Menu

Options

Bookmark Thread

First Page First Unread Last Page Last Post

Print Thread

Similar Threads

How do you deal with widening spreads at the rollover? 16 replies

Avoid being stopped by temporary widening spreads 0 replies

Spreads widening before news release 5 replies

Broker widening spreads on JPY 10 replies

OANDA users...how do you profit when spreads change 32 replies

Attachments: Oanda users - Oanda widening spreads
Exit Attachments

Oanda users - Oanda widening spreads

Quoting skenobi
{quote} Disclaimer: I don't know what Oanda's been telling you. If liquidity dries up for whatever length of time, why would the bid/offer spread remain static if the market makers behind those bids and offers take off their interests from the market? You can call the widening of the spread a purely "profit-taking move and artificially induced" if it makes you feel any better. But having been an interbank market maker in my previous life, I know enough NOT to leave any money on the table (and consequently any of MY bids or offers in the market)...
That's the key to what I was missing, I was thinking of it as nobody entering new bids/asks, and it didn't occur to me that there would be bids/asks being withdrawn also (sometimes the obvious sneaks up on us .

As far as "making me feel better" I was simply stating that I wasn't getting the mechanics and the only explanation I'd ever heard was some vague references to "low liquidity" which wasn't making much sense to me (I thought this was clear from "I guess the real problem is that I don't understand..."). Anyone that is looking for reasons to "feel better" about losing on a trade is playing the wrong game... I'm looking to understand why these things happen so that I don't walk into them again.

It sure would be interesting to analyze some of the spread movements on the very short timescales that Nanex puts out in their analysis of stock movements occasionally... it seems, from my workstation at least, that the time for the news release rolls over, the pair starts to move, then the spread goes nuts... it widens a few pips before and then when the news hits it goes really wide shortly after, then normalizes... probably mostly perception or lag, but it would be cool to see the data
Just saw Oanda's CHFJPY spread jump to 20 pips for a few seconds. IBFX hovered between 4 & 5 pips. Also noticed EURCAD jumped to 15 pips on Oanda. Clearly Oanda is doing this deliberately. Any crap they say about volatility etc is nothing but lies and bullshit. No other broker that I know of or can research has spreads widen as far apart as Oanda does. I am pretty sure this is their way of making up for the 'low spread' at other regular trading hours.
What has me concerned most is the closing and opening spreads and being stopped out as a result. This recently happened to another trader at Oanda. I'm not too concerned with 10-20 pip widening as I trade mostly daily charts. It is the 40-100+ widening that blows my mind, and they don't instantly return to normal at open. I was looking into MB Trading, but I see today their close spreads are just as bad. Although I don't know how MB handles it. At Oanda you really need to watch what pairs you trade or it can bite you. Here is today's spreads around 10:45am EST, compared with their closing spreads. These are just the pairs I follow as the others just get ridiculous. Although, it looks like I will have to delete a few more, or at least keep a very close eye on. I really like Oanda, been with them for years, but something has to give.

Attached Image
Attached Image
May the pips be with you!
Gbp news and spreads were fu..ed up for 7 mins ,this is daylight robbery ,this should be illegal
http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/smileys/lol-047.gif
They did to take out stops, it's nothing exceptional unfortunately. You can try contacting the regulator about this, maybe they will explore it.
"The Market is Not Evil, it Simply Separates Dumb People From Their Money."
I too use Oanda. I have used others. They all have their own particular vagaries. Put simply, wherever I choose to go I am playing someone else's game, with their toys and by their rules. The trick is to figure them out and figure out ways to beat them i.e. make consistent profits all the while staying sufficiently under the radar that they don't notice and politely invite you to play someone else's game using their toys and rules instead.

Reading it back prior to posting - This sounds soooooo depressing....
Sooo... if Oanda is such a big problem with their widening spreads, then what would be a good MT4 broker to use? (or at least one that is better than Oanda?)

