I may keep my Oanda account open as a backup if absolutely necessary with a smaller amount in it, but for the most part I will transfer most of my money to Interactive Brokers.
Basically the reasons are as follows:
- Disconnections at Oanda
- Spreads at Oanda in comparison to IB
- IB can trade Futures as well as Forex (I would like to trade both)
- Security of funds
- Lack of features to suit my trading at Oanda
- Better spreads/fills around news
A few things I have not been happy with at Oanda. Frequent disconnections during 'important' times being the main problem. Lack of decent spreads (in my opinion) compared to IB and some others too. All day today from before Asian session all the way to Europe GBPJPY is 7 pips on Oanda, on IB it has been between 1-5, right this second 2pips. EurJpy has been between .5 pip to 2pips, Oanda 2.3 flat. I am aware that their is commission on IB which adds up to another pip, but I still feel that the change is warranted.
I might add, Oanda often increases the spread during Europe/US times anyway.
The next thing that I don't like, and this is because of the way I want to trade so it may or may not help you, is I have the ability to use another piece of software (there are many varieties) for IB which enables me to:
- set stop to breakeven after 'x' pips
- set stop to breakeven+x after so many pips
- set trailing stop to start after 'x' pips
- allow multiple scaling in and multiple scaling outs
This enables me to let the trade handle itself a little more, and saves me some stress.
Also, funds are segregated with IB and IB has adjusted net capital of 351million according to http://www.cftc.gov/marketreports/financialdataforfcms/ which makes me feel good about where my money is.
Oh, and regarding Safety of Funds, this from their website:
Securities Account Protection
Customer securities accounts at Interactive Brokers are protected up to $30 million (including up to $1 million for cash). The market value of your stocks, options, warrants, debt, and cash -- denominated in all currencies -- is covered by this insurance. Futures, options on futures, and single stock futures are not covered, but available cash will be swept from your futures account to your securities account periodically to take advantage of insurance coverage as much as possible. As with all securities firms, this insurance provides protection against failure of a broker-dealer, not against loss of market value of securities.
This protection is provided by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and Lloyd’s of London insurers. SIPC provides the first $500,000 per customer (including up to $100,000 for cash). For customers who have received the full SIPC protection, the Lloyd’s policy provides up to an additional $29.5 million (including $900,000 for cash), subject to an aggregate limit of $150 million.
For the purpose of determining a customer account, accounts with like names and titles (e.g. Individual/John Smith and Individual/John Smith) are combined, but accounts with different titles are not (e.g. Individual/John Smith and IRA/John Smith).
SIPC is a non-profit, membership corporation funded by broker-dealers that are members of SIPC. For more information about SIPC and answers to frequently asked questions (such as how SIPC works, what is protected, how to file a claim, etc.), please refer to the following websites:
http://individuals.interactivebroker...?ib_entity=llc
Anyway, good luck
