MBT vs OANDA

Hey guys,

I'm just about to open my first live account, so wondering which broker should I choose.
What I need is a reliable broker - pretty tight spreads, fast execution, stability. I'm gonna start by trading FX, though MBT offers some other markets also, so I'll be watching at those later on.
Starting capital is just over 1000$.

Could you please shortly summarise cons and pros of MBT and OANDA, or maybe offer something else.

Thanks.

Btw, gonna be using MT4.

i actually use Oanda, but i would recommend you try MBT since they have this free comission thing now. Their spreads are lower than oanda

Open both and trade both and then decide which is better.

I strongly recommend to open accounts with at least 5 brokers. I have been with Oanda for over a year and apart from regulations (like leverage and CFTC regs) I think it is my favorite broker.

Thanks for the info.

Another question appeared: how do you deposit money? If I do international transfers from my bank account back in Lithuania, it's gonna cost me ~10 euros. Is it better to transfer to Paypal and then distribute from there? Or is there some other way?

Is 10 Euros that much?

Make sure, they accept Paypal from your country.

It is not, with one account. But with small starting funds broker diversification can hurt (ex. 5 accounts at different brokers * 10 euros = 7% of 1000$). I guess I'll keep that diversification more humble at the beginning.

Thanks ReaM

I used MBT extensively with MT4 and it was horrible. I placed orders and had them take 15 minutes to fill! I had orders fill after I had canceled them and closed the MT4 so I didn't even know they were open! It was unbelievable how poorly MT4 works through MBT so if you want to use MT4 do not throw your money away using MBT. With that in mind I've heard that MBT's default platform works much better so you might want to give that a try.

Pros MBT: Free webinars, low cost per trade, fast easy deposits.
Cons MBT: MT4 has extremely slow execution when the trade moves favorably (always executes fast when the trade moves against you) This ends up costing far more than the commission of other brokers. Fake ECN (they say they are full ECN but are setting up or may already have set up a dealer broker meaning they may actually be betting against you!) If an "error" in their system screws you, that is just too bad for you!

I won't speculate on OANDA because I have only recently started with them but here are some things I've overheard:

Pros OANDA: Can deposit any amount of money. Fast Deposits. Fast executions. Can trade a very large variety of currency pairs along with gold, etc. Customer service will actually respond to complaints and often fix problems and refund money if it's an error on their part.
Cons OANDA: Spreads can change quickly and sometimes become large, particularly towards the end of the trading day.

If you go for Oanda, you can't do anything wrong. Yes, there ARE its own minuses with Oanda, but compared to other brokers, it's nothing. Don't trade NFP or news with Oanda, because spread is high.

I used to hate it (Oanda was my 1st broker), but then I opened accounts with 5 other brokers and understood, how sweet Oanda was^^. With other so called ECN brokers, you always get slipped 1 pip per order plus you pay commissions, execution on other ECN is freaking slow, no experience with MBT, but as LoveOfGood wrote, just as slow. I market close position most of the time and the price often wanders ten freaking pips against me before it closes. With Oanda, on the other hand, it is instant most of the time.

LMAX seems good also, but since I don't have my main account with them, I can't comment on slippage and withdrawals etc...