OANDA Discussion

If you have experience watching an exchange traded DOM use similar likeness with spot.
It's a bit harder with the way the spread is displayed on fxtrade, however if you use the Meta Trader, open the new order window put you mouse on the fill box buy or sell and gaze at the blue / red spread differential gap between the bid / ask on the instant the spread closes in tighter click the buy or sell, Now you have dynamically entered on a tighter pip range fill.

At least this works with Oanda as they usually fill exactly where you click. Can't say this for the others.

Don't look at dynamic as a bad thing, it actually gives a scalper a dynamic incentive as well. You just have to be more hands on.

Yes, I totally agree. The spreads are terrible, and even seem to be getting worse as each month goes by. I just moved my account to Alpari-US. You can open a "Pro" account (with a minimum of 10K), and trade on the Alpari Direct Currenex platform, non dealing desk. I have been demo'ing the platform for a month and it's not as easy to use as FXTrade, but it's workable.

With the Pro account you are on the Currenex platform, so spreads are unbelievably low (sometimes I see 0 spread for any of the majors), but you will pay a commission of $25 per million, but you more than make that up with the smaller spreads. You can download a demo from Alpari US and see the spreads for yourself. While EUR/USD is bouncing around between 1.2-2, you'll see it on the Currenex platform bouncing from .3-1.1

A co-worker of mine has Oanda mt4 build 445 running and the terminal is now saying it is an old version. Metaquotes does not show on its website that build 445 is not supported. But Oanda appears to be forcing an upgrade anyway. Or maybe it is Metaquotes that did this? Can anyone confirm this?

Mql5 said August 1st, 2013 they would not support builds < 439, but if this came directly from MQ, then is MQ trying to force everyone to the same version?

Oanda is a completely nightmare when it comes to deposit or withdraw money.To withdraw is relatively understandable,but the main one is to deposit with credit card.They decline the card again and again with the green light of the bank.They say there is a third party who manages that and is not the responsability of OAnda.A lot of friends are having the same problem.My advice is not to trade with oanda if tou have to trust sooner or later in a money deposit.

I have a problem with them continually asking me to update my networth.. I trade a joint account with money that is greater than my networth.

I'm rather hoping that trading with Oanda will update my net worth for me! (And I do mean "UP" date.)

PK

Yeah, I can do that myself - that's why I think they are harassing me. They sure hit you from every angle when you start making money. I gave them the information earlier this year - they sent me another notice and I told them they have the information already - then a month later they asked again - I tell them the same thing - nothings changed -- now they sent me notice if I don't update my networth they will close all my trades by the 14th.. It's a bit retarded.. I guess they are going to ask me this every month.. I'm looking for another broker. any suggestions?

I could not understand the woman on the phone.. I asked for her supervisor and I still could not understand her and she did not transfer. I wasn't rude just couldn't understand her.
also i asked for a supervisor in email and they claimed in email that it will take 1-2 days to get back to me:


Short Description: Re: Your fxTrade account - Action Required by June 14, 2013
Dear ********
I just sent e-mail to our funding team on the record if such information will be required.
Please give us about 1 - 2 workings days to revert back to you, as our funding team is located in Toronto.
Your patience will be much appreciated.
Our client experience team is here to help. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

It is my pleasure to assist you,

**if they do anything to my open trades I will be opening a lawsuit against them. I have been pretty successful this year and I hold my trades for a very long time.

I haven't experienced this. Why do they need to know how your overall net worth is changing? Do they perhaps have different reporting obligations for their US business? (I am in Europe and use their European platform.)

Well, I am happy to share my experience. To date the only concrete reason I have to leave Oanda is that their net interest rates on open positions (what elsewhere is referred to as "swap" or "roll") are uncompetitive, and this matters to me as a position trader because, like you, I hold positions open for relatively long periods of time. Less concretely, I would also feel more comfortable with a broker which passes my trades straight through to a good range of major liquidity providers, so that I get good quotes and my broker has no incentive to trade against me. I have no evidence that Oanda does trade against me, but the potential conflict of interest is there.

I have tried FXCM's no-dealing desk product, in demo and with two live accounts. I like the interface and their business model: straight through processing but no commission, they make their money, they say, from the spread. This is marked up from what the liquidity providers are offering and is thus slightly wider than on their dealing-desk product (but still not bad compared with Oanda). They have had a couple of law suits brought against them (and have settled these without admitting blame), but as a listed US company you do at least have the freedom to read about this in their annual SEC filings. You don't get that kind of insight into a privately owned business like Oanda. My main problem with FXCM is that they are so confused about their own margin rules and the on-line support materials are confusing, as well as sometimes inconsistent. Didn't give me a good feeling at all.

