Field manual 11 · Hermes Legion University
Slippage & Price Impact
A transaction can succeed and still be a bad fill
Understand the difference between slippage tolerance and price impact, why thin meme coin markets amplify both, and what to review before swapping.
Short answer
Price impact is the market movement caused by the size of your own trade. Slippage tolerance is the amount of adverse movement you permit between quote and execution. Increasing tolerance may help a transaction land, but it cannot create liquidity and can accept a worse fill. Review both values separately.
Price impact comes from your own size
Price impact is the change in the quoted market caused by consuming available liquidity. The larger your trade is relative to the pool, the worse the average fill can become. It exists before anyone front-runs the transaction and should be checked at the exact amount you plan to trade.
Slippage protects against movement after the quote
Slippage tolerance defines how far execution may move from the quoted result before the swap fails. Volatility, delay, competing transactions, and route changes can all affect the final result. A very tight setting can fail repeatedly; a very loose setting can accept far less favorable execution. Neither setting repairs thin liquidity.
Test the route in both directions
Compare the expected output for several sizes and test the reverse route before entering. Include platform, creator, liquidity-provider, priority, and network costs where applicable. Official Jupiter documentation exposes route, minimum-output, fee, slippage, and price-impact information because execution quality is more than the chart price.
Practical field note
Separate the two costs in your notes
Record the quoted price impact before submission. Separately record the minimum acceptable output implied by slippage tolerance. After confirmation, compare the actual result. This prevents every bad fill from being blamed on “slippage” and shows whether order size, market movement, routing, or fees created the difference.
Common mistakes
Raising tolerance blindly
A transaction that lands at any price is not necessarily a successful transaction.
Ignoring quote age
Fast markets can make an otherwise reasonable quote stale before it reaches the chain.
Blaming impact on front-running
Your own order can move a thin pool even when no adversarial transaction occurs.
Field checklist
- Check price impact at the intended size
- Understand the minimum acceptable output
- Use current official route information
- Include every visible fee and network cost
- Test a smaller size when impact is excessive
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between slippage and price impact?+
Price impact comes from consuming liquidity with your order. Slippage describes movement between the quoted and executed result and the tolerance used to protect the trade.
Should I increase slippage when a swap fails?+
First determine why it failed and refresh the quote. Looser tolerance may accept materially worse execution and does not solve an incorrect token or inadequate liquidity.
Why test a reverse quote before buying?+
A reverse quote shows whether a practical route out exists and how much impact the planned position might create when sold.
Continue learning
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Primary documentation
Interfaces, fees, and routing systems change. Confirm current behavior in official documentation before acting.