Oanda

[FXSCALPER2]

If you have a winning method, I am certain you will make money trading with CMC. They freeze during news, but if you don't trade the news (like me), then you will almost always get the price you want and they always respect your stops and limits. All the best to you.

It will be interesting to see if CMC honour my trades now that I have a good and successful trading system in place. They have taken a fair bit of my wonga over the last couple of years and I want it back! Only problem is, nicking pips here and there at the moment due to work. Plan to do a full month soon so will post here how they play me... although I do plan to spread (no pun intended) my positions across brokers aswell to see how they all compare. As all I trade most of the time is cable I can focus on each system rather than looking for multiple opportunities, this should enable me to test each platform and decide where to stay/ who to slate. I'm not bothered about news trading, although if the opportunity is there then of course I'd get in.

Keep the info coming as I like to think it keeps them on their toes. I like the fact that a few do show up to answer for their companies mistakes, at least they look willing to help.

 

[Finlayson]

notouch, that is a very fair point

but something I learnt very early on & will say for the benefit of those searching is dont let your success & future success rely on the platform you are using

Jay

 

[Doctor Leo]

Wise words, Finlayson, I'll never rely upon a system which assumes any special technical requirements.

For me, it was very inconvenient to use IG's interface first, but I managed to get accustomed to it in, say, a week, and still feel quite comfortable. As to the impossibility of closing a part of a position - yes, it's true, but I consider it as a feature with which I can live quite happily. Of course someone else can't. And you have to have a dedicated line, preferably DSL or T1 for their platform is a real traffic-eater.

Back to Oanda - I finished up with them when they re-drew their hourly charts the next day and my friend who also had an account with Oanda saw the same chart as it had been the day before. It was too much for me. Not mentioning that I got no apologies from Oanda about that case.

As to the main advantage of IG - well, maybe someone remembers what I mentioned in my first post about the size which they execute instantly. Have anyone ever tried to open positions of that size in, say, Oanda or CMC, honestly?

 

[coolTrader]

I forgot to ask you: how are they consistently going to reject good trades and accept bad ones?

They dont. It is frustrating and sometimes you might want to adapt to a broker. The extra points they rejected can go a long way in offsetting some of the bad ones they offer.

If you have a good trading strategy. I am sure the success of the strategey is viewed over time.
If in that space of time some broker keeps fiddling with trades or prices, Your trading strategy is affected.

It may not cause you to loose but it will affect the upward increase of your account.

 

[JP1966]

They dont. It is frustrating and sometimes you might want to adapt to a broker. The extra points they rejected can go a long way in offsetting some of the bad ones they offer.

If you have a good trading strategy. I am sure the success of the strategey is viewed over time.
If in that space of time some broker keeps fiddling with trades or prices, Your trading strategy is affected.

It may not cause you to loose but it will affect the upward increase of your account.

IG used to be a great shop - own dedicated fx platform, instant fills in 10 million, work stops like a bank would etc etc. Sadly in the past 18 months they decided to change strategy and many of the experienced guys on the desk have now left.

They now close succesful accounts, put people on manual and act in a way that means they are not a viable choice.

 

[Doctor Leo]

Strange to hear that. Could you provide a bit more details? Esp. about "act in a way that means they are not a viable choice"?

 

[FXhotdogstand]

Oanda and what I think

Their EUR/USD spread varies from only 1 pip to 1.5 pips. Their pip spreads are the lowest in the industry. That's a fact. Their fills are the best in the industry, that's an opinion of most people who trade with them. Their trade lots flexibility is the only one in the industry. That's another fact. They have lots of "exotic" pairs available for trading. If you are a beginner, Oanda is one of the only brokers to offer a demo account, which never expires, where you can add or subtract money from your demo account to match it to the exact amount you want, and you can trade with it as big or small lot amounts as you want. Oanda by far has the most flexible platform out there, which lets the trader to be in control. You can manually switch leverages anywhere from 1:10 to 1:50

Regards
FXhotdogstand

 

[notouch]

It certainly isn't a fact that Oanda's EUR/USD spread varies from 1 to 1.5 pips. If you believe that you obviously are only trading a demo account. No one trading a live account could have failed to notice that spreads go as high as 15 pips on EUR/USD.

 

[Finlayson]

on a real account the spread on Eur$ is usually 1.5 & fairly consistant, it may go wider on most pairs during volitile news releases

Jay

 

[The Baptist]

And the winner is..........?

on a real account the spread on Eur$ is usually 1.5 & fairly consistant, it may go wider on most pairs during volitile news releases

Jay

Any conclusive 1st place here gentlemen?

I currently SB with CMC but sometimes the response to dealing tickets just freezes while the market keeps moving and you end up cancelling and resubmitting almost like you were ignored first time.

Direct access sounds good which is the best platform for the direct access guys?

 

[a_gnome]

Any conclusive 1st place here gentlemen?

My 2p's worth:

I would say that the two main contenders are OandA and IB/IDEAL PRO. OandA are flexible and good for beginners who want to trade in really small sizes. IB/IDEAL PRO have tighter spreads than OandA but you have to pay a small commission. IB are also a real ECN rather than an individual counter-party broker so there is no skewing of the quote according to your position and you know the prices are fair. OandA widen their spreads a lot during news releases and are very slow to reduce them back again. I have also heard of one instance of OandA putting someone on manual fills (i.e. screwing them over) because they were trading large size and making too much money off them.

