Hello all
I am currently tossing up whether or not to switch brokers. I currently trade with Oanda who I am happy with, but figure it doesn't hurt to consider other options.
Here are some facts about my trading that might be usefull to know in helping me decide.
-I only trade E/U, G/U and E/G.
-I trade a short term strategy with tight stops of around 5-20 pips but the vast majority are 7-12 pip stops. Very rarely I will enter longer term positions with stops of 20-50 pips.
-My postion sizes are about 250,000-1,000,000. My monthly volume is about 8,000,000-20,000,000 (highly variable)
-I scale out of positions, sometimes as little as 1/8 of the position at a time, so some of these transactions are very small in volume (as low as 25,000 sometimes)
-I use about 80%/20% limit/market orders for entries and exit almost exclusively via market orders (except for stop outs).
I will now list features that will help in the desision making process and my experinces with oanda in these areas.
-Cost of trading (spreads + commisions)
This is the main deciding factor, but not the only one. Of late Oanda's spreads have been less tight than they have been historically, but I am confident that once more liquidity enters the market that they will go back to usual amounts so I will use the numbers I have observed over the last few years rather than those observed over the last few months.
-E/U - 0.9 pips in high volume trading times (london and ny sessions) and about 1.2 in other times. So as lcg and ib charge commisions, spreads would have to be substantially lower to beat this. I belive ib charges 0.2 basis points, which equates to 0.4 pips per round trip, so spreads would have to be averaging at 0.5 or less to beat oanda. There is a serious lack of information on the lcg website, but from what other people have said I believe they charge 0.3 per round trip.
-G/U - 1.9-2.4 in high volume times
-E/G - quite variable but 0.6-1.2 is a usual range
I have no idea what the spreads of IB and LCG are so it would be great if someone who has traded with them for an extended period could enlighten me. I know it will be highly varriable, but I just want a general idea if the cost of trading will beat that at oanda.
-News spreads
Another very important factor in my desision. Oanda are quite consistent with a 10pip spread on E/U and E/G for high impact US releases. Generally less for Euro releases. 15 pips for G/U on US releases. Quite variable for UK releases though, sometimes more and sometimes less. Again, of late the spreads have been alot higher, especially for UK releases which I have been getting 20-40 pip spreads on, but I am confident these will come back to normall at some point.
I realise that lcg and ib spreads will be highly variable, but again, I am just looking for a general idea.
-Charts
I like oanda's charts, very smooth and offer time frames below 1m which is essential for me. Much better than metatrader in my opinion, which everyone seems to rave about. For one, no time frames under 1m and also there are gaps all over their charts, especially 1 minute (which I cannot understand as the closing price and openning of the following candle should be taken at the exact same instant so should be exactly the same value). Charts are important but I am willing to use a third party for charting so the ib and lcg platforms themselves do not have to be great if they are supported by a third party charting software.
-Orders
This is the area where oanda definately falls down for me. Firstly, I cannot open a long and short trade in the same pair. Sometimes I may have say 1/2 a position running on a short where I have picked up a trend and I want to enter a scalp on the long side. Currently I have to open the position in a sub account or do some very tedious jugling using limit orders for stops and keeping track on paper where each position stands. Also, I can enter multiple trades in the same direction, but I cannot shave parts of the position off as I choose. If I exit a portion via market or limit order, the oldest position is the one that gets reduced.
I want to be able to enter multiple positions in one pair and be able to reduce each postion in its own right. It would also be good if I could set different stops for a single position, so say set a stop for half the position at one point and a different stop for the other position. Again, maybe I will need to use a 3rd party front end for this, but that is ok.
-Platform reliability.
I have found oanda to be pretty reliable. They seem to get a bit of a bad wrap on FF, but I think alot of this would be to do with their demo platform. Demo is very unreliable, but live platform is quite good. Execution is also good and I have only ever been slipped twice, both times in my favour (not counting news and weekend slippage).
-Market hours
Currently at oanda I can trade anytime, even on weekends. Price is frozen on weekends, but I can enter and exit positions with a 10 pip spread for E/U and E/G, and 15 for G/U. Also, trading seems to start alot earlier in the week with oanda compared to other brokers, which limits weekend slippage. This is a handy feature at oanda, but one I rarely use and can do without as I do not often hold positions into the weekend.
-Managed accounts
Currently I use fxmanager to trade clients funds. I would like to have something simmilar with any other broker I choose to go with.
Ok, any comments and info regarding the features I have listed would be great guys.
