Oa just another bucket shop

[Atomised]

there was me seriously considering opening an account with Oa......

Mick

How long was the platform down for today during the news how long do them wide spreads last during news times like 5 or 10 mins or less ?

[bearprofits]

Spreads were wide 20 then 30 for 2 to 3 minutes at most dropped to 5 on euro for another minute or two then back to 1.5 to 1.2.

I was disconnected but was able to log back in immediately happened twice.

I will not enter during the wide spreads they can be a pain when trying to manage stops during the news. But these are the only problems I have experienced never had a problem being filled or slippage.

They have some good interest to boot.

Have thought about stepping up to an ECN type broker but a couple of friends have had similar or worse problems with them.

As long as I know what to expect I know how to manage it. over all I like Oa they are not without their faults.

fwiw

bear

[MickMason]

Spreads can stay at 20 pips for anything up to 15 minutes sometimes across the most trivial data releases especially on Gbp/Usd.

For the purpose of this comparison we need to ignore what happens on the interbank market it's not relevant we're not trading the real market.

Let's take the average day trader. He's got say a couple of thous dollars makes on average 2 or 3 trades per day for a few pips per trade in essence he's a scalper.

He wants to find a broker who isn't going to mess with his trades where he is allowed to scalp where the spread is small. On the face of it Oa is looking like a pretty good choice. They don't have a dealing desk say they offer straight-through order processing. Most of the time they've got a 1.2 pip spread on Eur/Usd they allow trades for any amount they pay interest on account balances. They also have a Traders Bill of Rights say all the right things like how they offer a level playing field in this den of thieves we call retail forex trading. Sounds good.....but let's take a closer look at how all this works in practice compared to for example CMC.

Oa usually has a 1.2 pip spread on Eur/Usd so how comes my 8 pip 10k trade didn't make me $8? Pipettes is the answer it looked like 8 pips but in reality it was only 7.2 because in actual fact you didn't buy at 1.3350 sell at 1.3358 you bought at 1.3350(4) closed at 1.3357(6) that means spread was really 2 pips. CMC have a fixed 2 pip spread on Eur/Usd no pipettes hiding the true cost of your trade. If you buy 10k at 1.3350 sell at 1.3358 you make $8. Bear in mind Oa spreads vary in the early European session it's usually 2 pips or 1.5 pips so in actual fact it's more expensive to trade with Oa than CMC in a lot of cases.

Oa don't have a dealing desk that's a good thing isn't it no-one to mess with my trades hunt my stops? Stop hunting is a falacy it simply doesn't happen with mainstream brokers like CMC. The benefit of trading with a broker who has a dealing desk is for times when the platform goes down or you lose your internet connection or you're away your PC want to open close or adjust a trade. Oa's lack of dealing desk isn't for your benefit it's to reduce their overhead.

Oa have a Traders Bill of Rights no-one else does that must mean they're ht. Well read it what does it really say once all the marketing hype is taken out? Basically it says nothing it's all just soothing noises to make you feel better it's a first class sales pitch but really amounts to nothing.

Oa pay interest on my trades by the second that's more profit for me plus they pay interest on my account balance. Sure they pay interest on yield positive trades by the second but they also charge you on yield negative trades it's swings roundabouts. The interest they pay on your account balance is negated by what comes next.....

Widening spreads across data. Oa widen spreads on even the most insignificant data usually by 15 or 20 pips sometimes as much as 30 pips. But I don't trade data so it doesn't affect me does it? Yes it can especially if you're already in a trade. The wider spread can trigger your stop so you have to widen your stop accordingly that increases the risk on your trade. You might want to exit a profitable trade on a data spike but Oa's wide spread stops you doing that or at least reduces your potential profit. You might want to enter a trade on a spike but wide spreads mean you'll get a worse price. There goes this month's interest they paid you on your account balance! That together with the platform going down when data like NFP comes out will lose you far more than the few cents they pay in account balance interest.

