I have long believed that the two best choices for Fx were likely to be Oanda and IB. I once had another fx account but didn't enjoy the impure bucket shop model they practiced. I liked IB for the ECN model. I liked Oanda for the size flexibility and fully self contained well respected internal model. But there is a thread on the competition that raises the question of capital protection. It appears that Oanda does not protect your capital ... should there be a run on the bank of should they simply fail then the secured creditors keep your money: "Funds deposited by clients are held in accounts maintained at highly reputable banks, such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, etc. (Note: funds are not insured and do not receive protection from bankruptcy)" http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?p=359747 So, what's the story here. Are we at risk with cash deposited with Oanda? Are we at any less risk with IB?
Since in the market places, it's all about screwing or be screwed and not about a fair redistribution of wealth, trust is a nice word. Have you noticed in the IB account window, even in the demo, under the column liquidate last the word NO, written in capital letters? Certainly just a way to remind you that you have to watch your investments. IB and Oanda have enough capital and they might still be around the next years. But if you want to have trust in something or someone, get a dog . So my advice would be to keep just enough money you need to trade and the level of % in terms of interests will probably be almost the same at your local bank.