I think Oanda FXTrade is unreliable

Most of all giving a newbie the time of day .

LOL. As if this was the only reason for the failure of most noobs...
Truth is, a good trader can make money both with MMs and ECNs.

Blame yourself if you lose, in the first place.

Nevertheless, I agree that ECN is a fairer marketplace. But it does not automatically mean easier.

lol

Their door is always open and welcoming...."come on in!"

I can't believe how idiotic some of the responses have been on this thread.

Yes they are definitely in the business to make money But you know what I mean hehe.

Good Point !

no I'm really not a "news trader" per se. However with OandA, you don't have that option without accounting for these huge spreads. And even if you're not a news trader, but more of a longer term trader, you still have to factor in these ridiculous spreads because if you are a longer term trader, you are going to be holding these trades over the long term, news or not. And the spreads widen and narrow at OandA's whim so you can be taken out forty pips away from real price without any advance warning whatsoever.

overall it just lowers your odds of winning over the long term. And forex trading is hard enough without having additional odds stacked against you...

and I agree with some of these posts, that a good trader can make money with either a market maker, or an ECN. And I also think OandA is trustworthy, beyond this problem. It's just part of the rules of the video game when you play it with OandA.

Also, as I have mentioned, they jack up the spread every Friday afternoon without exception, right around 3:30pm to the MAXIMUM spread, and leave it that way until 8pm Sunday night. So if you are in a trade at 3:30pm on Friday afternoon, you'd better bring your own vaseline.

I think Oanda say it best themselves, "For traders it's just bad business; for the market maker & associates it's the proven path to riches. Worst of all, traders' acceptance of bad practices just perpetuates them."

Like you say it's all part of the game when playing with shops like Oanda, it's up to the trader to try and devise ways to compensate.

I suppose what gets me the most is the dishonesty behind it and the expectation that most traders are too dumb to realize they're being shafted!

Can you verify with another broker's feed that prices did indeed change in those times? I'm curious as to what other platforms showed.


I am trying to ignore them

http://www.stus.com/images/products/blg5910.gif

Oh come on guys, reliable or not: If you can't make money with Oanda you can't make money with an ECN.

If there would be manipulated quotes one could easily arbitrage them. During news nothing is reliable, nor with an ECN neither with any MM.

If life were only that simple....

You can't platform arb, they won't fill at their off-market quotes, believe me I've tried! If it was exploitable then I wouldn't have mentioned it on a public forum, I ain't that generous!

I wouldn't expect them to fill though, as far as I know they're not a charity giving away free money....

Oanda's feed is very good. There platform has very fast execution. You can't argue because I use them.

What you are looking for you will not find unless you have the cash for it. 5k-10k ECN brokers are using market maker model platforms anyway, so when you realize this, you realize oanda is a damn good deal because those ECN brokers are charging high commissions on top of there .6/.8 EU variable spreads.

Don't trade the news with them, if you do, get a different broker for that.

People constantly complain about brokers but the real truth is, they can't trade. I guess it's easy to point a finger at the broker. It is very true that if you can't make money with oanda, you can't make money trading, PERIOD.

move on then.... your not gonna get non-manipulated spreads unless your with a PB or a bank.

Oanda among the best broker i ever use. with a cheap spread and very smooth data feed. if you are trading more then 50k usd. i advise use oanda .

No one is arguing about 'fast execution', it's the quotes and prices orders get executed at in relation to the underlying market which is the problem, not to mention connection and platform stability issues (both intentional and unintentional).

Overhead isn't, and shouldn't be, the primary consideration. Oanda rely on your type of customer, that's why they advertise 0.9 spread on Eur/Usd, to get gullible punters through the door who only compare spreads. It's a marketing tactic and it obviously works very well.

Should it really be that way? There's nothing wrong with trading 'news', in fact it can be extremely lucrative, why exclude yourself?

That's a weak argument and not always true anyway, there are some accomplished traders who have experienced the same issues. The difference is they have the experience to see them, whereas perhaps the less experienced don't. I imagine the vast majority of Oanda's clients are inexperienced novices.

A certain amount of manipulation/shading is normal for these types of shops, it's expected and it's acceptable to a degree, but 20/30/40/50 pip off-market quotes are not. Like I say, you either devise ways to compensate or you trade elsewhere. To suggest everything is fine and dandy at Oanda just demonstrates a lack of experience, sorry.

Hey pipmutt, what has your experience been like this week with Oanda?

I haven't been trading on FXTrade yesterday or today, what has your experience been like? What price feed do you use to compare quotes?

pipmutt, I don't see your arguments here. This is a waste of my time now, I was just chiming in saying that this is garbage talk from fustrated newbie's.

execution and slippage was a complaint, and I was just stating that I have gotten perfectly fine market order execution for my scalps.

No, I absolutely do not trade the news until about 10-15 after, so that doesn't bother me at all.

As I have stated, you will not get the REAL market without padded spreads unless you have the cash to be with a PB or bank, if you don't like it, I'm sorry that's the way it is.

If you're a low equity trader, there is no better place (in my opinion). The spreads are the tightest you're going to get. It IS .9 majority of the time (normal market conditions), so I don't see the problem here with the spreads.

There platform is also pretty good and my connection has been great... don't know where you are located, but I'm in NY and I don't get very much connection problems at all.

It is the truth, are you telling me that experienced traders are saying that oanda is a scam and they can't make money with them? No, that sounds like someone who is fustrated and angry because because they are not experienced enough to be profitable in the forex market.

If they came here and said "hey, I'm getting hardcore slippage on 1-5m market orders and things are seeming very weird now that I have made a lot of money with oanda..." that would be a different story, but ... they would probably be with a PB or Bank... because they know how to trade and have the money.

I am not saying oanda is the best broker in the world. All I am saying is that for a low equity trader, they are about the best I can possibly find and I wouldn't waste my time with shit ECN borkers who are infact just as bad as using a MM, but you end up giving more away in the end. MT4 platforms suck in my opinion and I don't waste my time with 4h positions trades or swing trading so I don't care for it at all. I also don't use any indicators because I have realized a long time ago that they are worthless.

I won't respond to this thread again, it's childish. You guys can go on complaining about your low equity trading dreams of having a completely honest broker that gives you the real market with 0 pip spreads... lol

I've been with Oanda since a number of years and can only conclude that those complaining aren't really trading with Oanda. Fast feed, very fast execution. Only once a trade was taken back by them, as I was scalping an obvious market data error. That happened once in about five years of trading.

As to the widening spreads during news publication periods: I actually like them and use them as an indicator that tells me when to stay on the fence. When Oanda thinks it has larger market risks to cover and increases spreads, I think I too would be exposed to larger risks. I just stay out then... Served me well.

lol, if you're an example of a typical Oanda client then Stumm and his investors can sleep soundly in the knowledge they still have clients who don't know which way is up, their investment is safe!

Hey, as long as you're enjoying yourself that's all that matters.