Oa don't freeze price feeds they're fully automated so there's no dealer intervention. Check it out run another platform or charting package alongside Oa's see they regularly freeze prices in fact there's a screenshot around here somewhere showing different prices for two separate Oa accounts one had an open trade the other didn't! If they really are a fully automated level playing field why does that happen why did spread widen to 200 pips on Gbp/Usd a few weeks ago with the excuse it was human error? Something doesn't ring true so why would they lie?

On the face of it Oa seems like the ideal marketmaker in reality they're no better than CMC in a lot of respects they're worse. Why would a company want to disguise the true costs of trading with them or stop traders trading data like NFP by disconnecting them the platform? Why lie about being fully automated when it's obvious they're not? why publish all that fluff in the Traders Bill of Rights?

Personally I would prefer to trade with a company who doesn't try to disguise their costs or use underh tactics like disconnects to stop me trading but it all boils down to personal choice I guess.

[static]

Originally Posted by MickMason

100% technical it's good that you recognize your strengths weaknesses are not tempted by a fast buck I believe that's where some people go wrong not just with news trading but with trading in general.

You're at school that's cool I'm stuck with trading so have plenty of time to watch boring analysts on Bloomberg crunching data I think I'd rather be at school to be ht

I don't know about that I still I still take trades on impulse time to time but since I have never been right I learned to use really small lot sizes thankfully most of my lessons haven't been too painful.

Sometimes I wish I could just sit at home watch charts all day with the amount of stuff they throw at at me but the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence I suppose. The one thing that makes it all worth it though is the girls especially now that it is starting to warm up. It keeps me looking forward to Friday nights anyway.

[jgerousis]

Originally Posted by MickMason

Another NFP day yet another farce at Oa!

Looks like Oa have finally realized after falling profits that playing it f transparent just doesn't pay the bills.

They started out with the best of intentions it's just a shame they couldn't keep it up. First they widen spreads then they widen spreads even more now NFP traders have to contend with a 30 pip spread at times like NFP 20 pip spreads across other data!

Despite the wide spread traders still made money so their final resort has been to take the trading platform off line during NFP a typical bucket shop practice.

Congratulations Oa you're now a fully fledged bucket shop the only difference is that now you have wider spreads than your competitors good move!

I have left Oa sinceJanuary after their big mistake of 200 pips spread. The problem is that although they agreed that this was by mistake yet it took them 2 hours to correct the results after 2 hours they put me back in trade!!!! But you know NFP I would have been +60 pips in profit after NF{ my strategy is to change SL as soon as I am +40 pips in profit. But I could not do that because the 200 pip mistake had cause my SLs to be hit. I called them at once asked them to put me back trade at once so that I can change the SL. but they could not.

It took me one week of emails phone calles to convince them that puting me back in trade after 2 hours is not f I had been deprived of controling my trade for 2 hours. Although they refunded me the 5000 USD loss they caused in my account yet I stopped dealing with them withdraw all the money.

Now I am working with another broker which does NOT change spread but I am not happy he has +5 on GBP +3 on EUR spreads. But at least better than Oa where if I have tight stops or orders this broker won't shoot for them.

[Atomised]

Hmmm so i guess that's the end of the road for Oa me. Anyone have any opinions on Interbankfx ? Or has anyone dealt with them ? Or maybe theres some other good brokers out there that i'm missing preferably that pay good interest.

Actually if they done Euro accounts too it'd be an added bonus !

[juol]

After all these negative incidents is Oa still in the market today? I guess I should be lucky that I've come across this thread learn more about such comapies.

[jailumar]

I have seen some NFP that gave a jump of 30 or 40 pips in EBS EUR/USD with not a single deal matched between. Even for a big player is sometimes hard to guaranty fills in that situation its a very dangerous game its very easy to get caught.
my experience I seen a couple of big names in spot with huge problems after a NFP really we cant pretend to get stable trading conditions on that moments in our platforms NO ONE in this market will guaranty that.
Sorry for my English