Any experience on Oanda API? Any better or worse than MT4 EA?

Hi all,

I'm thinking of auto trade solution, and I'm hesitate between Oanda REST API (it's free now and there is no $600 monthly fee) and MT4 EA.
I've written a backtesting application using C++. So I don't need backtesting feature from either Oanda API or MT4.

The advantages of Oanda API I can think of:
1, I can code in C++. Since I code my strategy in C++ to back test, I can reuse the same code with Oanda API and so I don't need to rewrite them in MQL4.
2, I have fully control on the data. If there is any historical data missing, I can code to download from Oanda. I have the feeling that MT4 data is not quite reliable.
3, Any more advantage?

The disadvantages of Oanda API I can think of:
1, I need to code everything from scratch, such like historical data management, etc.
2, My robots are locked to Oanda. If one day I move to another broker, my robots may not work any more.
3, If I want to use VPS, there are so many MT4 VPS while I'm not sure if I can upload my C++ .exe to a VPS to use Oanda API.

So my question, did anyone here use Oanda API? Any experience? Which solution do you recommend, Oanda API or MT4 EA, and why?

Thanks

You can code in MQL5 which is much like C++.

Re: disadvantage of OA:

- no push quotes (you have to pull prices; restriction on how many pulls you can fire per time unit)
- s l o w, as it is a text-based web api (json)

Advantage: you get rid of the MetaQuotes bullshit..

Best api I know so far is Dukascopy's (and a good broker too). Or LMAX. There's cTrader open connect api - with it you have a few more brokers at disposal but it is also a pain in the ..

But why would your robots be tied to a specific (broker's) api? Rather your robots would operate off an abstraction layer, so that they do not need to care about where their data comes from or orders go to.

I also guessed that Oanda API is slow due to it's HTTP based.
But I don't need every tick.
Also, how "bullshit" when talking about MetaQuotes?

I heard Dukascopy is good but I will move to it only after I plan to invest more money than $5K as I do with Oanda now.

My robots don't tie to or know any brokers. They only know the data in my own format.
So I can use any data source to feed the robots. :-)

True. It's because you said: Why MQ is bullshit? LOL You will have to learn a few more things I guess..

"locked" I mean is that my robots will be written in C++ that I don't know if it's popular method (I only know Oanda has C++ API) to do it because most robots on the web are written in MQL?
Technically, my robots are free from any underlying layer.

I have noticed the crap historical data in MT4, the very slow backtest in MT4, but I'm not sure if there more bullshit with MT4.

Anyway, your replies make me more confident with my C++ project. Thanks