I use an EA with a 2:1 ratio of 15 SL and 20 TP for some currencies and a 20 SL and 40 TP on other currencies. My trades tend to last around 24 hrs (more or less). I am looking for a MT4 broker that is at least decent enough to trade with. If a broker regularly has 20 pip spread spikes, then that is obviously a big problem for me or anyone that trades similar to the SL's & TP's that I use.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
"Trading is a mental sport." - Ziad Masri
Quoting Quickdraw
Sooo... if Oanda is such a big problem with their widening spreads, then what would be a good MT4 broker to use? (or at least one that is better than Oanda?) I use an EA with a 2:1 ratio of 15 SL and 20 TP for some currencies and a 20 SL and 40 TP on other currencies. My trades tend to last around 24 hrs (more or less). I am looking for a MT4 broker that is at least decent enough to trade with. If a broker regularly has 20 pip spread spikes, then that is obviously a big problem for me or anyone that trades similar to the SL's & TP's that I use....
Was with Oanda for time now with forex.com and never looking back. There spreads are pretty tight all the time, mind you some news you might widen a pip or so more but very hard to find a GOOD stable long term broker with good spreads and competitive swap AND good latency.
All posts are my personal opinion
  • Post #50
  • Quote
  • Edited 11:44pm Jul 30, 2014 11:22pm | Edited 11:44pm
Quoting Rtm
{quote} Was with Oanda for time now with forex.com and never looking back. There spreads are pretty tight all the time, mind you some news you might widen a pip or so more but very hard to find a GOOD stable long term broker with good spreads and competitive swap AND good latency.

Rtm, thanks for the advice about forex.com. I am curious: What are the specific reasons for why you left Oanda? Also, do you use MT4? And, about how many trades do you average per week? My theory is that the more trades a person makes per week, the more likely several times a week he will have problems with his broker on some trades.
"Trading is a mental sport." - Ziad Masri
Quoting Quickdraw
{quote} Rtm, thanks for the advice about forex.com. I am curious: What are the specific reasons for why you left Oanda? Also, do you use MT4? And, about how many trades do you average per week? My theory is that the more trades a person makes per week, the more likely several times a week he will have problems with his broker on some trades.
I left Oanda because I was tired of seeing the spread gap 20-30 pips on there normally great 1 pip spread pair.
I only use MT4 and I do more average trades then you do. It doesn't matter how much you make per week, brokers are bound to have problems, just the nature of the game. Gotta build that into whatever you are doing. You complain now, but imagine back in the old days.. Everything done at the pit or by shitty telephone, imagine that.
All posts are my personal opinion
Quoting Rtm
{quote} I left Oanda because I was tired of seeing the spread gap 20-30 pips on there normally great 1 pip spread pair. I only use MT4 and I do more average trades then you do. It doesn't matter how much you make per week, brokers are bound to have problems, just the nature of the game. Gotta build that into whatever you are doing. You complain now, but imagine back in the old days.. Everything done at the pit or by shitty telephone, imagine that.
Rtm, thank you for answering my questions. It all plays a part in factoring into my decision of what broker to use (and what to avoid).


Quoting Rtm
{quote} You complain now, but imagine back in the old days.. Everything done at the pit or by shitty telephone, imagine that.
You know what? I've never thought of it that way before! It is a very true statement you've made. If people in the old days could see into the future, they would probably slap me in the head for worrying so much about what online broker to use. LOL.

Still, I can't help but want the best broker I can get without too many difficult requirements from that broker. So I will still do what I can to get a good broker. However, now that you have reminded me about how it was in the old days (and how we have it easier than they did), I now won't feel quite as bad if I get a broker that is less than perfect.

