> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dawn.trade/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Trades Execute

> Slippage, price impact, MEV protection and how hard your trades bid to land.

Four settings decide how a trade behaves between your tap and the fill. All four belong to the **profile**, so each profile can execute differently.

## Slippage

Slippage is **how far the price may move against you** between quoting and filling. Past that line, the trade is refused and your USDC is returned rather than filled at a worse price.

|         |                                                                    |
| ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Default | **15%**                                                            |
| Range   | 0.1% – 50%                                                         |
| Presets | 5% · 10% · 15% · 20% · 30%                                         |
| Where   | `/settings` → Trading → Slippage, or **change** on the token panel |

It cuts both ways:

* **Higher** — more trades go through, and some of them at a price you would not have chosen.
* **Lower** — a better price when you fill, and fast-moving coins bounce more often.

<Tip>
  Slippage is a limit, not a target. Setting 30% does not mean you pay 30% more; it means you have agreed to fill anywhere up to that. On a calm pool you will usually fill far inside it.
</Tip>

### Slippage is not price impact

**Slippage** is the market moving while your trade is in flight — other people's trades.

**Price impact** is *your own* trade moving the price, because you are buying a meaningful share of a pool. It is set by the size of your trade against the liquidity available, and no setting makes it go away.

The **Liq** percentage on the [token panel](/trading/token-panel#the-market-block) is the figure to watch for impact.

## Liquidity protection

Dawn refuses a buy that would move the price by more than **30%**. That is a floor under how badly a thin pool can treat you, and it is on unless you turn it off.

[Degen Mode](/settings/guardrails#degen-mode) removes it and raises slippage to 100%, which means a buy goes through however far it moves the price. Sells keep your normal slippage either way.

## MEV protection

**On by default. Solana only.**

A public Solana transaction can be seen before it lands, which lets a bot buy in front of you, let your trade push the price up, and sell into it — a sandwich. You get a worse fill and they take the difference.

With MEV protection on, your swaps go through a **private lane** instead, so nobody sees the trade in time to trade in front of it.

The EVM chains do not have this option; leaving it on costs nothing there.

<Note>
  Protection is about visibility, not speed. In a fast market the price can still move between your tap and your fill — that is what [slippage](#slippage) covers.
</Note>

## Gas preset

How hard your trades **bid to land fast and protected**.

| Preset       | Behaviour                                            | When it suits                                 |
| ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- |
| 🐢 **Low**   | Cheapest, and can be slower when the network is busy | A quiet chain, and you are not racing anyone  |
| ⚡ **Medium** | Balanced — **default**                               | Almost everything                             |
| 🚀 **High**  | Bids hardest to land in contested blocks             | A launch, where landing in this block matters |

A higher bid does not improve your price. It improves your odds of landing in a block while there is competition for space — which, in a fast market, amounts to the same thing.

Dawn pays this gas for you, up to [\$5 per trade](/fees#gas). The preset changes what Dawn bids, not what you pay, unless the cost goes over the cap — see [Gas Surplus](/settings/guardrails#gas-surplus).

## Putting it together

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="A quiet, deep-liquidity coin" icon="circle-check" horizontal>
    Low slippage, Medium gas. You will fill close to the quote.
  </Card>

  <Card title="A launch, minutes old" icon="fire" horizontal>
    Higher slippage, High gas, small size. Expect impact and expect some trades to bounce.
  </Card>
</Columns>