HTH

 

[The Baptist]

My 2p's worth:

I would say that the two main contenders are OandA and IB/IDEAL PRO. OandA are flexible and good for beginners who want to trade in really small sizes. IB/IDEAL PRO have tighter spreads than OandA but you have to pay a small commission. IB are also a real ECN rather than an individual counter-party broker so there is no skewing of the quote according to your position and you know the prices are fair. OandA widen their spreads a lot during news releases and are very slow to reduce them back again. I have also heard of one instance of OandA putting someone on manual fills (i.e. screwing them over) because they were trading large size and making too much money off them.

HTH

gnome - Thank you so from that A true ECN of some quality seems to be IB . Now to sound naive can you give me the full name as I may like to engage them is it 'Internet Broker'.

A URL would be brilliant.

Thank you for the response.

 

[ampro]

A URL would be brilliant.

http://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/en/main.php

 

[The Baptist]

http://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/en/main.php

Appreciated. Thx

 

[bluebell]

Ib A Good Broker? Research Below

I have been trying to find a good broker for the past few months, this is some of what i found
if you go to WWW.nfa.futures.org/basicnet and type in the name of your chosen broker
for example interactive broker - you will find that although they are members of the NFA
they have had at least 1 reparation case awarded to the customer and a couple of arbitration cases - i have also read of other clients not being filled at their limits thereby losing profits.....
i disagree with the guy who says - all this is just a red herring/excuse for bad trading - it is a trillion dollar business and many of these market makers are involved in heavy manipulation of prices to take every penny big or small that you have - i would rather find a broker that did not provide that kind of "excitement" --- still haven't found suitable broker yet for those with small wallets

 

[998758]

Dukascopy have given me excellent service although will slip you a bit during the news...
they are Swiss regulated.

 

[ChowClown]

Evening, just doing a bit of due diligence on Oanda. I use them at the moment on 5 figure margin with no slippage/freeze complaints with the method i currently use, which also copes with the widening of spreads around data releases. I'm planning to increase margin to 6 figures in the new year (not necessarily with Oanda!), just interested to know at what size people are experiencing slippage &/or platform freezes outside key report times?

Pls send an email/pm if you'd prefer.

Thanks.

 

[SvenFoster]

I think people should atleast compare like with like. IB is an ECN, Oanda is retail.

I wonder how many people here that are having a go at O&A have real accounts with them?
Not many. The same ones banging on about spreads are the same ones banging on about only having 50:1 leverage or only 5sec charts.

The spreads are great, no account min, 1 unit lotsize min, the platform good (charts are basic), the fills are second to none and any slippage is controlable.
*All* trades are handled automatically and upto 10Mill per trade. You can put as many on them as you have margin for.

The spreads vary for a reason... Think about it for a moment. We live in very fragile economic and global times and if liquidity dries up in the market it is reflected in oanda spread. Yes recently during major news EUR/USD spreads have increased to 15pips for about 5seconds, then 5pips for maybe minutes *but* *but* *but* .... you can still trade, In or out.

Other retail "brokers" are not as fair. Other brokers platforms will simply reject your order or "freeze" or worse... fill you at any price between the price you clicked and the price after the freeze and I can tell you this much ,it will always be at the worst price over that period.

IB is an ECN, they make their money from commission. Now I wonder what happens to the best bid/ask (spread) on that market just before the announcement??

As for CMC Ha ha ha ha haaa ha haa ah aha haa haa.... One day when I feel like it I will trade them again with no stops over longer TF and take lots of their profits, however until then I will stay well and truely clear. Bad or no fills, rejected orders (to close a trade) messed up daily reporting. If you are a newbie then the £1 pip will force you in to smaller TF and this plays right into their hands. Still they have lots of nice flashing lights,, wonder why..

Sorry to sound like an advert for Oanda but they are in my opinon coming in for an unfair bashing. In retail they are second to none...

 

[coolTrader]

Well put Steve. My only problem with OandA is the Transfer of funds in and out. But then that is a small price to pay. I have said in the ib forum. I had some bad experience with them infact worse than c/s but just as bad or was as cmc. The reply was horrible. My cash was refunded months after. To take your money is automatic to refund for series of errors on their system it took months.
During the news their spreads do widen,slippage is nasty and in fact you are better off trading OandA with the wide spread at least you know where your stop goes.

If you are trading futures then Yes they are good. Forex no no. Commission to go in and out, commission to convert your profit/loss. This all adds up. You don't pay commision on OandA. The prices are virtually the same. So what is the benefit. The ECN on the currency was not useful to me. You can try the demo account but the feed is delayed I am not sure if the ECN is enabled on it.

ECN on stocks is very useful as you see order and you can go in between orders etc.. but for currency, What is the benefit?

I don't use OandA now. Will be returning to them soon. If did not have to go to the bank to do a transfer they will be my preferred broker.

 

[ChowClown]

Hi CT, if you use internet banking you can use the domestic CHAPS option when you initially fund an Oanda account. Your withdrawals will be made back to that account electronically too....perhaps i've misunderstood you on this? There's a £25 fee for withdrawal, but draw once a month say and the cost is insignificant.