First of all, below I will go into the facts of my trading system and how I trade it. This info will help others here answer my question at the end of this message.
I have been trading on an Oanda demo account using an EA and it has been doing fairly well (in a demo account – not a live account).
I trade 12 currencies on my EA. It is a “set and forget” EA. I use a 2:1 ratio as my risk/reward. Therefore, I have a 15 SL & 30 TP for some of my currency pairs and a 20 SL & 40 TP on the other pairs. Due to the Daily pip totals shrinking in the Forex market lately, I’m actually considering lowering the SL & TP on all my pairs by 5 pips each. But for the moment I have it as I have wrote above. The trades often lasts for about 24 hrs (sometimes a little more, sometimes less). I generally average about 20 – 25 trades per week.
The problem is that I’ve read some bad things here at FF about the huge widening spreads of Oanda on their live account during certain times. So now I am having second thoughts if it is even possible for my trading system to be successful on a live Oanda account. In fact, I am wondering if all MT4 brokers are the same and it might be impossible to have success with my trading system on any MT4 broker.
I need to know if it is possible to trade with an MT4 broker using a 2:1 ratio of 15 SL & 30 TP and 20 SL & 40 TP and not have Oanda consistently stop out my trades due solely with their widening spreads and other tactics. I don’t want to waste my money & time if a MT4 forex broker is going to rob me the majority of the time with widening spreads or whatever tactic. I can handle it if it’s a once in a while thing. But not if it’s the majority of the time.
Has anyone been able to trade consistently with Oanda, using 10 – 20 pip stop losses? Is it a waste of time and money to try to trade with 10 – 20 pip SL’s with MT4 brokers such as Oanda and FXCM?
I am not expecting a “perfect” broker. But what good does it do to have a good trading system if it becomes basically useless if the broker is causing 20 pip spikes (or more) in the spread and then you are automatically stopped out? If that is the case, then anyone using 10 – 20 pip stop losses (such as I do) have no chance to be successful in forex trading.
My fear is that no matter how great an EA might be - using SL’s of 10 to 20 pips – in the end it could be impossible to be successful if the broker is consistently causing huge widening spreads. Again, I don’t know for sure if this is a really big problem with MT4 brokers such as Oanda, but I am just going by what I’ve read at a few places here at Forex Factory.
So again, the question is: If an EA using 10 – 20 pips SL’s is successful on a Oanda demo account (with Take Profit at 2:1 ratio), can it also be successful on a live Oanda broker account? Or, are there too many times the spread widens in which it will stop out too many of my trades? If such a situation will not be successful with Oanda, then what MT4 broker should I use? (I am in the United States, therefore I assume I will need a U.S. Broker). Does anyone have experience of using a live MT4 account using around 10 – 20 pip stop losses? If so, have the sudden wide spreads and spikes caused you to get stopped out the majority of the time?
I have been trading on an Oanda demo account using an EA and it has been doing fairly well (in a demo account – not a live account).
I trade 12 currencies on my EA. It is a “set and forget” EA. I use a 2:1 ratio as my risk/reward. Therefore, I have a 15 SL & 30 TP for some of my currency pairs and a 20 SL & 40 TP on the other pairs. Due to the Daily pip totals shrinking in the Forex market lately, I’m actually considering lowering the SL & TP on all my pairs by 5 pips each. But for the moment I have it as I have wrote above. The trades often lasts for about 24 hrs (sometimes a little more, sometimes less). I generally average about 20 – 25 trades per week.
The problem is that I’ve read some bad things here at FF about the huge widening spreads of Oanda on their live account during certain times. So now I am having second thoughts if it is even possible for my trading system to be successful on a live Oanda account. In fact, I am wondering if all MT4 brokers are the same and it might be impossible to have success with my trading system on any MT4 broker.
I need to know if it is possible to trade with an MT4 broker using a 2:1 ratio of 15 SL & 30 TP and 20 SL & 40 TP and not have Oanda consistently stop out my trades due solely with their widening spreads and other tactics. I don’t want to waste my money & time if a MT4 forex broker is going to rob me the majority of the time with widening spreads or whatever tactic. I can handle it if it’s a once in a while thing. But not if it’s the majority of the time.
Has anyone been able to trade consistently with Oanda, using 10 – 20 pip stop losses? Is it a waste of time and money to try to trade with 10 – 20 pip SL’s with MT4 brokers such as Oanda and FXCM?
I am not expecting a “perfect” broker. But what good does it do to have a good trading system if it becomes basically useless if the broker is causing 20 pip spikes (or more) in the spread and then you are automatically stopped out? If that is the case, then anyone using 10 – 20 pip stop losses (such as I do) have no chance to be successful in forex trading.
My fear is that no matter how great an EA might be - using SL’s of 10 to 20 pips – in the end it could be impossible to be successful if the broker is consistently causing huge widening spreads. Again, I don’t know for sure if this is a really big problem with MT4 brokers such as Oanda, but I am just going by what I’ve read at a few places here at Forex Factory.
So again, the question is: If an EA using 10 – 20 pips SL’s is successful on a Oanda demo account (with Take Profit at 2:1 ratio), can it also be successful on a live Oanda broker account? Or, are there too many times the spread widens in which it will stop out too many of my trades? If such a situation will not be successful with Oanda, then what MT4 broker should I use? (I am in the United States, therefore I assume I will need a U.S. Broker). Does anyone have experience of using a live MT4 account using around 10 – 20 pip stop losses? If so, have the sudden wide spreads and spikes caused you to get stopped out the majority of the time?
"Trading is a mental sport." - Ziad Masri