A shop sells you gold for $100 but buys it back for $97. The gap is the shop fee. In trading, that gap is the spread. If you buy and sell right away, you lose the gap. Drag the gap to see it.

Gold always has two prices: the ask, where you buy, and the bid, where you sell. The ask is the higher one. For example, ask 4,150.30 and bid 4,150.00.

The gap between ask and bid is the spread, and it is how the broker gets paid. 0.30 on gold is 3 pips, which is about $3 on a 0.10 lot. Spreads vary by broker and by time of day.

You buy at the ask but could only sell at the bid, so every trade starts a little in the red. Price has to move the spread in your favour just to break even.

Slippage is when your order fills at a different price from the one you clicked. It happens when price moves fast, like during big news. You asked for 4,150.30 and got 4,150.80: 5 pips, about $5 on a 0.10 lot. It can sometimes work in your favour too.

Spread is the built-in cost of every trade. Slippage is a price that moves before you fill. Figures are illustrative.