It's not the industry which has let the little guy in, far from it, if they had we'd all be able to trade at UBS and Fimat with our $500! No, the interbank market is still very much a closed shop to the private speculator with limited capital. Bucketshops are a separate industry altogether, a new breed of bookmakers if you will, taking bets on currencies instead of horse races. The problems being experienced now are the result of allowing bucketshops to spring up and offer off-exchange trading which only vaguely reflects the underlying market, more or less unregulated and with a free rein to do exactly what they want with impunity. They make up their own rules and prices to suit themselves and it's become a free-for-all for firms which lack any sort of integrity, it's an open invitation to steal money from the gullible and some shops have taken full advantage of the opportunity! As far as strict regulation for bucketshops goes it would be extremely welcome and long overdue, in fact it may already be in the pipeline if it's included in this task force's remit, let's just hope they bite as well as they bark!
Well, they would not just regulate the bucketshops, they would regulate everyone. Can you imagine the outrage on this board if they adopted 25k account minimums for the PDT rule (you know, to protect the little guy from himself). Can you imagine if they banned micro accounts. Or worse, if they made you pass an exam to trade FX (series 7 anyone)? Like the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. I think one of the things that actually draws people to FX is the fact that it IS unregulated. People like the wild wild west aspect of FX trading.
Great! Minimum 25k, an entrance exam, that's a fantastic idea! Seriously, the rogue bucketshops who thrive and live off the gullible underfunded novices would go bust, the only ones who would survive would have to offer a reasonable deal to the more experienced properly funded traders who tend to be a little more astute and know when they're being screwed over. The pocket-change brigade would just have to go and play the slots or something for their jollies, at least it would get them out of the house! With proper regulation and a cull of the FX cowboys this could actually be quite a respectable business to be involved in. When anyone asks me now what I do for a living I tell them I'm a market analyst because I'm too embarrased to admit I'm associated with the cesspit called forex! Wow, respectability might be on the horizon, that would be a first
Iâm sorry if this isnât the right place to ask but I figured someone could answer now that youâre speaking about Oanda. I want to know if thatâs a broker or a trading platform, I keep getting confused.
You mean regulate like all those discount Futures brokers with their $300 intraday-margins and $2500 account minimums? Granted, the minimums are a bit higher, but really only a bit. You can piss away a small account just as easily in a highly regulated market like futures daytrading, and people are doing it every day. On top of that, the futures broker can have technical problems (like the one described in this thread) and show you the middlefinger on your compensation request. Happens on a fairly routine basis too. Its not that much different to FX really.
Oanda's late outages look like platform issues to me... Actually I don't see any problems here: so many ways to trade currencies. You like Oanda - you trade Oanda, you don't - you trade IDEALPRO @ IB or GLOBEX 6E @ IB, also ICE started currency futures with a size of 1M (should be very good comission wise vs. several contracts of 6E traded at once)... Indeed we invent problems for ourselves...
Oanda is probably one of the best outfit to trade spot. If you think you can find better and with low spreads and security of funds. You go ahead and try. I think IBFX is pretty good too, but their spreads are terrible compared to Oanda.
If you had a bad execution during the move last week, you should just talk to Oanda and they will give you a refund. After all not so bad, OANDA.