Oanda just another bucket shop

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by TRADE

mick, did you lose money today?

Fortunately not, more luck than judgment

No, I'm annoyed because they come out with all the usual garbage and expect people to swallow it. When the platform went down today (again!) I phoned them and their answer was no-one else has reported a problem, and this while I'm reading the Oanda forum packed with people complaining about how they got disconnected. It happens every single month, and every month it's the same rubbish excuses.

I'd respect them more if they just said look, we don't want you trading NFP because we risk losing too much money, at least that's honest. Instead they come out with all this transparency and fairness junk, and the Traders Bill of Right, give me a break......

[static]

I thought Oanda was your broker Mick (and that you liked them)? Guess it doesn't pay to assume. I usually don't trade NFP but I forgot which day it was (!!!) this month and kept my orders open. Thankfully I trade longer term with wide enough stops that it wasn't an issue, but I can see how the variable spread thing could kill some people.

BTW whats the deal with this cesc guy dragging up all these old threads with one line responses. Anyone know him from somewhere or is he just really talkative?

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by static

I thought Oanda was your broker Mick

They are, them and CMC, they've just pee'd me off big time today

Yeah who is that clown, seems like he's trying to get his post count up, he could have done it in one thread

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by vladv

What is a "bucket shop"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket_shop

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by forex-101

I agree Oanda joined the bucket shop list with FXCM, being on top of it. I am thinking of switching to an MT4 broker either IBFX or UGMFX. Any comments about which one do you think is better?

I've heard some reasonable things about IBFX but I don't have any experience of trading with them, sorry. Unfortuantely you never find out what a broker is like until you trade with them and make some money!

[static]

Yeah that was the conclusion I came to, something like 60+ posts overnight. I just don't know why though, having a high post count doesn't really help you at all here.

I'll admit when I saw the Traders Bill of Rights I though it was a little corny, but since they offer variable lot sizes and I am pretty undercaptilized it offered me higher resolution money managment. On the whole I have been pretty happy, though it would be nice to have a realtime stream or at least a calendar of when they expect spreads to widen.

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by static

Yeah that was the conclusion I came to, something like 60+ posts overnight. I just don't know why though, having a high post count doesn't really help you at all here.

I'll admit when I saw the Traders Bill of Rights I though it was a little corny, but since they offer variable lot sizes and I am pretty undercaptilized it offered me higher resolution money managment. On the whole I have been pretty happy, though it would be nice to have a realtime stream or at least a calendar of when they expect spreads to widen.

No you're right, for mini's it's great, even if someone had just $100 they could still use sensible money management.

It's just me, I hate companies who take people for fools and give them any old excuse when they complain, it's even worse when you know they're smiling at you while trying to pick your wallet at the same time!



The poster guy, maybe he wants to PM someone, isn't there a minimum number of posts for that?

[TRADE]

when I was trading for a prop shop, index derivatives through the eurex on trading technologies platform ( all supposedly very robust and legit) the same thing happened during FOMC and NFP, even through a regulated exchange the price activity and spread was erratic. even here it was a joke trading at these times.

you know what, even the fills are not gauranteed here. to be honest nothing, not even the regulated exchanges and the brokers trading within them are 100% accurate, spreads also vary, its a liquidity thing, all real world instances and realities of financial markets. I also traded through currenex, supposedly an institutional level platform for forex, and I remember the spreads here where higher than the industry (retail) average. they varied, non fixed. sometimes I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when the bid exceeded the ask on up surges and vice versa when the market plumeted.

you know what the guys running the shop told me, 25 years experience in the business. dont trade on news announcements, just dont do it. they told me about wonderful stories of traders blowing masses of money which took them best part of a year to accumulate, and all sorts of horrible stories of how it impacted their lives, enough to make anyone starting out in this business to not want to ever go there.

mick, dont expect your broker to tell you not to trade major news announcements because they wont, they are sales people with poisonous tongues, pretecting their own interest's. we must work it out for ourselves, what is in our own best interests based from experience.

just dont do it, we have seen, we know, it cannot be hidden from us. stay in control of what we do and we should all be fine.

Oanda is not the problem really, it is ourselves.