I was long GBP/USD looking to exit when about a quarter to four I notice that the spread on all contracts jumped to 10 pips across the board. Is this normal when you approach the close on Friday?
Yep. 3:45:00 pm sharp (like clockwork) every Friday until 8 pm Sunday, you've got weekend spreads in effect. http://fxtrade.oanda.com/spreads/recent_spreads.shtml
After monitoring Oanda for a few days I find Im have a lot of momentary disconnects, sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for a minute or two. I know its not my connection because IB is still running during these events. Is this a server problem on their part or an expected outcome of using a browserbased platform or could it be a problem with my computer? Do you other Oanda users have these disconnects too?
The last few days have indeed been sketchy. The only complaint I have ever had with Oanda is that their servers seem to have problems keeping connection. It's periodic and random, but it does occur and it's friggen annoying.
Yes, the connects were system-wide. go to their forums and read other people's rants about it. Apparently they did some upgrades on the weekend but had issues with those upgrades once in production. That's what happens when your firm executes nearly a fifth of the daily spot forex transactions worldwide, at least according to them.