OANDA Discussion

Oanda are known for there low spreads and transparent reliable service. I am currently switching to them myself. However, With the lot size and technique you are using, Oanda is not for you. There are far superior brokers for players like yourself. Oanda. are a market maker and can move the spread wherever they want, at anytime, including after you have just clicked enter so that you get requoted for a worse fill. I know of one in particular but at your request I will refrain from mentioning them and keep this discussion to oanda. You wont know for sure until you try them out with a live account. Apart from spread and execution, the other concern is security. Oanda is well capitalised and regulated. keep in mind that with both these brokers the spread is not fixed and varies depending on liquidity and can blow out as much as 20 pips or more prior to news releases. Oanda is not for you imo expat, keep looking

sorry for my english..
hello..i'm new here.. after reading and studying for 2 months in this forum, now i'm very interested in Forex..
i'd like to go live account.. not much just $5k as a start..my friend told me that fxdd just ok..
could anyone give me some input, if fxdd is good enough? (i mean no stoploss hunt, fake price, difficulty in withdrawal, and chances the broker run away or go bankrupt?)

thank you for all reply.. this forum is giving me a lot of information and full of kind people..

not recommend you go FXDD.

Oanda is a good starting place for newbie.deposit 10% of your fund there and trade small size there first until you become master

hmm..10%, i think you're right,practice with small account first.. does Oanda has micro lot?? thx for your input..

Been with Oanda for a long time with no problems. Recommend to anyone.

slippage can be minimized by specifing an upper and lower bound for your entry price, and the spread is really just 0.9 pips if you dont trade during new releases (I know you dont.)

On the other hand the platform is not as customizable as MT4 and you only get 1:50 margin, so you may not be able to trade all the contracts you're used to.

Try their demo this weekend!

PS: i sent you a pm!

if you like your broker why would you change? is my input going to help you like another broker differently?

Plus
trade units rather than lots so very flexible can even trade 1 penny per pip.
interest paid on balance in account, even when not trading.
stable platform
low spreads during other than news times.
tech and sales help readily available

Minus
spread changes, some times quite a lot, around news times.
no trailing stops
very basic and limited chart indicator package

Oanda's spread will widen during news events. Once you understand this, it isn't a problem. The flip side of this are the brokers who promise fixed spreads. They deal with news events by requoting and/or freezing the platform. The wider spreads are so much easier and less stressful to deal with.

I've been with Oanda for some time and have yet to have any problems with them. Of course I wasn't in the GBP last year when the spread widened to 200 pips either, lol.

oanda is very good
sometimes it disconnects at important moments...
but usually is very fast and reliable
and they allow scalping
1:50 leverage is more than enough for me

Hi Expat,

I have been reading ur thread with keen interest, but not in a positin to contribute to it yet. But I can give you some insight, and information that might help you decide in which direction you want to go.

Oanda has many many pros, but a few disadvantages (which hvae been significan to for me). I will list them below for you, with some other alternatives

PROS.
-Very good broker, funds are as safe as they can be in the spot forex field
-scalping is allowed
- tight spreads during liquid times and quite often outside these times as well
- can trade off the charts, ie move sl or tp on the charts itself
- interest paid daily on account
- total flexibility on what size trade u want to do
- can access ur account from anywhere, as is java based
- honest broker, quick deposit and withdrawal processing
- limit orders (entry, tp and sl) usually honoured and no hanky panky in trying to slip you on purpose

DISADVANTAGES:
- price on chart lags price on server most of the time, ie you could click at 1.5780, and u could be filled at anything. Big slippage (ie in excess of 1-2pips) will only happen if market is moving fast.
- once you start to become profitable on a consistent basis, you will basically get slipped about 1 pip either at entry or exit
- to close position, you need to click more than once (clicking to have the close button ready is counted as having to click once)


BIGGEST DISADVANTAGE
-This is the reason I do not trade with Oanda anymore. Over the last few mths, their platform seems to just disconnect for no apparent reason, even if the market is not moving like grease lightening. Most of the time it will re-connect in anwhere b/w10-30sec. Once it did not, and just would not re-connect. I rang up customer service, and the person at the other end told me it was due to an ISP b/w them and my own ISP that had caused this disconnection. I had a position open, and wanted to put a sl on it. "I'M SORRY, WE DO NOT TAKE POSITION ORDERS OVER THE PHONE, YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL YOU ARE ABLE TO RE-CONNECT" was their response. I use mental stops, so that was a very hard thing to listen to, psychologically. I withdrew all my money the next day. With your style of trading, I would assume this could potentially be an influencing factor.

