Hello, I've been testing out the FXGame platform on Oanda and I was wondering if someone could tell me what differences I would notice when switching from FXGame (test) to FXTrade (live). Also, is it typical for Oanda to keep a spread of 20+ pips for around a minute on GBP/USD during an economic release (retail sales that came out a little while ago)?
i believe Oanda use FXGame for beta testing something new they add to the platform however there's no difference as far as i'm concerned when using FXTrade, fills - both entries and exits are 'instant', tho i'm trading a small sum, not sure if the same would be true when trading many Lots; there was a problem with the order entry buttons that was resolved: http://www2.oanda.com/cgi-bin/msgboard/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=17;t=005112 you can view the 7 day history of spreads here: http://fxtrade.oanda.com/forex_trading/why_trade_with_oanda/spreads/recent_oanda_spreads "Global market liquidity and volatility can result in large spread increases on the foreign exchange markets following news announcements, . . . " however i'm not sure that Every announcement will result in a spread increase, an increase may only occur if the Actual is well above/below the Concensus, not just because there's an announcement generally the increased spread accomodates most of the sub-second H-L price swings that occur in a 'fast market' the only other matter about spreads is to note what the current spread is depending on the time of day you're trading, the euro for instance may go from .9 to 2.5 if one's on the right side of the market with a trade, looking for a higher/lower price, the spread shouldn't be a problem since it will return to the norm, it does make a difference tho if one's trying to 'trade the news'
Aye, I'm not too worried about the spread price. I used to work for a prop firm and had access to EBS/Currenex. For the most part, the bid/ask on Oanda seems to follow along with what I remember of the bid/ask on the real markets. It was just at the economic release that Oanda got extremely protective... and I believe had a spread much greater than what I'd expect to see on EBS/Currenex. It's a concern, but not a dealbreaker. As for Game vs Trade, are there any features exclusive to FXTrade or is it exactly the same platform, but with real money?