Could Oanda be cheating?

[Exitright]

Hi all, I'm new to currency trading and just using demo accounts to get my feet wet. Yesterday I placed a limit order on the EUR/USD on Oanda. It was a sell order I placed at 1.27084 (about 30 pips lower then where the market was when I placed it). I placed this order at 23:30 gmt. When I woke up in the morning to check what had happened, I saw the my limit order had been hit at 7:05 GMT (it just barely hit it) the currency did a turn right after and caused my stop/loss to be triggered making me lose 20 pips. Later today I was looking at other charts from different brokers and none of them would have hit my limit order. CGI at 7:05 had the currency at 1.2712, and Currency Trading had it at 1.2715 at 7:05. If I was trading on either of those I would not have lost any pips since my order would never had been hit. So now I'm starting to think the Oanda is a scam and only hit my limit because they knew I would lose. The thing is, this is a demo account so I have no money at risk, so I don't understand why they would do something like that, unless it is automated to take advantage of people in this kind of situation. Anyone have an comments in regards to this or similiar situations with Oanda?

[bearprofits]

Exitright,

Oanda does not care nor would they try to run a stop on a demo account. You may have placed a stop on your demo acount at a level where others with real money were, but just because one Broker's price was a few pips off another means very little... it happens everyday. This was just coincidence.

When trading for real try to figure where the heard has placed their stops and stay clear of those areas.

Good Luck!

Bear

Might add, IMHO when the market is about to make a big move, alot of times it will trade in the opposite direction to shake out the weak players before it shows it's true direction. So when the trade looks obvious to you it's the same for a thousand other traders, the market only wants a few to ride and will try to throw off as many as it can.

Hope this helps

[terrydean]

How do you figure out where others placed their stops bear?

[bearprofits]

Terrydean,

This is just my opinion, hopefully others might add some insight, but if you read through these forums you'll notice a lot of posters setting stops 15 to 30 pips away, it's almost universal. Traders are people and people are creatures of habbit. Large even numbers i.e. 25, 50 100 attract alot of stops, the recent swing high/lows, trend lines and support/resistance levels..... alot of traders are looking at the same charts placing stops in the same general areas off these TA points......when enough money pools up in one place be sure someone big will come in and take it.

Just a poor Bears thoughts



Have a Great Weekend

Might add again,your stop shouldn't be some arbitrary number ( like I want to make 50 pips, so I'll set my stop at 25) while risk to reward ratios are important, your stop should be in a place that will tell you that your analysis of your trade is wrong.

So for example If I think Price is going long I'll look for a place on the charts below that will tell me that the price is short and not just noise or making a quick correction. Once that place is determined I have to balance that with the posible reward.

Ideally this should be no less than 1.5 or 2 to 1, so if these two don't balance, or the stop is too large, don't take the trade. Also, it's better to enter closer to your stop as possible. Once you have your trade setup planned wait and see if price will back up and give you a better entry closer to your stops giving you a better risk/reward, or you can scale into your position if your using multiple positions. Also important is moving your stops up as the trade goes your way, once you can get your stops to breakeven while giving your trade enough room to move, your risk is ZERO let that baby run for your target. Adjust stops to lock in profit.

All in all you need to plan a trade, carefully, once you have it all in place, pull the trigger and hang on for the ride!!!!

Time for Bear to get off the soap box

Good Trading

[wzrd101]

Met....... had it at 1.2705 at that time and Oan....... had it at 1.2706.

Yours was 1.2708, (triggered by 3 and by 2)

You mean they are so greedy that they even hunt for your fake money?

[elmagd2000]

Bearprofits and all,
How is your experience with Oanda? How do you like their spread and execution in general?
Regards,
Hani

[Croesus]

Originally posted by Exitright
The thing is, this is a demo account so I have no money at risk, so I don't understand why they would do something like that

Come on friend!
Stop Loss hunting on a demo account... too silly!

However I'm very satisfied by Oanda!

[Gamma_Jammer]

Exitright..

My advice (for what it's worth) is to read Bear's reply to Terrydean. Then read it again. Keep reading it till you could recite it in your sleep.

Then follow bear's instructions. Most of the basics for managing a position are right there in that one post. If the majority of new traders followed these simple rules, they would all make more money.

Don't worry too much about whether you are stopped out at the precise high or low, as conspiracy theories are used as an excuse by far too many traders imho. Just worry about two things;

a) Is my position based on a sound idea (fundamentals, tech picture, whatever you want).

b) Am I applying sound money management rules.

If you are confidently able to answer YES to both these questions every time you put a position on, you should make money in the long run.

My $0.02

GJ