Rtm, thanks for putting things into perspective.
"Trading is a mental sport." - Ziad Masri
yay Oanda owned me once too of their spread widening during news and weekends. as per experience major pairs widens 10-15pips cross pairs widens 20-40pips. the only cross pairs that widen too much is the eurnzd and gbpnzd this will widen around 30-50pips when major news hits and on weekends this pair widen 50-100pips that is very ridiculous. I remember once that I had a sell trade with a floating 80pip profits lockin 30pips on gbpnzd and plan to hold the trade til next week so I sleep early and when I check in the morning viola my stop loss hit even price didn't even retrace verified on lower TF and when I check my spread indicator it just pumped 100pips spread lol and all I can say is wtf!
Actually had a 30 pip stop loss hit over last weekend. Really surprised as that's never happened with my two years at Oanda.

I've learned to avoid stop losses if I'm trading during a news event...along with weekends now.

As I've said before- I'll be leaving Oanda once I achieve 10k (min for citibank)
I myself never leave the screen when a spot fx trade is active. Not that that affords any protection of these mystical spread wacks. Never again will I leave one open after the close of market.

It's a roll of the dice with these Makers. But! I remember about 2 years ago while trade mentoring a student using a big screen t.v. He was following along with his account same broker (Oanda) both live accounts. His price and spread was different than mine. Mind you the look on his confused face as I had previously bragged favor of Oanda over the likes of the other spot houses. This skewing was very obvious Not by a few but a good 8-10 pips. I held his laptop up next to my big screen and filmed this. Soon later I contacted Oanda about this they were astonished yada yada could it be a latency problem.
Yeah right we're both on the same 40 Mbit internet gateway with 1.2 to 2 millisecond average latency. This price differential was obviously a peek behind the wizards curtain. Not too long after bringing this to their attention magically the prices aligned.

Fellow traders we drive down a black tar road riddled with potholes. I mostly only trade with the exchange traded contracts now days. Recently I ventured to spot again after all the cleanup that had been done. Still yet this whole thing of spot trading is Virtual. No exchange means No unified price. Nothing more than a random walk with implied unison. So those spread blips are simple a Rules on effect of market maker Bliss.
"Look Left Think Right"
Have you guys do some research of how bigger and how more frequently Oanda widening spread compared to other brokers is?

I checked it at www.forexbrokerz.com and found it that the difference between Oanda max spread and other's brokers are not too large (5-10 pips). Some brokers even have bigger max spread than Oanda.

Only I don't know how more frequent Oanda spreads widening compared to other brokers.
Oanda, and presumably all brokers, widens the spread during volatility. If you are an intraday trader, this should not concern you, since you can wait till the spread narrows again before entering or exiting a trade. If you have specific Take/Profit targets programmed into your order, the spread should not bother you, but if you are still using Stop/losses, as all suckers do, then you will definitely have problems. Your problem is not in the spread but in your trading method, and more specifically, in your money management system. Stop trading as if you were trying to make the lifetime jackpot, bring your tickets down to a really small percent of your total capital, and trade probability. Instead of Stop/losses try hedging a position that is going against you. Remember that the price can only go up or down, and what goes up must eventually come down. Patience is the key.
Hi Traders,

We've recently implemented midpoint/bid/ask triggered stops via our v20 REST API. This functionality will be following shortly on our platforms. Though this will not guarantee that a stop will not get hit during a spread widening, it can help in certain low liquidity events.

You can read more about this here (see order trigger condition): http://developer.oanda.com/rest-live.../#OrderRequest
An introduction here: http://developer.oanda.com/rest-live-v20/introduction/

Also, for future feature requests and suggestions, you can check out our feedback and suggestion forum here: https://feedback.oanda.com/forums/58...ading-platform

Happy Trading!
Disclaimer: Leveraged trading is high risk. Losses could exceed investment.
Oanda is not bad at all compared with spreads of other "Brokers". That's the main reason I use their services. But if you have a decent capital to trade, move to ECN/STP....
I do not understand how my two TPs of 6 pips each were both by-passed. The candle past my Targets by 14 Pips. Can anyone help me with this? Is this secondary to a "widening spread" with the News? See chart below:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: nzdcad-m1-oanda-division1-3.png Size: 58 KB
"What Goes Up, Must Come Down." - (c) Sir Isaac Newton - 1647
0 traders viewing now