I always hear people recommending Oanda and after looking into it I have never been abe to find any reason why they would be considered better than any other broker. What reasons does anyone have to prefer Oanda? Most of the peope say, "I have only traded with Oanda and have never had any problems." I just don't see the attraction. They are typical and have an extremely cheesy java trading platform. What's the deal?
How about..... - Customer Service is actually polite, - Spreads are reasonable, - Very, very few problems with slippage, - Never had my stops hunted, - System has rarely failed while trading, - The only system pricing error I encountered was corrected in a timely fashion, - Variety in the pairs to trade, - Access to 4cast news commentary - White labeling coming soon if not already available ....this does it for me.... what else do you want? Started with them and have grown since. My charting is done with a third party provider and my account size is not big enough (yet) to make me worry about safety of funds.....So I really have no reason at all to go anywhere else. You will find similar comments amongst all those who trade with them. cheesy Java charting aside, they provide good service.....
This is probably why Felix (secretforexsociety) is negotiating a better deal with MB trading. Oanda is just not good enough anymore.
This is pretty much the case with any of the mainstream brokers. And why would white labeling be a benefit to the customer unless you just want to pay a middle man or be one. I have experienced good customer service with most of the mainstream brokers, have not experienced slippage, have a variety of pairs, all brokers have news, reasonable spreads, etc. As far as I can see they are just another typical broker except that they do not offer higher leverage and have a cheesy trading platform and even call their demo account a "game" It seems to attract people who have a sort of a "football team" mentality about it. That is, they are great because they are our broker and not for any other reason.
Catie, You may wish to take a look at IB. I've attached a screenshot of the trading screen (taken 03:50EST,Jan9). Spreads are very tight and commissions range from $10-20 per million (0.1 - 0.2pips) depending on volume.
there's something i didn't see when i was with ib....looks good for a fx quote...what about the fx platform...how about a screenshot.....
You can trade from there. Just click on the quote, and this will set-up an order line, or you can configure it to immediately send an order when you click on the quote.
Oanda is currently the best forex broker(I prefer 3rd party charting), IB forex is somewhat behind and needs improvement - they can improve by 1. paying interest on the first $10k deposited into IB forex account(Oanda pays interest to the customer on every part of the deposit), 2. IB should remove the mandatory $120/yr activity/quotes fee to be competitive(there are no monthly mandatory fees with Oanda), 3. there is a mandatory minimum IB forex fee of $2.50 per trade, which should be removed so that customers can easily average down/up.(why not have 0.2-0.1 basis point commission with no minimum, like Oanda and most other forex brokers.)
Pal face it, most people you ask will tell you that the Oanda platform is really one of the better alternatives out there for the retailers. Football game mentality or not. Unless of coarse you are one of those "Trade off the news for a quick 5 pips" people (who by the way have this whole Oandabashing thing because Oanda started widening the spread at newstime and it killed their "secret strategy")......your not with that crowd are you?