I've used Oanda for a few months now and don't have any serious complaints about them. I pulled the following image from their website, and I think it should sum everything up pretty clearly (found at http://fxtrade.oanda.com/forex_trading/why_trade_with_oanda/feature_execution.shtml): Obviously, Oanda is trying to represent the fact that you are playing on their turf. When you are playing their game, you play within their rules. They could say, EURUSD is trading at 1.200 right now and it really shouldn't matter because that number is real in the Oanda world and that is what you are trading, you are not trading the rates listed on the CMC or IB platform. I like to think of these retail FX shops (Oanda, CMC, FXCM, etc) as a fast food restaurant. If I pull up to McDonald's and ask for a flame broiled hamburger - they will only laugh because they don't give a shit if I tell them that Burger King will cook my all-beef patty over a flame and serve it my way. With experience, you learn what choices are available from where you are shopping.
Thanks for the post.......but it still doesn't explain the move. It's fine to say Oanda can by rights flex their muscles and in effect do what they like as it's all in the agreement, but why would they (or their liquidity/data providers) move prices so far away for that 10 seconds? Sure, like any marketmaker Oanda streams prices they are prepared to deal at and it's up to the trader to accept the price or not (unless it's a stop that's been hit then it's out of their hands). It's Oanda's prerogative to quote what they like, fill what they like, reverse trades they don't like, run stops, miss limits, give slippage, it's their house and they make the rules, we all know that, but there is such a thing as integrity. Most marketmakers stay within a few pips of the underlying market otherwise they wouldn't be able to hedge their excess exposure. No marketmaker would intentionally leave themselves open to arbitrage, and certainly not to the degree that Oanda appears to have done in that video. Oanda is no different, they keep prices pretty close to market most of the time for the reason mentioned but every now and then their prices move way off. Why? We all know they can do it, the question is why would they do it? Common sense says it's got to be for their own benefit and therefore at the trader's expense. Now, if they're prepared to do something as blatant as that then what else are they capable of doing intentionally? Slippage? Platform disconnections and freezes? Missed take profit orders, triggered stops etc etc etc You haven't actually said anything which explains the video. And how you can say "They could say, EURUSD is trading at 1.200 right now and it really shouldn't matter because that number is real in the Oanda world and that is what you are trading" is beyond me, of course it makes a difference if you're long with a stop at 1.2010! As for burgers at McD's, in theory they could serve you a cold turd sandwich......and there are probably thousands of their customers who wouldn't notice the difference! (Hmmm, come to think of it that's not such a bad analogy )
Actually, I wasn't trying to explain the quotes from the video - nor can I. Maybe it was a computer glitch or maybe Oanda really is the boogeyman out to suck the remaining pennies from every pikers account; all I know is that shit happens and I either find a different service provider or deal with the occasional issues. My point was that you always hear squeaky wheels whining about issues they are in control of. Consumers (or traders) have a choice on who to do business with. You're right about the golden arches - billions and billions served!
Exactly.....and that choice should be an informed choice based on research. Hopefully this thread will be included in that research, if the reader can't see the significance then he probably deserves all he gets, he probably won't even taste the difference anyway if that's the case
Cabletrader you can NOT trade news with Oanda, this is nothing new the spread change every time a news hit , Oanda is not a ECN . Sometimes only 1 rate open the spread why? because for example if Uk pull some news you will see GBP/USD opening the spread in oanda is sad but normal... Its true sometimes the quotes love to go deeper to hit the stops I dont think oanda will fix the spread on news problem.:eek:
Hi BacOn This isn't a news trading or spread issue, Oanda's spreads were more or less back to normal but their quotes were way off any other marketmaker on the planet as you can see from the screenshot below and from this video. I asked them why but they refuse to explain it so you can draw your own conclusions. It makes no difference to me now anyway as I've closed all the accounts and dumped Oanda. Marketmaking is a competitive business and there's no need for anyone to put up with garbage like that. At least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask, these people are blatant and they really don't seem to care what their customers think! They give spot forex marketmakers a bad name. ~
the same on 1minute chart ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????