adds its own delay. Keep CPU and memory well below their limits (guide), close charts you do not need, and avoid back-testing on the server that runs your live EAs.
Troubleshooting
- Ping suddenly much higher than usual: run
tracertand compare with an earlier result, then open a support ticket with both, plus the time. - MetaTrader shows a high ping on one server only: use the server list in the status bar to pick another of your broker's servers.