Oanda will give you more flexibility in terms of position sizing since you can do whatever size you want. With TOS the minimum is 10,000. So it depends on your account size and how big of positions you want. Oanda has 50:1 and TOS has 100:1 leverage. Also consider trading multiple pairs because it will give you more setups and info. Trade whatever is moving. EUR/USD, EUR/JPY, and USD/JPY you give a lot of options and let you analyze the relationships
Actually I was going to stick with TOS because I like the platform and did not want to learn another one (I have demo'd many platforms and investigated many brokers), but now, after exploring some of their features, it is on my list for the weekend. I also didn't like the only 50:1 margin, but if I am willing to trade 1/4 of my account on 100:1, why not trade 1/2 my account on 50:1? I will also do some spread studies too, to decide my instrument (if the EUR/USD has 5 tradable moves of 25 pips, the spread is x, and I expect to catch one 25% of my trades..., and so on with the EUR/JPY). However, I did take a brief look at the spreads at 1:00 eastern today, to see that the eur/usd with oanda was 1.2 while the eur/jpy was still hanging around 2.7. Based entirely on percentages, this should be almost exactly half the commission. This would increase my profit potential greatly during london and early american hours, when I have time in those frames (likely summer only, though). If profit potential is roughly even during the school year, I think I will make the switch to the eur/usd. Wonder if I need to change my thread title though or start a new one, lol.
Start of my trading day at 5:30. Rules read. Pivots calculated. Looking for entries at the 5min as promised Short about 149
I will also be monitoring the spreads on the EUR/USD and EUR/JPY throughout the session on Oanda to see if a change either to Oanda, EUR/USD, or both is justified. I am also working on learning their platform, although I only got through an hour of that before I reached 12 hours of trading last week (my goal was 10/week)... Let's have some fun.
Hmmm, 10 pip profit turned into 3 pip loss before I exited as rallied through downtrend line while I was writing in my journal... Just another stupid ass problem I keep having. Talk about encouragement for writing in your journal, haha.
Forgot to keep pivot midpt in mind, as they are on separate charts ( I find trends better Oanda but charts better TOS). We will see if I pay for it.
Definitely paid for that one. Lost about 7% or so, and went out to dinner. Back now and waiting for a new setup. Short 148.93
Daily reflection Monday 9/15/08 I think I am starting to see a pattern develop with my trading, but itâs not the one I want. My reflections and journals keep getting more depressing. Anyway, there was a lot that didnât go that well today. In 14 trades over three hours (at least I cut down on my trades), I lost 15%. This number is a tad skewed however, as TOS raised their spreads on me to 4 pips rather than three, and also to three rather than two on the EUR/USD as well. It really wasnât that sweet. Then, I decided to employ one of the more uncreative and rather pitiful strategies â I donât want to say it, but itâs really not any more impressive than the MA crossover. Anyway, I entered 11 trades in an hour and lost 2% on these. Not quite sure how, but these added up to a whopping 10% account loss (I may have forgotten to write down a couple big losers, I really donât know. Remember I am only trading 1/7 of my account, but donât worry itâs almost down to 1/6). Anyway, Iâm starting to notice with forex, or at least my pair, that reversals and big moves do not occur so much on breakouts rather than reversals. In fact, it seems that breakouts happen, then there is a string of short-covering or selling, and then the move dies. Some of them have meat on them still, but it really doesnât seem like any more than a breakeven strategy, except maybe for the most perfect pennants, wedges, and longer term trendlines. Good notes: I have cut down looking at the 5 second chart almost entirely, except for sharpshooting acceleration moves â this cuts a lot of noise and emotion out of trading that Iâm not sure Iâm ready for. The 30 second isnât as precise but it is easier and helps me manage my trades better in many cases. Thatâs about it on good notes. I should just watch for a session: I learn a lot when I do that, although it takes more patience than I think I have sometimes.