I used to be a biggg advocate for Oanda, even over ECN and currenex, because after you added the spread+commisions on ECNs, the total cost of doing business came to more than oanda's spreads or abt the same, very rarely less. Add in the interest paid on account, very good rollover rates, etc, and oanda could probably beat the hell out of a lot of ECNs.

Now to the other options that you may or may not have considered. I am making these suggestions based on the assumptions formed from reading your thread
- you trade a minimum of 800k per trade (on a 20k acct that would be 60:1 leverage). for the benefit of ppl who will no doubt correct me abt my maths, my calculation is based on 800k eur (which is abt 1.2M USD on a 20k acct).
- the broker should have no restrictions on level of tp and sl


My suggestion would be to look at ECNs before you make your final decision.
Most ECNs you will get about 0.5 spread majority of the time. anything more, and you move on to the next broker. The othe major cost is commision, which is all negotiable based on volume. I put your volume at about about 160M per mth (8M per day - 4M in, 4M out, calculated from 5 trades per day at 800k each). At that volume, you should be to negotiate fees down to about $25/M. That puts the cost of a eur/usd trade at 0.76pips roundturn. Add in the 0.5pip spread, so total cost is 1.26pips. Currently you are doing 5pips gross, giving u 3pip net, with the above figures, you will be getting about .74 pips more if you continued with the same sl and tp levels. To some that might seem petty, but I am sure you will be able to see the compunded effect of that extra pip profit, if you do trade the volume you say you do. I personally think you should be able to reduce the commission down to about $20/M, but that is something to be negotiated.

The brokers I would suggest to contact first are Hotspotfxi, and Dukascopy. Not sure of your account size, but if you have $200k, with Dukas you can transfer just 20% of that to the trading account, and have the rest sitting in a Prime Bank in your own account, and the transactions are settled everyday straight into the account. There are others that may be better, but I believe you require over 1M or so to access them. Another one to take note of is PFG, their commission is 30/M, but could be negotiated I am sure.

I realise that you wanted specific information on Oanda, and I apologise in advance if you find all this not relevant. Wish you all the best.

Following your thread with keen interest as well.


Regards,
K.

I know the pip spread changes but when you are scalping it doesnt matter. I do not trade around the news time anyways. Too unpredictable. I downloaded their platform. It seems easy to use but I have been using another broker for the charts. I just wanted to see if anyone had any problems withdrawing money or getting help when needed.

They're one of the best. If you do scalping and don't trade during news, choose Oanda. I scalp as well and get almost no slippage and instant fills.

Regards - Xaron

I have been using their demo account and am quite impressed. I do not like their charting software so I use another platform but I have made more money in my demo account in two days that usually takes me a week. Thanks for the input.

What s the spread for usd.?

Zu

Usually, except at news time, the E/$ is 9/10th of a pip. If a scalper gets a one pip move they are in profit already. I really like O. but their platform is clunky. They have the hightest capitalization of any broker - $137 mil! p.

Good one for scalper.

Thanks.

Zu

Hi
I hared about them and I like the company but I have same questions about it.
And hoping that I will get answers from any one who is dealing with them.
1- I didn’t find it on the nfa list of brokers so is it safe?
I mean if any one makes money from it and withdraw it to his bank account.

2- How much time did the transaction take (in and out from the account at oanda to the bank account)?

3- Any one on the forum from Egypt trade with them?

3- I am trying what you can call it short term trader on demo accounts off course till now so in the actual live account can I do it with oanda i mean is there any tricks like widen the spreads during the news?

Hoping to get same answers and thanks for your help in advance

Widening of the spread around news is not a trick it is called THE SPOT FX MARKET. They are registered and one of the biggest companies in the US/CA. They do accept egyptians.

hello , I am wondering which brokers use the oands software?

I know about ABN AMRO but that's it , anyone else?

andrew