No problem, I didn't see MT4 on Oanda's site. Between Alpari and IBFX, which most closely tracks Oanda?
Both about the same I would say, although Oanda still has this annoying one or two second delay when price moves quickly, not executable quotes unfortunately, you get filled at the market price I doubt I've influenced your opinion but we could probably do with a satisfied GFT customer just to balance things out a bit!
You helped answer some relevant questions, and that has been appreciated. I have followed your ups and downs with Oanda over the past year or so (as well as the ups and downs of others), so I am not expecting perfection. I wish FXCM had not taken the postion that it has, but I cannot live with their terms. I honestly have no complaint about FXCM except for the manner in which US customers have been handled concerning OCO orders. That being said, I went live with Oanda last night, and so far, so good. One thing I have noticed is that on three trades so far, Oanda is 3/3 with at least a bit of slippage. A .9 pp spread is really not a .9 pip spread if they are going to clip and extra .2-.3 pips on the fill. A 3.7 spread is not really a 3.7 if they are going to slip .3 on the fill. But, I have my OCO orders, and I am back in business (the two previous weeks were disasters - how I wish I could have them back). One thing (in addition to contingent OCO orders) that I do really like with Oanda that is far different from FXCM is that I can place an entry order or move my stop loss as close to current price as I like so long as it is mathematically possible, i.e. so long as I set the order outside of the spread. At FXCM, entry orders had to be placed at greater than 5 pips (FXCM says 5, but that is not true - it must be 5.1 or more) away from current price. Last night I was 2/2 on a little scalp set up that I use all the time trading the 6E futures contract, but I was never able to make work consistently on spot FX. I don't know if you remember, some months ago I was trying to find another forex broker where I could try to make this work. All I ever got from people back then was posts saying "You just can't trade ... if you can trade futures you can trade spot ... it has nothing to do with the broker yada yada yada." Well, I knew that couldn't be true, as I make this set up work almost everyday on the 6E and 6B futures, but I almost never made it work on the spot. I thought it was due to the large spread. That may have been part of it, but last night I think I discovered the real reason. The strategy sets up with little notice, so I need to be able to set an entry order 2-3 pips from current market. Once in the trade, I move an initial 10 pip stop to BE once the trade is +2-3 pips. Profit target is 10-15 pips depending upon the pair, volatility, etc. I could never make this work at my former market maker, but the first two tries at Oanda brought me two +10 pip trades. The obstacle that I could not compensate for at the other market makers was the 5 pip restriction. I was not able to set the entry as favorable to me as I needed to, and I was unable to move the stop loss until price was 5+ pips in my favor. This caused a lot of +2-3 pip trades that should have stopped at BE to instead roll for a 5-10 pip loss. So, for now, I am happy again. I had a family event to attend today, so I missed all the action since late Asia through the current US session, but I am looking forward to getting back in to my groove again soon now that I am set up with Oanda. Thank you, ddaytrader
I'm pleased you're getting on with them and I agree about spread and slippage, I think the .9 advertised on Eur/Usd is to get people through the door, like you say in reality it's probably around 1.5. And good news about your futures strategy working! I think things like being able to place stops and limits where you like adds to the overall feeling that this is a broker who's not trying to screw me over at every opportunity, important psychologically as well as financially! I guess the true test will come when you get back in the swing of things and put it though it's paces, just watch out for widening spreads around data as they can be a bit fierce sometimes (20 or even 30 on Cable) Good luck!
I'm not much of a news trader, so it shouldn't affect me too much. I just have to make sure my stops are outside of the danger range if I am already in a position.