It had not spiked down. If it had, it should be shown on every timeframe. Ivanovich, You never complain on Oanda... strange. And on almost every post against them, You are there to add some of Your words which will say that You manage a 6-digit account, no problems, several years. And also You are a moderator and on ET for many years. Marketing? Almost obvious. Oanda does not discourage You from playing a fast game officialy. They say there are no lower limits for the duration od a trade. What they call "scalping" is benefiting from "latency issues" which I am not doing. My friend plays a fast game opens a trade with stops an TP's like few pips and can be very profitable. But it is with very small capital, and still strange things happen without any known reason on Oanda. They are not honest and everyone should be warned.
If you ever see a trade triggered when according to the charts it should not have been, simply disconnect and reconnect to allow the platform to reload the price history from the server. 99.9% of the time you will see that price did indeed reach the level your trade was triggered at. If after doing this the situation remains the same, contact Oanda and complain.
I've posted my Oanda trade activity around today's NFP, some of those trades only lasted a matter of seconds and I had absolutely no 'strange things' happening. Sure there was slippage which was fine given the market conditions. Like KarateChop said, complain to Oanda if you think orders haven't been handled correctly and then let us know what happened. If it's an error on Oanda's part I think you need to give them an opportunity to resolve it first before calling them dishonest, after all you're new to the business and may have misunderstood something. I'm sure Ivan is perfectly capable of answering for himself but I think you're barking up the wrong tree if you believe he has an ulterior motive for defending Oanda.
It seems the issue is really with the Oanda min/max chart. If you were to spend any amount of time comparing the min/max chart to a candlestick chart you would notice that those types of discrepancies appear all the time. If you had also bothered to look at a candlestick or OHLC chart at the time of your stop-loss being hit you would have noticed the price spiking down. The issue is not that Oanda pricing is unreliable, it is that the min/max chart is unreliable - the easy solution is don't use it! I have also used Oanda as a broker in the past and found them to be superb. The issues you have highlighted obviously stem from your lack of proper research and preparation. You clearly spent no time comparing the different charts to see which type would be most suitable, and you appear to been completely unaware that Oanda increase their spreads during news events, even though that is clearly and plainly stated on their website. For those that have constant problems with connection, I would suspect it is because you are using a demo account. Oanda's demo server is completely separate, apparently in a different location and clearly very flaky - but that's what you get for free!
I have a trick of my own to make sure that brokers (by mistake or intentionally) do not play against me. right before any stop, I place an opposite order of say $1 (incorporate the bid ask spread). They have to fill it first before getting to my stop. That way if they hit the stop, and do not hit the one dollar $1, then I get the proof of wrong doing. If they do things intentionally, then they will think twice before doing it to me (if they do it, they will make sure that my account is in a "do not play games with this guy").
I don't know when you were trading with Oanda but if you didn't have any problems you must have been extremely lucky! Connection issues have been going on forever on FXTrade (their live trading platform), just take a look at their forums! Here are a few links to get you started.... DISCONNECTED FXTRADE disconnected Desconected AGAIN...whats new ??? Disconnect Apr. NFP Connection Down Connection Down big problems during NFP ! grrrr
I stopped trading at Oanda a little over a year ago, when I moved to a broker that supplies futures. Apparently I didn't have problems with Oanda because I didn't try scalping during news events. Unfortunately it seems that's what all the new kids want to do - I don't blame them, if you look at a chart you can see all that free money... The best feature of Oanda is not the ability to place tiny trades, or their (usually) very tight spreads, it's the interest they provide on any deposit amount and any open position. However only reasonably long-term trades/traders benefit from this. A broker is a financial tool as much as the instrument being traded - choose the right tool for the job! If traders want to profit from news trading then surely they could figure out for themselves not to use Oanda (they widen spreads during news you know!) I also think it is peculiarly ironic that so many of these malcontents complain that they can't connect - if they think their broker is trying to rob them, then surely not being able to connect is a blessing?
As you can see from the links I posted and from other threads on their forums, connection issues didn't just affect news traders. The same connection problems existed when you say you were trading with them in 2006/7, I'm surprised you didn't experience the same as everyone else did, as I say you must have been very lucky. No trading is ever 'free money' as there is always an element of risk involved, but as demonstrated trading market reaction to data releases and news can be extremely profitable despite widening spreads if you know what you're doing, unfortunately most novice traders don't. Why exclude yourself from potentially lucrative trading opportunities just because you've read somewhere that news trading is 'bad' or because you simply haven't learnt how to exploit those types of market conditions? Interest on open positions can be a bonus but equity growth is obviously the prime motive for trading. For the average daytrader any interest paid is negligible, if not offset by interest charged. If your goal is receiving interest on your equity rather than growth then you're right, choose the right tool for the job and a trading environment probably isn't it! The major benefits of trading with Oanda are simplicity of their trading platform and order types, variable position sizing right down to 1 unit which allows for sensible money management, and low overhead (spread). Interest paid is a very minor consideration. Being able to connect to, and stay connected to, a broker's platform isn't really expecting too much from an online broker, after all online trading is what they offer! For a company like Oanda who have no back-up telephone trading a reliable connection and robust platform are even more important.
I never said I think it's wrong. I just said that if you try to scalp in an environment where slippage is common on a platform that tends to be rather laggy, then you get what you deserve. Oanda and other market makers don't like scalpers, and I don't blame them. If you're a trader like me who makes long term technical and fundamental trades, then OAnda is just peachy.