Oanda Critics

[lbranjord]

Hey all,

Check this out. I know you've probably all read a million posts like this before but I just wanted to put it out there. Do these people really think that Oanda is seeking to hit the stops of each trader? Many of them with accounts less than 5,000. That being said, is it possible that Oanda tracks all their user's orders and trades against them to knock out stops? I don't think so. Oanda claims that the only way they trade currency at their non-retail level is hedging, so I guess it's possible.

Should a profitable trader worry about these kind of things? Or is this the Paranoia of those who lose repeatedly and pass the blame onto their broker?

Martin, USA
Rating:

Date of Post: 2009-03-01

Review: FOREX is Grimy just like POKER GAMES at times. Use that innate seedy nature to your Favor and account for the lack of fairness in your trading.....

Never forget you trade against the Market AND your broker. Both
want a piece of your pie.

In all due fairness, Oanda is better than most platforms. I have yet to find a platform that DOESNT stop hunt or incur slippage, BUT I have adjusted my trading methods and learned Some Neat Tricks:

1)Trade below the Radar. Never make a Max Amount TRADE!!!! Somehow Oanda's system can tell when you make a trade that can wipe out your margin in only 150 Pips and they do so! But interestingly enough market behavior is rather normal when smaller amounts are traded. This is why Oanda prob will never allow hedging. They wish to take out ur portfolio. It's easy money for them! You can trade a 100,000 lot easily, as long as your account states you have enough liquidity to make a 300,000 lot trade....remember this.

2)Initiate Dummy trades. This is similar to a "fake move" in sports. Trade $100 in ideal conditions (overbought/oversold) seeking to make a profit, but secretly expecting Oanda to back up your trading position even further. But Actually make your REAL TRADE a bit LATER. The market will make a slingshot effect and recoil in your favor, because prior -it backed up too far hoping to stop you out on your initial setup trade. I didn't plan these dirty tactics but learned them along the way to keep my trading plan at 80-85% accuracy.

3)Hedging on a sub account is a good idea. I just read about this idea on an earlier post. I'll have to add that to my arsenal when the market is ranging.

4)Cover your stop losses on ur entry point or slightly ahead Immediately after you go 1.7 - 2.5 Pips into the black. Every Time. If It reverses, You're still fine. You can always make another trade later. I consistently make 25-50 pips daily this way.

5) Stay away from major data releases. Out of 22 major data releases I've traded over 2years I've only made money ONCE. I've seen Oanda stop hunt, slip, or whatevre else you wana call it and reverse as much as 70-80 pips before the Prices went the way it was supposed to. Sometime the market wont move the way its supposed to for another 12-24 hours after the data release. Why? Brokers have to stop everyone out. Simple as that.
Trade in moderate volatility, never High or Choppy volatility, unless you just wish to give your money away.

 

[Shakone]

What a load of nonsense. The max size on Oanda is 10mill if I remember correctly. This guy is claiming that Oanda will try move the currency by 150 pips to take out your. 150 pips!! Get a grip.

For your broker to want to target your stops, then your position would have to be large enough so that it is bigger than all the others on Oanda with their stops in the other direction...and your position would have to be so large, that it was financially sound for them to spend huge amounts of money to move the market 150 pips, lol. Can't see it for 10mill size.

You always have the option of placing a hard stop far away, and exiting manually your REAL stop.

Oanda is just a tiny part of the market. Tiny. There are people with much larger positions than an Oanda client that traders DO actually want to stop out. And they may targte those stops. Only reason the retail trader thinks it is anything to do with him, is because people tend to put stops in familiar places.

Also this poster, says that if you move 1.7 pips into profit then move stop to breakeven. Do that, and you'll have almost every 'winning' trade as a breakeven, while your losine ones will take you out for the full stop loss. Not a good idea. Stop loss should be moved up as the position goes your way, but 1.7 pips...not nearly enough room.

Point number 5 is another nonsense. Because this guy can't trade news, doesn't mean others can't and do regularly. I can tell this poster doesn't have much understanding, because he/she writes things like "Sometime the market wont move the way its supposed to". It always moves the way it is supposed to.

 

[wackypete2]

This guy's post shows you why you need to understand the markets you trade in. Forex is different than equities in that it is unregulated. You are trading in a market with few rules against opponents with Billion-dollar arsenals and no ethics or morals. Many negative forex reviews come from traders who were lured by the promise of easy money and extreme leverage and have very little knowledge of the how the market actually works.

First of all brokers don't "hunt" for your stops. They know where the stops are since traders place stop orders with them. For semantics purposes lets call it stop running. Stop running is not done to beat an individual, it's done to knock out clusters of stops at the same price point. Think about this, if you place your stop exactly where the broker's free guide on forex trading tells you to, then everyone else (newbies) also place their stops at that exact point... and then you all get stopped out. No wonder the broker offers free trading advice. See what I'm getting at?

2nd, not all brokers or bucketshops run the stops. More often than not this is done by the large financial institutions who also know where amateur traders place stops. Here's an easy way to tell: if you get stopped out check the charts on at least 2 other platforms. If all three platforms show very similar price movement then you can be reasonably sure it wasn't your broker. If your broker's chart shows a spike that is not on the other platforms or the spread widens inexplicably and stops you out, then your broker has played you. RUN fast and get a new broker.

Finally, news trading is best left to the advanced/experienced traders. It can be lucrative but it can also slice you and dice you faster than you can say "uncle"

Peter

 

[episteme]

an SB moving the forex market in order to take out an individual trader. If people are stupid enough to believe that then they are stupid enough to blow the account on their own without any help from others.

I particularly like point 2. The $100 fake out. (I don't even think he means pp either) The market will fall for that every time.

First time I have genuinly LOL around here. :cheesy:

 

[SvenFoster]

LOL this is the funnest thing I've read for ages.. thanks lbranjord!!!

 

[ForexAbode]

"I am the victim?" ... A very old way of putting the blame on someone for our failures. The guys should get a grip and really do a continuous failure analysis if they are failing continuously.

I have been trading with Oanda for many many years because I find them good.