Which one is better: an ECN broker or OANDA?

Consider:

ECN broker:
typical 1-2 pips EURUSD spread, plus 2-3 dollars per 100.000 units (meaning 0.2-0.3 pips per trade, 0.4-0.6 pips roundtrip). That would be a 2 pips average cost per roundtrip. (1.4 minimum cost, in perfect conditions: 1 pip spread + 0.4 comission)

Oanda:
1.5 pips roundtrip

Why would I change to an ECN?

peas

1:50 is the maximum leverage Oanda provides. This is the only reason why I didn't open account in Oanda.
Spread is important, but it's not what is killing traders, especially newbies . Thefore, in my opinion, it shouldn't become main factor when choosing broker unless scalping is your style.

With the ability to trade any lot size down the smallest increment, the 1:50 margin with Oanda is less of any issue it might be with other brokers. I was under the impression the major advantage of trading with an ECN is security of your funds.

1. There's no reason why you should be using even close to 50x leverage. Those brokers who offer 200 and 400x leverage do so because they don't care if you bust out. They like to take a ton of risk. Oanda chooses not to take that risk.

2. The big difference is that retail shops control the price you see. Those aren't the real prices... they're close, but in some cases, they're not. Many retail brokers take the other side of your trade, and some have been found to go stop hunting and do all kinds of devious things.

An ECN, like IB, charges commission, because you get the raw prices straight from the counter and they don't touch the spreads. IB also doesn't take the opposite of your trades...
If you have 20-30K, go with an ECN. It's always your best move.

This is a little misleading...

1) Leverage is a personal risk thing. Whether or not someone chooses to use the full leverage will depend on the style of trading. I personally would be happier if Oanda would leverage 100:1, I would be able to take on more trades without reaching the certain margin requirement on my account. Not a big deal, but there are some of us whose risk-aversion is higher.

2) Retail shops don't ALWAYS take the other side of your trade. They do this only when there are no better offers against yours. They would be happy to off-load the risk to someone else rather than try and determine whether or not your trade would go bust. Deal desks actually trade using the information they collect from their price discovery and order matching systems. Retail shops are much more interested in how many lots you can push through. That's why they offer higher leverage. You can trade more lots and thus make them more money risk free (for them).

3) IB, MBT and other ECNs actually pass through orders based on their price discovery systems. The price you see isn't necessarily the market price...it is the best prices from the bank they are listed with. Where they make their money is ONLY through volume, so the biggest difference is that ECNs don't actually use the information to trade in conjunction (or against, in some cases) their clients. They just take a commission based on volume.

Again, there isn't really any more safety in your funds with an ECN versus a Retail broker. ECNs are governed by the same rules. The biggest difference is that most ECNs are attached directly (not operated independently) of their securities arms which IS regulated. I would imagine that CoesFX (an ECN, I believe) could just as easily pack up shop and become the next RefcoFX if the business couldn't survive.

What ECNs DO offer you will vary from person to person. ECNs are the natural wave of the future. Spreads would be adjusted for liquidity. Thus in high liquidity and natural volatility, spreads would be lower. That's the advantage. Brokers on the other hand offer an array of different services that may suit customers differently. FIXED spreads are the advantage, although REQUOTE is the risk with brokers. Most brokerages actually operate LIKE ECNs, but they use price discovery systems to match orders and DSS OLAP against client data to determine trade algorithms.

Mr Trend

Highly depends on trading style. I never use SL more than 50 pips. That means with 1:50 I don't risk more than quarter of the margin taken by any single deal. With 1:200 leverage the margin used by one single deal covers exactly the sum I planned to risk. Simply put, depends on the size of your fund and on what percent of your fund you are going to risk per deal or in all open deals at any given time. The risk should be controlled by placing SL properly rather than by the leverage or size of margin. In my case I don't need such big margines provided by 1:50 leverage. I simply will need more funds to launch the same number of trades simultaneously.

Has anyone ever considered that we might benefit from a thread dedicated to evaluating and comparing brokers, including our experiences with brokers. At the moment I would like to get away from the broker I am using because of the way this brokers handles trades when there is any increased volatility (not just news). I am not certain, however, what broker offering 200:1 has a good record with respect to execution during volatility.

I would like to change, but going from the frying paninto the fire is not attractive to me. I would much rather know what I am doing and I suspect that many other traders would also. I know of too many traders who have had the experience of going to broker after broker after broker.....

anyone here recommend using questrade?

ECN broker or OANDA? What does this means by the way..! Does OANDA is not an ECN broker?

Using Oanda v20, 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? See chart below:

https://charts.mql5.com/16/659/nzdca...ivision1-2.png