I have tried a demo account with Interactive Brokers, but the interface is really clunky in my opinion. They offer very few tradable pairs (really only the majors) and relatively low leverage, maximum of 40:1 if I remember correctly. They offer straight through processing to a good range of liquidity providers and charge (modest) commission per trade. I found the demo account so difficult to use that I wasn't able to verify the following to my complete satisfaction, but the interest rates they quote suggest that a EUR/CHF long would be much cheaper to hold open with them than at Oanda. They are also listed, so again you can see from their SEC filings what legal suits they are facing.

I have recently been pointed towards Dukascopy, by a ForexFactory contact whose bone fides I trust. They make a lot of their "ECN Marketplace", but I was not at all sure that they were an "ECN broker" in the sense that they offered straight through processing. They offer high leverage (200:1) and I believe that your deposit with them qualifies for the Swiss government's deposit guarantee (up to CHF 100k). I haven't yet researched further, to know how their pricing and interest rates compare, partly because I became uncomfortable that it was so difficult to source any reliable third-party public data about them. They don't even have a wikipedia page. Personally, I don't need secrecy. My net worth and forex activities are no secret from my local tax authorities. I want reliability and secrecy doesn't necessarily provide that.

PK

well thanks for the information - the money I have is also legit and I'm not hiding either.. almost 90% of my trades have been winners since I began with Oanda (me trading not them) and I think that's why they keep hounding me -- just my guess. I'm just looking for a broker that is going to treat me the same as when I sign up with them, my trades will go through as quoted, and my money will be safe. I have no problem making money in forex - problem is the brokers seem to dislike that - i received less hassles as a trader when I was a loser.

Oanda and every other US FX broker are obliged by US regulators to ask for that info. Old news. Migrate to European division of Oanda.

just wondering, does oanda hedge against profitable traders? if you have a very high win rate, do they multiply in your direction and payout your share of the earnings while keeping the rest for themselves?

I doubt that they bet on anyone winning. That would be very brave.
My guess is that they profile customers so that the bigger the account and the more profitable the history the greater the proportion of your trade that they pass straight through, with the limit being that they pass 100% straight through.

Today oanda write me again for 10th time telling me that they finally solved the problem with the credit card system (which did not work for a whole month).They told me that the problem is that i have to put a diferent name (skipping the family name) I trusted them but the credit card was declined for 10th time.The problem is the money it takes 9 days to come back to the credit card.
So i will have to wait 9 days until the next atempt (they will say to try another thing like put another address or something similar,try and mistake,try and mistake).

I use the credit card daily in a lot of places through the web,Oanda are the only ones that gives problems. they have the worst money mamagement system i have ever seen.

I strongly recommend that nobody uses Oanda because they will have a nightmare trying to get their money.

Will Oandas platform and mobile ever get renko and range bar charts? The developers said it's in the works years and years ago. It just doesn't seem likely to happen at all.

While i was just checking for the brokers which accepts paypal i found oanda also on the list of the brokers accepting paypal, but their maximum leverage was 1:50.

Have anyone tried this? http://fxtrade.oanda.ca/trade-forex/fxtradenow

The great feature is that it automatically detects the currency pair on the news page and you do not need to manually select it.

Oanda is doing too much system maintenance now a days...

of course, mostly usa brokers accept paypal. ever heard of an offshore broker that also accepts paypal?

i know of one other broker that accepts paypal:

FXDD

they are in the usa so also 50:1 leverage. uhm, they are probably the only broker that classifies account types by the trading terminal so you will have to shop around a bit to see which trading terminal and their set of LPs provide you the best price feeds. and yes, I know FXDD is a market maker so the spreads are buffed but if one price feed naturally has a lower spread, then after the buff, the spreads will be slightly lower than another.

AFBFX used to accept paypal, but not anymore,

Whats wrong with the spread in NZD/USD around this time of the clock (10pm CET)? It is constantly 5 Pips while the other pairs' spreads keep changing. Another thing Ive noticed is that spreads are going through the roof when NY closes. This is really annyoing!

Grabbed this from the Oanda AMA (Ask Me Anything) Thread - Asked by pippi. Whats the response? (This one kinda worries me since I read the original story and can see that here we go again.... with another Dodd-Frank wrinkle!!) - How will this effect Oanda?

http://forexmagnates.com/spot-or-swa...-in-retail-fx/

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton made a statement that retail FX products would be considered as ‘swaps’ under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. Meaning, that FX trading would be required to be carried out on a ‘swap execution facility’ (SEF).

I am no compliance expert, but i don't see how Oanda's single-dealer businessmodel could possibly comply with core principles of a SEF, short of starting afresh and developing a ecn style platform, or some sort of multilateral RFQ system. What do you think are the implications of all that for Oanda?