Would you mind to let us know your main concerns about "trading" with IDP since you started "using" it?
IDP ?...that's a new abbreviation for me..you mean IB's IDEALPRO? I have no concern at all!...It just a calculation of the best (most profitable) instrument for the Forex-pair. When You take into account the spreads in a specific IdealPro-pair and the spread in FX-futures, then for scalping strategies it will matter which has the tightest. Further the Leverage plays a big role. I have calculated that during RTH (Regular Trading Times 9:30-16:00 EST) the Futures are more interesting because during this time you get 1/2 Margin rules at IB. But outside RTH the IDEALPRO-tickers tends to be a better choice. Further the FX-futures do not have cross-pairs (like GBP.JPY and GBP.CHF) at least not Globex (IB offers recently the EUREXUS FX-futures as well, but they don't have much volume and tight spreads yet (hopefully that will change in future)) The nice thing is that IB offers both products (spot and futures) so you just take the best choice per pair and per time in the day.
I second that in regards to IdealPro during the number----perfect. I got fills on size in IdealPro that I could not get done in the futures. I trade IdealPro instead of the futures these days. Much easier to get size done in a fast market. In the futures I will only get so many contracts. Whereas in Idealpro ---I will end up getting my full position out. IdealPro has commissions (like Hotspot). But for scalping it is superior to Oanda. For that matter, Hotspot or Ideal Pro are superior for scalping. If someone is putting a position out there for a few days or weeks. Personally, I do not see the difference.
False. Oanda doesn't do shading. I've researched their dealing practices extensively, prior to commiting significant client assets. Care to provide links to any of those "comments here and there"? Hearsay and rumors hardly serve anyone. Hypothetically speaking, if Oanda were to engage in shading, it would be remarkably easy to turn it against them instantly, neutralizing it effectively. Thanks to sub-accounts, allowing simultaneous opposite positions. Enough said. Incidentally, no platform issues here before, during and after NFP yesterday.
As several profitable traders after switching to Oanda have openly mentioned becoming profitable or getting more profitable, any actions Oanda trying to earn more against these profitable traders would be possibly very foolish. Logically, my impression has been, Oanda could make huge money simply by front-running with hedged orders of adding say 1% over the aggregate quantity placed by these statistically profitable traders. Why should Oanda scare them away?
Search on Oanda's own forum and on Trade2win for comments on Oanda and pip shading. There is a long thread on Oanda's forum. As for Oanda being down during NFP. I see that some report of an outage, others don't. Oanda states that only their FXGame was down. Oanda states that all of those posting about problems on the live trading are liars. I see enough different posts out there to believe that live trading was inaccessible/down for some. Everything posted on these #@$ing forums could be rumors and hearsay. However I have made a tremendous amount of money from monitoring forums off-hours. Why? because it is money I have not lost from having my eyes gouged out - where I see any hint of smoke, I suspect fire. More often that not there has been fire. **** And to make things clear, at this point in my trading, the outage concerns are many magnitudes higher importance to me than price shading. When you look at the movements and vol after an event like NFP on 010606, it is not having access and not knowing your position because the system just went down that kills. ****
late_apex: Oanda shades against its net customer positions typically from 1.5 pips to zero pips. Compare its data feed with that of IdealPro or another interbank feed and you will detect times when the price is stable and the bid on one equals the ask on another. All these forex shops do some shading or other but the biggest problem for customers is slippage, not shading IMO, though the larger size you trade the larger the impact of shading on your profits: http://www2.oanda.com/cgi-bin/msgboard/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=004378#000000 Sympatico had some good comments in the thread above. Also the thread below is worth reading. There are lots of diverse opinions expressed within but my own opinion is that many of Oanda's customers are simply not sophisticated enough to recognize when they are being taken advantage of because Oanda is so subtle in how it delivers slippage or what some refer to as shading. Right now I am averaging 2.85 pips of slippage per round turn trade (single entry, single exit). This is in addition to the 1.5 pip spread so my effective cost to trade is 4.35 pips with Oanda. Your own slippage may vary depending on the type of strategy you employ, and for most people it will be less than what I experience. It is hard to measure the effect of shading on my positions, so it is not included in that number. http://www2.oanda.com/cgi-bin/msgboard/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=004838#000000 If you didn't trade between 8:30 and 8:45 you probably didn't notice any problems on your FXTrade platform. Right after I put on my first trade at 8:29:58 the platform froze, went blank and I had to relog in. Coincidence? Between 8:30 and 8:45 I had to log in 4 times due to continuing problems - there was freezing on some orders and I was mysteriously filled at the worst possible price. Again, coincidence? A friend didn't trade at that time and that friend's platform had no disconnects or problems. Coincidence?
I've been closely monitoring Oanda users' forum for a very long time. And yes, I am intimately familiar with the "long thread" you're referring to. That thread is actually misnamed: it has very little to do with individualized "price shading" and everything to do with differences between Oanda's price feed and others' price feeds. Let's at least get our terms right if we are to have an intelligent discussion. The statement you'd made earlier, to which I replied, was specifically about "price shading based on your positions." To prove the existence of such a practice at Oanda, all one would need to do is post a screen shot of 2 dealing windows from 2 Oanda accounts side by side, showing different bid or ask in at least 1 currency pair. Everything else is just talk. Should be a piece of cake, right?