people like you are truly evil, you do everything you can to trick the new people you are trading with Oanda large account, and you expect me to believe you refuse IB even though they have insurance Oanda pays nothing when they go under.
I don't follow you. Trading forex successfully has nothing to do with size. For futures it does have though. But it has everything to do with moneymanagement and the timeframes you trade. I am not trying to trick anybody.
I'm surprised no one used the 3 letter acronym "ECN" yet. Comparing ECN brokers (e.g. MB Trading, IB) with non-ECN brokers (e.g. Oanda, IBFX) is apples and oranges. I didn't believe this a couple of years ago but I'm a believer now. Non-ECN brokers are crooks. ECN brokers are the only truly transparent brokers. It all boils down to who's your counter-party. Is it some other anonymous trader out there? Or is it your broker? I'd much rather trade against a real bid/ask from a real trader than a synthetic bid/ask thrown up by my counter-party broker.
Oanda take the other side of most traders trades. But they don't rig the market. They don't need to. 95% fail on there own. Those who don't fail they hedge against. That simple.
Widening the spread during a news event is robbery. ECNs don't widen the spread because there is no spread. There are just other traders' bids and asks in the order queue. Is there slippage during news? Sure. But fixed spread brokers widen the spread and you have no choice but to take a *guaranteed* slippage to enter and exit. On an ECN the bid/ask changes all the time and you can potentially get way better terms even during a fast moving market.
Jeez, hasn't this topic been beaten to death about a hundred times now on ET? ECN, bucketshop, institutional, forex, futures.....none of it don't mean diddly if you can't trade profitably in the first place! If a bit of price shading and slippage or the occasional mysterious spike is the difference between profit and loss then you're in the crapper regardless of which broker or market you choose!
You're absolutely right about the trading aspect. But why trade with a built-in disadvantage all the time?
Sure, but I think it depends on what someone needs from their broker, ECN might not suit everyone's trading style, same as a bucketshop might not.
Allow me to re-phrase: "ECN might not suit everyone's trading style, bucketshop NEVER suit anyone's trading style" If you like bucket shops, you probably like casinos. Winners consider trading to be a business. Losers keep looking at trading as a hobby. The latest don't mind bucket shops, as they like to be pampered while being robbed of their capital.