you forgot to add commission to your spreads, at oanda you don't pay any commissions, so be carefull of the real cost. IB is also not so easy cuase it depends on your size pretty much. At IB 1 pip spread is more realistic during european hours (and that's without the commission).
Not all brokers charge 3 pips and there are other ways to play the game and do well with rebates...but I won't bother for an idiot who doesn't know how to count...
as far as I see almost everyone is against the market makers, but that would be very interesting to know the real ECN -MM traders correlation
Exactly, this is why I rather trade currency futures since I get no pip charge and usually no slippage. For example lets say Euro is at 1.4215. You go long at 1.4215 and you are long at that price with a limit order (note no waiting for market to go 3 pips in your favor), and you target 1.4225. Market hits 1.4225, and you are out at that price no waiting for market to go 3 pips past it or any other BS. Now obviously you do have to pay something which is the standard fee to trade any type of futures, but this is much better than getting ripped off 3 pips every time you want to trade. Also, you are trading against other traders, and real volume shows up not the chart feed posted by the bucket shops which can show different prices being hit depending if you were to compare charts from 2 different brokers.
There are many brokers out there that offer ecn, straight through processing, conflict free trading. I would definitely consider these before a dealing desk broker.
so is really trading currency futures better than trading forex from a friction standpoint? This article below actually points that the opposite is true. http://www.traderslog.com/forex-futures/
Then again; there is this post by daedalus that has some concrete data in favor of futures. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/24/forex-vs-currency-futures-system-question-7473-2.html