Major Chink In Oandas Armor | Forex Factory

Options

Go to
Permalinks
Print Thread

Similar Threads

execution time for major broker, major pairs 3 replies

Are 48% of oandas accounts profitable? 34 replies

Major USD/JPY pivot and fibonacci values 1 reply

Major Market Makers 11 replies

Time Zones, Day Light Savings, and Major Markets 3 replies

Major Chink In Oandas Armor

  • #1
  • First Post: Jul 19, 2006 6:06am Jul 19, 2006 6:06am
I had a poundyen position open today that was up at one point about 35 pips.
Oanda was reflecting that I was up about 10.
I monitor 3 other feeds simultaneously.
I'm wondering what the heck is going on, markets moving pretty good.
I call, they tell me they will place a call to the traders and find out about it, and for me to call back.
I call back and they tell me it was a problem with the feed and it's fixed. By the way, every other currency pair was updating freely, but I had no positions in them. It was only the GBPJPY that was frozen, my only position.
I tell them I still don't think thier feed is representative of the market, now instead of being off by 20 pips it's off by 10. Ok call back.
And finally the price is reflective of the true market and I am no longer up 35 pips, which you could of guessed.

This is not the first time I have suspected Oanda of b-crap.

It is pretty coincidental we a have a strongly moving market and I can't trade. Don't ya think.

And, like I said, not the first time.

Peace

FYI
  • #2
  • Jul 19, 2006 6:50am Jul 19, 2006 6:50am
Quoting Insider
I had a poundyen position open today that was up at one point about 35 pips.
Oanda was reflecting that I was up about 10.
I monitor 3 other feeds simultaneously.
I'm wondering what the heck is going on, markets moving pretty good.
I call, they tell me they will place a call to the traders and find out about it, and for me to call back.
I call back and they tell me it was a problem with the feed and it's fixed. By the way, every other currency pair was updating freely, but I had no positions in them. It was only the GBPJPY that was frozen, my only position.
I tell them I still don't think thier feed is representative of the market, now instead of being off by 20 pips it's off by 10. Ok call back.
And finally the price is reflective of the true market and I am no longer up 35 pips, which you could of guessed.

This is not the first time I have suspected Oanda of b-crap.

It is pretty coincidental we a have a strongly moving market and I can't trade. Don't ya think.

And, like I said, not the first time.

Peace

FYI
Hey mate,

A few traders I know that use Oanda are starting to have the same problems.


turbo
  • #3
  • Jul 19, 2006 7:15am Jul 19, 2006 7:15am
Can you post the chart that backs up your claim?
  • #4
  • Jul 19, 2006 7:21am Jul 19, 2006 7:21am
Me too. I have a substantial account with Oanda ( well, substantial for a small retail player ) and I have had to write to them recently about their ever widening spreads - especially around news announcements. Laughably enough I rarely trade announcements - but I like fair play.

As most traders who may make a few pips on announcements usually to go on to lose them on other trades it's a "win-win" situation for Oanda without widening their spreads. They're not the largest capitalised US broker for nothing.

It's difficult enough to make money at Oanda anyway with their 50:1 margin policy ( which does effectively become 100:1 once you're in a trade ) without these ever widening spreads - weekend's accepted as there's usually no need to place or close a trade on a weekend unless the market's really moving - pretty unusual and if if did I'd gladly pay the spread!

Oanda will plead widening spreads from the "Interbank" but brokers who have the "lot" system can't widen their spreads - although the unscrupulous freeze their platforms.

However, after having money frozen at Refco I chose Oanda because I felt my money would be safe with them. Apart from these erratic spreads and no trailing stop facility - which could be rectified with great benefit for Oanda I feel - I have no complaints.
  • #5
  • Jul 19, 2006 7:23am Jul 19, 2006 7:23am
Quoting woodmarket
Can you post the chart that backs up your claim?

You don't need a chart - just watch the spreads around announcment times.
  • #6
  • Jul 19, 2006 7:40am Jul 19, 2006 7:40am
Yep - right on cue - GBP widened to 8 pips ( usually 3-4 ) & EUR widened to 3 ( usually 1.5-2 ). Euro is acceptable as most "lot" brokers are 3 on euro anyway

Guess it's best not to trade GBP if news announcements are your game. Most people choose GBP as it moves further faster - but 8 pips is major ground to cover when you're sure how many pips price is going to move because not all announcements cause a big spike.

Trade carefully peeps!
  • #7
  • Jul 19, 2006 8:10am Jul 19, 2006 8:10am
Unfortuanetly as more and more people enter the FX trade, it will open up more and more opportunity for this type of thing and most likely ruin it for all of us!

Cheers
Trade what you see - Not what you think
  • #8
  • Jul 19, 2006 8:34am Jul 19, 2006 8:34am
There should be clear regulation about this type of things. I'm not a law expert, but there should be something to protect us against these type of acts. They make enough money even if they play fair.
Try hard, think fast, die young
  • #9
  • Jul 19, 2006 8:42am Jul 19, 2006 8:42am
Here it is from Oanda's website. It states clearly their method of doing business. They are a retail broker and all retail brokers work this way whether u agree with these practises or not.

