Reducing latency between your VPS and broker

Latency is the round-trip time between your terminal and your broker's trade server. Lower is better, especially for scalping, news trading and arbitrage-style EAs.

What determines it

• Physical distance to the broker's server — the biggest factor.
• Network quality and peering between the data center and the broker.
• Server load — a contended VPS adds processing delay.

How to keep it low

• Pick the location closest to your broker's servers (many are in NY4 or LD4).
• Ask your broker where their MT4/MT5 servers are hosted.
• Use a VPS with dedicated CPU so your EA isn't waiting on a busy host.
• Check your ping in MetaTrader's bottom-right connection indicator.