Section 8 · The MEV sandwich attack

The MEV sandwich attack — step 3 of 3

Step 3 of 3

MEV bot buys just before you

→

Your buy executes at a worse price

→

Bot sells into your buy

Defence: tight slippage, a private / MEV-protected RPC, and smaller clips.

Market swaps are the default on DEXs; they execute immediately at whatever price is available, which is what exposes you to a sandwich.
Limit orders/stop-losses/take-profits are “soft” orders layered on top by terminals — they watch price and fire a market order when triggered.
Sniping is a bot game: buying in the same block a token launches or a liquidity pool is created, before a human can react.
Copy trading mirrors a chosen wallet’s trades automatically — you inherit its edge, its fees, and its mistakes.
Exiting is the hard part: the same thin liquidity that gave you a cheap entry gives you a brutal exit once size and slippage add up.