Cheers
I am currently tossing up whether or not to switch brokers. I currently trade with Oanda who I am happy with, but figure it doesn't hurt to consider other options.
Here are some facts about my trading that might be usefull to know in helping me decide.
-I only trade E/U, G/U and E/G.
-I trade a short term strategy with tight stops of around 5-20 pips but the vast majority are 7-12 pip stops. Very rarely I will enter longer term positions with stops of 20-50 pips.
-My postion sizes are about 250,000-1,000,000. My monthly volume is about 8,000,000-20,000,000 (highly variable)
-I scale out of positions, sometimes as little as 1/8 of the position at a time, so some of these transactions are very small in volume (as low as 25,000 sometimes)
-I use about 80%/20% limit/market orders for entries and exit almost exclusively via market orders (except for stop outs).
I will now list features that will help in the desision making process and my experinces with oanda in these areas.
-Cost of trading (spreads + commisions)
This is the main deciding factor, but not the only one. Of late Oanda's spreads have been less tight than they have been historically, but I am confident that once more liquidity enters the market that they will go back to usual amounts so I will use the numbers I have observed over the last few years rather than those observed over the last few months.
-E/U - 0.9 pips in high volume trading times (london and ny sessions) and about 1.2 in other times. So as lcg and ib charge commisions, spreads would have to be substantially lower to beat this. I belive ib charges 0.2 basis points, which equates to 0.4 pips per round trip, so spreads would have to be averaging at 0.5 or less to beat oanda. There is a serious lack of information on the lcg website, but from what other people have said I believe they charge 0.3 per round trip.
-G/U - 1.9-2.4 in high volume times
-E/G - quite variable but 0.6-1.2 is a usual range
I have no idea what the spreads of IB and LCG are so it would be great if someone who has traded with them for an extended period could enlighten me. I know it will be highly varriable, but I just want a general idea if the cost of trading will beat that at oanda.
-News spreads
Another very important factor in my desision. Oanda are quite consistent with a 10pip spread on E/U and E/G for high impact US releases. Generally less for Euro releases. 15 pips for G/U on US releases. Quite variable for UK releases though, sometimes more and sometimes less. Again, of late the spreads have been alot higher, especially for UK releases which I have been getting 20-40 pip spreads on, but I am confident these will come back to normall at some point.
I realise that lcg and ib spreads will be highly variable, but again, I am just looking for a general idea.
-Charts
I like oanda's charts, very smooth and offer time frames below 1m which is essential for me. Much better than metatrader in my opinion, which everyone seems to rave about. For one, no time frames under 1m and also there are gaps all over their charts, especially 1 minute (which I cannot understand as the closing price and openning of the following candle should be taken at the exact same instant so should be exactly the same value). Charts are important but I am willing to use a third party for charting so the ib and lcg platforms themselves do not have to be great if they are supported by a third party charting software.
-Orders
This is the area where oanda definately falls down for me. Firstly, I cannot open a long and short trade in the same pair. Sometimes I may have say 1/2 a position running on a short where I have picked up a trend and I want to enter a scalp on the long side. Currently I have to open the position in a sub account or do some very tedious jugling using limit orders for stops and keeping track on paper where each position stands. Also, I can enter multiple trades in the same direction, but I cannot shave parts of the position off as I choose. If I exit a portion via market or limit order, the oldest position is the one that gets reduced.
I want to be able to enter multiple positions in one pair and be able to reduce each postion in its own right. It would also be good if I could set different stops for a single position, so say set a stop for half the position at one point and a different stop for the other position. Again, maybe I will need to use a 3rd party front end for this, but that is ok.
-Platform reliability.
I have found oanda to be pretty reliable. They seem to get a bit of a bad wrap on FF, but I think alot of this would be to do with their demo platform. Demo is very unreliable, but live platform is quite good. Execution is also good and I have only ever been slipped twice, both times in my favour (not counting news and weekend slippage).
-Market hours
Currently at oanda I can trade anytime, even on weekends. Price is frozen on weekends, but I can enter and exit positions with a 10 pip spread for E/U and E/G, and 15 for G/U. Also, trading seems to start alot earlier in the week with oanda compared to other brokers, which limits weekend slippage. This is a handy feature at oanda, but one I rarely use and can do without as I do not often hold positions into the weekend.
-Managed accounts
Currently I use fxmanager to trade clients funds. I would like to have something simmilar with any other broker I choose to go with.
Ok, any comments and info regarding the features I have listed would be great guys.
Cheers