IMHO all 'bucket brokers' are where u learn to trade and once u have learned to trade you move to an ECN such as COESfx where u are dealing directly w/ interbanks and not the retail shop themselves. You move and don't look back.

You'll still have problems with your broker cause there is always gonna be problems but by that time you have hopefully learned to, paraphrasing Merlin "quit whining and trade".


http://fxtrade.oanda.com/spreads/recent_spreads.shtml


Quote
"The spreads offered on OANDA FXTrade vary over time. OANDA is the counter-party to trades executed over FXTrade. Trades are matched, and any net exposure above predefined thresholds is hedged with partner banks at the current market spread. Global market liquidity and volatility can result in large spread increases on the foreign exchange markets following news announcements, during political uncertainty, or at the close of the business day and on weekends when liquidity is lower. At such times OANDA is forced to pass on some of the spread increases to its clients."
In trading, there is no bullshit. You either make money or you don't.
  • #10
  • Jul 19, 2006 8:43am Jul 19, 2006 8:43am
Quoting PipGoddess
It's difficult enough to make money at Oanda anyway with their 50:1 margin policy ( which does effectively become 100:1 once you're in a trade )
How does 50:1 become effectively 100:1 when you're in a trade?

J
  • #11
  • Jul 19, 2006 8:54am Jul 19, 2006 8:54am
I agree. Everybody knows Oanda widens the spread, or should know. That is totally acceptable to me because I do not trade news. I don't care. I'm not even looking at price spreads at news release time. There are other things to look at.

But the inability to get in and out of a profitable position not news related or around news times. That's another story. I think it was pretty coincidental, and I just wanted others to be aware of what happened to me today. I no longer trust Oanda, and it is not only because of this. There were other times I made mental notes of "coincidences" that were not "me" positive. I don't have time to go into the details now.
But I told myself if something like this happens again I may have to move.

It could be totally a coincidence. But it smelt bad. You know the saying, "if it walks like a duck, and sounds likes a duck, and looks like a duck, it's a duck!!"

The Forex Business is changing for us and for the better so screw'em I say.
  • #12
  • Jul 19, 2006 9:00am Jul 19, 2006 9:00am
Quoting PipGoddess
Yep - right on cue - GBP widened to 8 pips ( usually 3-4 ) & EUR widened to 3 ( usually 1.5-2 ). Euro is acceptable as most "lot" brokers are 3 on euro anyway

Guess it's best not to trade GBP if news announcements are your game. Most people choose GBP as it moves further faster - but 8 pips is major ground to cover when you're sure how many pips price is going to move because not all announcements cause a big spike.

Trade carefully peeps!
Unless a broker has FIXED spreads, the spreads will ALWAYS widen during periods of mono-directional movement. The broker HAS to feed you what their banks give them and Oanda just happens to operate this way.

MBT, IB, CoesFx...they ALL do the same thing as Oanda. They take the best bid price and best ask price and create the spread. The difference is that these 3 ECNs (or ECN models) do not build in an extra "fixed" portion of the spread (Oanda builds in a fixed 0.5 - 2 pips into their best price to act as commission). Instead ECNs will charge a fixed commission to make their money.

Most fixed-spread retail brokers will use other methods to offset their risk for fixing the spread. Obviously, some of these methods are less agreeable (like using stops to determine resistance and support, and then using that information to trade [which could turn out to be against your trade]). It's the risk for them to take on a fixed spread...period.

Folks, this is another one of those threads where we're focusing on the wrong aspect of trading. Oanda, and other variable-spread brokers, have never hidden the fact that their spreads may become wide during events or during extremely low volatility. Your trading systems need to account for this possibility OR go with someone else. This is not an Oanda issue (widening spreads)...this is just common sense supply and demand.

And if you must know...I DON'T use Oanda...but for other reasons...has nothing to do with how they operate. It has everything to do with how my system needs to be traded.
  • #13
  • Jul 19, 2006 9:44am Jul 19, 2006 9:44am
Quoting mrmikal
Unless a broker has FIXED spreads, the spreads will ALWAYS widen during periods of mono-directional movement. The broker HAS to feed you what their banks give them and Oanda just happens to operate this way.

MBT, IB, CoesFx...they ALL do the same thing as Oanda. They take the best bid price and best ask price and create the spread. The difference is that these 3 ECNs (or ECN models) do not build in an extra "fixed" portion of the spread (Oanda builds in a fixed 0.5 - 2 pips into their best price to act as commission). Instead ECNs will charge a fixed commission to make their money.

Most fixed-spread retail brokers will use other methods to offset their risk for fixing the spread. Obviously, some of these methods are less agreeable (like using stops to determine resistance and support, and then using that information to trade [which could turn out to be against your trade]). It's the risk for them to take on a fixed spread...period.

Folks, this is another one of those threads where we're focusing on the wrong aspect of trading. Oanda, and other variable-spread brokers, have never hidden the fact that their spreads may become wide during events or during extremely low volatility. Your trading systems need to account for this possibility OR go with someone else. This is not an Oanda issue (widening spreads)...this is just common sense supply and demand.

