What is Slippage?

Within a financial context, slippage refers to the difference between the expected price of a trade relative to the actual price at which the trade is executed. Slippage generally occurs when an investor buys or sells an asset on a platform with poor liquidity and low trading volume. If there is a large gap between the bid-ask price on an exchange's order book, the asset purchaser may end up paying more for an asset or receive less of the asset than expected once the trade has been executed.