And if you must know...I DON'T use Oanda...but for other reasons...has nothing to do with how they operate. It has everything to do with how my system needs to be traded.
I use Oanda and I'm interested in this matter. It's not about the spread of Oanda, it'a bout beeing able to enter/exit a position in a volatile market. Having bigger spread on news should come with a quick execution, that's the whole idea, isn't it?
Try hard, think fast, die young
  • #14
  • Jul 19, 2006 10:07am Jul 19, 2006 10:07am
Quoting dof
I use Oanda and I'm interested in this matter. It's not about the spread of Oanda, it'a bout beeing able to enter/exit a position in a volatile market. Having bigger spread on news should come with a quick execution, that's the whole idea, isn't it?
I agree, the execution of a platform is a determining factor on the platform I choose to use...

However, I was commenting specifically on the few posts in the thread that were complaining about the variable spread. I think that complaint is invalid.

I think liquidity on sub-standard (< 100K) lot-sizes will always be a problem since the big banks won't accept those small orders. Therefore, any broker/ECN will have to either trade internally (customer to customer) OR take out a position directly against their users...hence why most ECNs require standard lots.

However, I agree, if Oanda is having execution problems...dump them.
  • #15
  • Jul 19, 2006 10:12am Jul 19, 2006 10:12am
Widening of spreads around major news at Oanda is very old news sorry to say, not something new as far as I am aware, I have been reading about this practice for a very long time. Most traders opinions, and mine also, is better a widened spread (3 on euro is still great) than a stalled server, re-quotes and client freezes as you get elsewhere in busy times.
You can quit and they won't care, but you will always know.
  • #16
  • Jul 19, 2006 10:15am Jul 19, 2006 10:15am
Quoting Akuma99
Widening of spreads around major news at Oanda is very old news sorry to say, not something new as far as I am aware, I have been reading about this practice for a very long time. Most traders opinions, and mine also, is better a widened spread (3 on euro is still great) than a stalled server, re-quotes and client freezes as you get elsewhere in busy times.
Oh yeah,
I caught 90 pips on today's move. It the platfom would have crashed, reqoutes or whatever... I wouldn't. So I prefer bigger spread and fast execution.
And yes, it's an old story about oanda and the spread.
Try hard, think fast, die young
  • #17
  • Jul 19, 2006 11:45pm Jul 19, 2006 11:45pm
Where you using Game or FXtrade? Some oanda traders spoke about this but no one had the problem with the real feed.

And people complaining about news spreads. LOL RTFM NOOB

Quoting Insider
I had a poundyen position open today that was up at one point about 35 pips.
Oanda was reflecting that I was up about 10.
I monitor 3 other feeds simultaneously.
I'm wondering what the heck is going on, markets moving pretty good.
I call, they tell me they will place a call to the traders and find out about it, and for me to call back.
I call back and they tell me it was a problem with the feed and it's fixed. By the way, every other currency pair was updating freely, but I had no positions in them. It was only the GBPJPY that was frozen, my only position.
I tell them I still don't think thier feed is representative of the market, now instead of being off by 20 pips it's off by 10. Ok call back.
And finally the price is reflective of the true market and I am no longer up 35 pips, which you could of guessed.

This is not the first time I have suspected Oanda of b-crap.

It is pretty coincidental we a have a strongly moving market and I can't trade. Don't ya think.

And, like I said, not the first time.

Peace

FYI
grist for the mill
  • #18
  • Jul 20, 2006 12:38am Jul 20, 2006 12:38am
Insider .... Actually the market has singled you out and will forevermore pick on you, we saw all your orders and just decided to slow them down ... then run them when you wer'nt looking

Naw, just messin with ya........
By the way it was only the game account at Oanda that had the glitch.
Same Whore .... Different Dress
  • #19
  • Jul 20, 2006 2:45am Jul 20, 2006 2:45am
I really don't like the broker bashing because I feel it detracts traders from what they really should be doing, and that's taking 100% responsibility for thier actions and trading.

At the same token, I'm a little tired of everyone gushing about how honest Oanda is. I felt this was important enough information to post, which is the real purpose of a forum like this.

It was a fxtrade. I trade a real account, with real money, and I am actually a profitable professional trader and I take money out of my account to pay my bills, which is alot more than many can say around here.

It is a somewhat serious concern. I don't appreciate the jokes johndoe.
I was planning a move anyway, and I'll watch it. There are some seriously good options out there for me brokerwise.

I don't know what the cause of it was, like I said it smelt bad, and was pretty convenient. Everyone can draw thier own conclusions. Today's a new day, and I'm gonna go make some money. Peace.
  • #20
  • Jul 20, 2006 6:56am Jul 20, 2006 6:56am
I dont like broker bashing, nor do I like poster bashing either, lay off both in my opinion, Insider, it has been the practice and well publicised by Oanda for many a month of their policy around News time, hence some of the sarcastic replies, but you don't deserve the jibes either.

If you are going to look for other retail brokers, I doubt your experience will be much better than at Oanda around major news times, if you are moving to an ECN .. well that might be different.
You can quit and they won't care, but you will always know.
0 traders viewing now